ALMIGHTY DOLLAR, the Almighty whom the Americans are charged with worshipping, first applied to them, it would seem, by Washington Irving.

ALMOHADES, a Moslem dynasty which ruled in N. Africa and Spain from 1129 to 1273.

ALMO`RA, a high-lying town at the foot of the Himalayas, 85 m.  N. of Bareilly.

ALMORAVIDES, a Moslem dynasty which subdued first Fez and Morocco, and then S. Spain, from 1055 to 1147.

ALNWICK, the county town of Northumberland, on the Aln; at the north entrance is Alnwick Castle, the seat of the Duke of Northumberland, one of the most magnificent structures of the kind in England, and during the Border wars a place of great strength.

ALOE, a genus of succulent plants embracing 200 species, the majority natives of S. Africa, valuable in medicine, in particular a purgative from the juice of the leaves of several species.

ALOES WOOD, the heart of certain tropical trees, which yields a fragrant resinous substance and admits of high polish.

ALOST (25), a Belgian town on the Dender, 19 m.  NW. from Brussels, with a cathedral, one of the grandest in Belgium, which contains a famous painting by Rubens, “St. Roche beseeching Christ to arrest the Plague at Alost.”

ALOYSIUS, ST., See GONZAGA.

ALOYSIUS, ST., an Italian nobleman, who joined the Society of Jesus; canonised for his devotion to the sick during the plague in Rome, to which he himself fell a victim, June 21, 1591.

ALPACA, a gregarious ruminant of the camel family, a native of the Andes, and particularly the tablelands of Chile and Peru; is covered with a long soft silky wool, of which textile fabrics are woven; in appearance resembles a sheep, but is larger in size, and has a long erect neck with a handsome head.

ALP-ARSLAN (Brave Lion), a sultan of the Seljuk dynasty in Persia, added Armenia and Georgia to his dominions (1030-1072).

ALPES, three departments in SE.  France:  the BASSES-A, in NE. part of Provence, bounded by Hautes-Alpes on the N. and Var on the S., sterile in the N., fertile in the S., cap.  Digne; HAUTES-A., forming part of Dauphine, traversed by the Cottian Alps, climate severe, cap.  Gap; A. MARITIMES, E. of the Basses-A., bordering on Italy and the Mediterranean, made up of the territory of Nice, ceded by Italy, and of Monaco and Var; cap.  Nice.

ALPHE`US, a river in the Peloponnesus, flowing west, with its source in Arcadia; also the name of the river-god enamoured of the nymph Arethusa, and who pursued her under the sea as far as Sicily, where he overtook her and was wedded to her.

ALPINE CLUB, a club of English gentlemen devoted to mountaineering, first of all in the Alps, members of which have successfully addressed themselves to attempts of the kind on loftier mountains.

ALPINE PLANTS, plants whose natural habitat approaches the line of perpetual snow.