Acosta, GABRIEL, or URIEL D', a Portuguese of noble Jewish birth, was born at Oporto about 1594. Brought up a Catholic, he early adopted the faith of his fathers, and fled to Amsterdam, only to find there how little modern Judaism accorded with the Mosaic Law. For his Examination of Pharisaic Traditions (1624), a charge of atheism was brought against him by the Jews before a Christian magistracy; and having lost all his property, twice suffered excommunication, and submitted to humiliating penance, he at last shot himself (1640). His autobiography was published in Latin and German (Leip. 1847).
Acotyledonous Plants—i.e. without seed-leaves or cotyledons—a term first emphasised by A. L. de Jussieu, who included all the plants now known as cryptogams under the title Acotyledones. They include Algæ, Fungi, Liverworts, Mosses, Ferns, Horsetails, Lycopods (q.v.), and are contrasted with the conifers, monocotyledons, and dicotyledons, which produce seeds containing an embryo with rudimentary root, stem, and leaves. The term is no longer in use. See CRYPTOGAMIA.