ie in about Long. 146. 44. E. and Lat. 2. 18. S. There are between 20 and 30 islands said to be scattered about here, the largest of which is about 60 miles in length. Captain Carteret, who first discovered them, was prevented from touching at them, although their Admiralty appearance was very inviting, on account of the condition of his ship, and his being entirely unprovided with the articles of barter which suit an Indian trade. He describes them as clothed with a beautiful verdure of woods, lofty and luxuriant, interspersed with spots that have been cleared for plantations, groves of cocoa-nut trees, and houses of the natives, who seem to be very numerous.

**Admiralty, Scotland.** At the Union, while the National functions of the lord high admiral were merged in the English office, there remained a separate court of admiralty, with subsidiary local courts, having civil and criminal jurisdictions in maritime questions. The separate courts were abolished in 1831, and their powers merged in the courts of session and justiciary, and the local courts.

**Admonition,** in ecclesiastical affairs, a part of discipline much used in the ancient church. It was the first act or step towards the punishment or expulsion of delinquents. In private offences it was performed, according to the evangelical rule, privately; in case of public offence, openly, before the church. If either of these sufficed for the recovery of the fallen person, all further proceedings in the way of censure ceased; if they did not, recourse was had to excommunication.

**Admonition Frustum,** a military punishment among the Romans, not unlike our whipping, but performed with vine branches.

**Admortalization,** the settling of lands or tenements in mortmain.

**Adnata,** in Anatomy, one of the coats of the eye, called also albuginea. See Anatomy.

**Adnata** is also used for any hair, wool, or the like, which grows upon animals or vegetables.

**Adnata,** or Adnascentia, among gardeners, denote those offsets which, by a new germination under the earth, proceed from the lily, narcissus, hyacinth, and other flowers, and afterwards become true roots.

**Adolescence,** the state of growing youth, or that period of a person's age commencing from his infancy and terminating at his full stature or manhood. The word is formed of the Latin *adolescere,* to grow. The state of adolescence lasts so long as the fibres continue to grow either in magnitude or firmness. The fibres being arrived at the degree of firmness and tension sufficient to sustain the parts, no longer yield or give way to the efforts of the nutritious matter to extend them; so that their further accretion is stopped, from the very law of their nutrition. Adolescence is commonly computed to be between 15 and 25, or even 30 years of age; though in different constitutions its terms are very different. The Romans usually reckoned it from 12 to 25 in boys, and to 21 in girls, &c. And yet, among their writers, *juvenis* and *adolescentes* are frequently used indifferently for any person under 45 years.

**Adonai,** one of the names of the Supreme Being in the Scriptures. The proper meaning of the word is *my lords* in the plural number, as *Adoni* is *my lord* in the singular. The Jews, who, either from reverence or superstition, do not pronounce the name of *Jehovah,* read *Adonai* in the room of it as often as they meet with Jehovah in the Hebrew text. But the ancient Jews were not so scrupulous; nor is there any law which forbids them to pronounce the name of God in a religious service.

**Adonia,** in Antiquity, solemn feasts in honour of Venus, and in memory of her beloved Adonis. The Adonia were observed with great solemnity by the Greeks, Phoenicians, Lycians, Syrians, Egyptians, &c. From Syria they are supposed to have passed into India. The prophet Ezekiel is understood to speak of them. They were still observed at Alexandria in the time of St Cyril, and at Antioch in that of Julian the Apostate, who happened to enter that city during the solemnity, which was taken for an ill omen.

The Adonia lasted two days; on the first of which certain images of Venus and Adonis were carried, with all the pomp and ceremonies practised at funerals; the women wept, tore their hair, beat their breasts, &c., imitating the cries and lamentations of Venus for the death of her paramour. This lamentation they called *Adonarpous.* The Syrians were not contented with weeping, but subjected themselves to severe discipline, shaved their heads, &c. The second day was spent in merriment and feasting. This festival was a symbol of the dying and revival of nature; hence Adonis is said to have spent a part of the year in the lower world, and part in the upper, with Aphrodite, who represented the fructifying principle. See Adonis.

**Adonic Verse,** consists of a dactyle, and a spondee or trochee, as *rara fuit*; and is adapted to gay and sprightly poetry. It is seldom used alone, but constructed with other kinds of verse. The adonic verse of the Anglo-Saxons consisted of one long, two short, and two long syllables.

**Adoniah,** fourth son of David king of Israel, put to death by his brother Solomon, for conspiring against the throne, 1 Kings i. ii. 13-25.

**Adonis,** son of Cinyras, king of Cyprus, the favourite of Venus. Being killed by a wild boar in the Idalian woods, he was turned into a flower of a blood-colour, supposed to be the anemone. Venus was inconsolable; and no grief was ever more celebrated than this, most nations having perpetuated the memory of it by a train of anniversary ceremonies. The text of the Vulgate, in Ezekiel viii. 14, says that this prophet saw women sitting in the temple and weeping for Adonis; but according to the reading of the Hebrew text, they are said to weep for Thammuz, or the hidden one. Among the Egyptians, Adonis was adored under the name of Osiris, the husband of Isis. But he was sometimes called by the name of Ammuz, or Thammuz, the concealed, to denote probably his death or burial. The Hebrews, in derision, call him sometimes the dead, Psal. cvi. 28. and Lev. xix. 28, because they wept for him, and represented him as one dead in his coffin; and at other times they call him the image of jealousy, Ezek. viii. 3, 5, because he was the object of the god Mars' jealousy. The Syrians, Phoenicians, and Cyprians, called him Adonis; and F. Calmet is of opinion that the Ammonites and Moabites gave him the name of Baal-peor.

**Adonis, Adonius,** in Ancient Geography, a river of Phoenicia, rising in Mount Lebanon, and falling into the sea, after a south-west course, at Byblus. When in flood, its waters exhibited a deep red tinge; hence the legend that connects the river with the wound of Adonis the minion of Venus. (Vide Lucian.)

"While smooth Adonis from his native rock, Ran purple to the sea, suppos'd with blood Of Thammuz yearly wounded."—Milton.

**Adonis,** in Botany, Bird's Eye, or Pheasant's Eye.

**Adonists,** a sect or party among divines and critics, who maintain that the Hebrew points ordinarily annexed to the consonants of the word Jehovah are not the natural points belonging to that word, nor express the true pronunciation of it, but are the vowel points belonging to the words *Adonai* and *Elolim,* applied to the consonants of the ineffable name Jehovah, to warn the readers, that instead of the word Jehovah, which the Jews were forbidden to pronounce, and the true pronunciation of which had been long unknown to them, they are always to read *Adonai.* They are opposed to *Jehovists,* of whom the principal are Drusius, Capellus, Buxtorf, Alting, and Reland, who has published a collection of their writings on this subject.

**Adoptiani,** in Church History, a sect of ancient heretics, followers of Felix of Urgel and Eliand of Toledo, ADO

Adoption, who, towards the end of the eighth century, advanced the notion that Jesus Christ in his human nature is the Son of God, not by nature, but by adoption.