ous diseases. The property of astiingoiiey be- longs, in an interior deyreo. to some other species of Geranium, and of the kindred genera Erodium and Pelarpiiniuni. Tlic other American plant to which the name alum root is given is Heuuliera Americana, of the natural order Saxifragaceie (see Saxifrage), an order in which also astrin- gency is a prevalent property. The geniis Heu- chera has the caly.x 5-ck'ft. undivided petals, live stamens, with remarkably long styles. Jleuchera Americana is everywhere covered with a clammy down; the leaves are roundish, lobed, and toothed: the peduncles, dichotomous and straggling. The root is a powerful styptic, and is used to make a wash for woumls and obstinate ulcers.
ALUM SHALE. A variety of shale or shaly
sandstone containing iron pyrites, which on
weathering yields alum. In the process of
weathering, the p.yrite decomposes and the pro-
ducts of decomposition, reacting on the alumina
of the shale, yield limonite and alum. The safne
process can be hastened by roasting the rock.
Alum shales are found in many formations. For
commercial purposes the shale is crushed and
spread out for exposure to the weather, or is
roasted; but the industry is rapidly dying out,
and is not carried on in the United States. An
alum shale from England has the composition:
silica. 51.10; iron sulphide, 8.50; iron protoxide,
6.11; alumina, 18.30; lime, 2.15; magnesia, .90;
sulphuric acid, 2.5; carbon, 8.29; water, 2.00;
total, 99.91.
AL'UNITE. A hydrated aluminum and potassium sulphate that crystallizes in the hexagonal system. In color it is usually white, although gray and reddish varieties are sometimes found. It occurs in seams in trachytic and allied rocks, where it has been formed as the result of the action of sulphurous vapors on the rock. This mineral, which is used as a source of alum, is found at Tolfa and Montioni in Italy, in Hungary, and elsewhere in Europe; also at various localities in the United States, especially in Custer County. Colo.
ALUNNO, a-li5on'n6, Niccolò (c. 1430-1502),
properly called Niccolò da Foligno from his native town, or Niccolò di Liberatore after his father. An Italian painter of the Early Renaissance, the founder of the Umbrian school. He was born at Foligno, was a pupil of Benozzo Gozzoli, and was at a later period influenced by Carlo Crivelli. As the first to reveal fully the emotional Umbrian temperament, in its strange combination of passion and mysticism, he may be termed founder of the school which culminated in Raphael. He had good feeling for line and color, and some skill in rendering movement. His principal works include an "Enthroned Madonna" (1465) in the Brera, which has seven other paintings by him, and his largest altar-piece, a polyptych representing the "Coronation of the Virgin" (1466) in the Vatican. Others are a processional standard representing the "Annunciation" (1466) in the Pinacoteca of Perugia; a panel in two compartments at Karlsruhe; altar-pieces at Gualdo-Tadini (1471) and in the Villa Albani, Rome; and a triptych in the cathedral of Assisi, of noble yet free composition. In his native town there are four paintings by him. From an inscription on one of them, the altar-piece of San Niccolo, "Nicolaus Alumnus Fulginiæ," i. e., "Nicholas, a native of Foligno," Vasari erroneously christened him Alunno, by which name he is generally known.
AL'URED. See Alfred of Beverley.
ALUTA, ȧ-lōō'tȧ, or Alt or Olt. An affluent of the Danube rising in the Carpathians, in Transylvania. After entering Rumania through the so-called Red Tower Pass of the Transylvanian Alps, it joins the Danube near Nicopolis (Map: Turkey in Europe, E 2). It is about 340 miles long, and unfit for navigation on account of its rapidity.
ALVA, äl'vȧ, or ALBA, Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, Duke of (1508-82 or -83). A Spanish general and statesman. His family was one of the most distinguished in Spain. He was trained by his grandfather for war and politics, entered upon a life of brilliant and intense activity, and became Prime Minister, and general of the armies of Spain under Charles V. and Philip II. As a young man he fought in the campaigns of Charles V. against Francis I., but his military talent was not thought highly of, and this hurt his pride. His appointment to high command was attributed to favor and influence rather than his ability. He was in the campaign against the Elector John Frederick of Saxony, over whom he gained a brilliant victory at Mühlberg in 1547, and fought against Henry II. of France, and in the Italian campaign of 1555 against the combined French and Papal forces, when he overran the States of the Church, but was instructed by Philip II., after the abdication of Charles V., to give up his conquests. He acted as proxy for Philip at the French court when the Spanish king espoused Elizabeth, daughter of Henry II. of France, after the peace of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559. Alva is best known for his work in the Netherlands, where he was sent in 1567, with unlimited authority to repress the Dutch revolt against Spanish tyranny and the Inquisition. He promptly established the tribunal which has been known as the "Bloody Council." This body, without legal status or procedure, entered upon a general proscription of the living and the dead and the confiscation of property. Excessive taxation brought commerce almost to a standstill, and more than 120,000 Protestants emigrated. Counts Egmont and Hoorne were executed. Prince Louis of Orange was defeated, and Prince William was driven into Germany, after which Alva made a triumphal entry into Brussels, December 22, 1568. He was especially honored by the Pope, and set up in Antwerp a statue of himself trampling on two figures, representing the nobles and people of the Netherlands. His bloodthirsty tyranny intensified the resistance of the Dutch, and after the destruction of his fleet the King recalled him at his own request (1573). He claimed to have caused the execution of 18,000 men. He was received in Madrid with the highest honors, but for an act of disobedience was banished from the court until called upon to conduct a campaign (1580) against Dom Antonio, of Portugal. The country was conquered and treated with that cruelty and license which always followed Alva's course. Alva was tall, spare, bronzed, with a long beard, a typical Spanish grandee. Motley's estimate, severe as it is, represents the world's verdict upon him: "Such an amount of stealth and ferocity, of patient vindictiveness, and universal bloodthirstiness has never been found in a savage beast of
