Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/26

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fo elegant as to be imitated in the Carvings of the antients j and moderns.

The antients have not only called the herb bears-breech by this name, but alio a thorny tree growing in Egypt. Theo- phraftus mentions the Egyptian Acanthus as a robuft fhrub ; and Ifidore, fpeaking of the tree which produces myrrh, fays, in the words of a very antient author, that it is a 1 robufl fhrub, growing to five cubits or more in height, and fome- what refembluig the Egyptian Acanthus. Diodorus Siculus, and Diofcorides alfo, compare the myrrh-tree to the Acan- thus. It is very evident this could not be meant of the herb Acanthus, though the fame name is made to exprefs it. The fame Ifidore, however, afterwards confounds this fhrub with the plant of the fame name, faying, that the Acanthus of E^-vpt was a tender plant, always green, full of prickles, and having large leaves, and bending or flexile ftalks. Servius alfo runs into the fame error, and fuppofes the Egyptian and common Acanthus to be the fame plant. An accurate examination of the antient writers will, however, fhew very plainly, that they meant two very different vege- tables under this name ; the Acanthus of Virgil, and the Egyptian Acanthus of Theophraftus % being two wholly dif- ferent plants. Virgil mentions the Acanthus as being an ever- green plant, and producing berries, or a fmall round fruit, Baccas femper frondenth Acanthi, are his words : and Theo- phraftus tells us, that his Egyptian Acanthus is a prickly tree, and bears pods like thofe of beans. It is plain, that the Acan- thus of Theophraftus, is the acacia, a tree, from fome fpecies of which, we have the gum Arabic now in ufe ; and the Acanthus of Virgil, mentioned in this place, feems to be the Cyrenian lotus, which Herodotus fays is like the Egyptian Acanthus. Thus we find a third plant brought into the world, under the fame name : and this lotus, called by fome Acanthus, was found in Egypt, as well as in Cyrene, and had the term Acanthus at firft annexed to its name, by way of a diftinclive epithet, though it became afterwards ufed fingly for it, the original name lotus being forgot. The epithet Acanthus was ufed to this lotus, becaufe it was prickly. De- ' metrius, in Athensus b, when he defcribes the Egyptian Acanthus, is to be underftood alfo to mean this plant, he allowing that a round fruit, which Virgil calls a berry, not the pod, as Theophraftus's Acanthus muft have had. Servius rightly underftands the account the antients give of the Cy- renian lotus, or Acanthus, which he allows to have been a true lotus, and only called Acanthus, becaufe prickly. The Latins, as well as the Greeks, having ufed both the fubftan- tive Acanthus, and the derivative adjective Acanthinus, to exprefs any thing prickly, or befet with thorns. Acanthium gummi was an old name for gum Arabic; becaufe produced by a thorny tree : and Pliny calls the leaves of the euphorbium plant Acanthina \ not becaufe they were like thofe of the Acanthus, but becaufe they were prickly. — [ a TheophraJL de Arboribus. b Athenaus, 1. 5.] ACAPATLI, in botany, a name ufed by fome authors for the plant which produces the long pepper ufed in medicine. De Last, Ind. Occid. p. 231. ACARA, in zoology, the name of a fifh caught in the frefh waters of the Brafils, and efteemed a very delicate and well- tafted one. It feldom exceeds three or four inches in length, and has a high back like the pearch. Its mouth is fmall, and its jaws rough like a file. It has one long back fin, which is fupportcd by a great number of rigid and prickly rays, and reaches to the tail. Its fcales are large ; its back is of a glofly brown ; its fides and belly white ; its tail is not forked. It has a large black fpot on the middle of each fide, and an- other near the tail. Its fins are all brown. Margrave's Hill. Brafil. ACARAAYA, in zoology, the name of a fifh caught on the Brafilian mores, and by fome called alfo Garanha. It grows to three feet in length, and is of the fhape of our carp. Its lower jaw is furnifhed with an even range of fharp teeth, like little needles. Its upper jaw has two very long ones, and befides thefe, a multitude of other very fhort ones. Its eyes are large, and their iris red. Its tail is broad, and a little forked. Its fcales are of a moderate fize, and of a filver hue, with an admixture of purple. Its belly, and the under part of its head, are wholly white -, and its fins all of a fine pale red, except thofe under the belly, which are white, with a flight edge of red. It is eaten in Brafil, both frefh and faked. Margrave's Hift. Brafil. ACARAMUCU, in zoology, the name of a fifh found in the weftern ocean, and in fome other parts of the world. It is a very Angular and remarkable animal. It is of a flatted, but long body, and not thick. It is ufually of about eight or ten fingers breadth long, and about four broad. Its mouth is round, but very fmall, fcarce admitting the end of one's little- iinger. In the fore-part of the mouth, both above and be- low, there are triangular and fharp teeth. One each fide, jufi below the eyes, there are two fquarifh fiflures, which ferve in the place of gills ; and on the ridge of the back, di- rectly behind the eyes, there is placed a fine {lender pointed horn, which ftands nearly erect, but bending a little back- ' ward ; this is of a cylindrical fhape, and four fingers breadth long. It has no fcales, but a fmooth Ikin, and is of a mixed

