elephas

[Lat. & Gr.] [ELEPHANT.] 1. Zool.: A genus of mammals, the typical one of the family Elephant ide . The incisor teeth are two; they are enormously developed, and are what are popularly called tusks. The molars vary in the different species; they have vertical and transverse lamine springing from the bottom of the jaw transversely forward; the nose is elongated into a trunk, the multifarious motions and operations of which, from lifting a cannon to picking up a pin, are produced, according to Cuvier, by the action of nearly 40,000 muscles; mam me two, tail rather short, pencil lated at the end; five toes to all the feet. There are but two living species known. [ELEPHANT.] 2. Palæont.: The oldest stratum in which the genus has as yet been found is the Siwalik form a tion of India, which is Upper Miocene. By the time of the Pliocene they were scattered over the world. In Malta there were two of pigmy size Elephas mel i tens is, the Donkey elephant, and E. Falconer i , the former four and a half, the latter two and a half to three feet high. E. antiquus abounded in the Post-pliocene of Southern Europe; while E. primi genius, the Mammoth, was a northern and even arctic form, being adapted to bear cold by its long shaggy hair. [MAMMоти.] ě-let-tär-I-a, s . [From one of its native names, which in the Mahratta country are ela , ailum , cheddy, elachee, elah , and eldorah (?).] Bot.: A genus of Zingiber aceæ, akin to Amomum, mum, except that the tube of the corolla is filiform and the anther naked. Elettaria card amomum furnishes the small Cardamoms, called also the Malabar Cardamoms, of commerce. E. major is said to produce the Ceylon Cardamoms. [CARDAMOM.]