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greyifh and brownifh colour. It feeds on fea weeds ; and Its flefh is not eatable. Margrave's Hift. Brafil, p. 114.

ACARAPEBA, in zoology, the name of an American fifh, called alfo by fome Brofeme. It has a fome what broad and flat body, covered with large fcales of a fine filver whitenefs. It grows to a foot in length, and to four or five fingers in breadth. It has a large mouth, but without teeth ; and its tail is forked. It has one long back fin, the anterior rays, or naves of which are rigid and prickly, the hind naves foft and flexile. The fins arc all like the reft of the body, of a pure white. The fifh feems a kind of Smarts, Margrave's Hift. Brafil.

ACARAPINIMA, in zoology, the name of a Brafilian fifh, of the cantharus kind, and teeming of the fame fpecies with the cantharus of the Mediterranean. Ray's Ichthyogr. p. 310.

ACARAPITAMBA, in zoology, the name of a fifh cauglit in the Brafilian feas, of an oblong figure, refcmbling the mullet, and growing to two feet or more in length. Its mouth and teeth are very fmall. It has one long fin on the back, run- ning very nearly to the tail, which is fupported by rigid and prickly rays. Its tail terminates in two oblique horns. Its fcales are large, and of a purplifh colour, with a fine admix- ture of blue ; and along the middle of each fide there runs, from the gills to the tail, a very broad and beautiful gold coloured line. Its back, down to this line, is variegated alfo with fmall gold coloured fpots ; and the fides under the line are very beautifully variegated with finail and fine longitu- dinal, but ihort gold coloured lines, of a fome what paler colour than the broad one. Its belly is white, and its fins yellow. Margrave's Hift. Brafil. IVilloughby, Hift. Pifc.

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ACARAPUCU, in zoology, the name of a Brafilian fifh, caught in the frefh waters, and growing to eighteen inches in length. It is of a rounded body ; and its mouth is fmall and not prominent. It has lips, which it can hide, or fuffer to appear at pleafure, and has no teeth. Its tail is long and forked ; its fcales are all of a filvery hue. On the back it has a fine golden glofs, mining among the whitenefs ; and on the fides five or fix large blue fpots. Its back and fide fins are of a pale blue, as is alfo the tail : the belly fins are yellowHh. It is a well-tafted fifh. Margrave's Hift. Brafil.

ACARAUNA, in zoology, an American fifh, of which there are two fpecies ; the one called Acarauna, without any addi- tion ; and the other the Acarauna quadrata^ or fquare Aca- rauna ; and by our failors, the Old wife. The Acarauna, fimply fo called, grows to about four or five inches long, and is confiderably broad and flat. It is covered with fmall blackifh fcales ; its tail is large and forked. It has two fins under the gills, two more under the belly, and a long one running all along the back, and another anfweringk from the anus to the tail. Its mouth is fmall and narrow, and its teeth very fmall. Its eyes are but fmall ; and on each fide, near the tail, it has an extremely fharp thorn, or prickle : thefe it can draw in at- pleafure into its fides, and occafionally throw them out, to annoy other fifties. fVilloughby^ Hift. Pifc. p. 217.

The Acarauna quadrata, or fquare Acarauna, or old wife, is much of the fame fize with the former fpecies. It is frequently preferved in the cabinets of the curious, and is found there, of a pale brown, with its tail and the fore-part of the body of a pale yellow, or ftraw colour. It is covered with fcales, furrowed with flight parallel lines, except that the anterior part of its head is covered with a naked, but rough fkin. The top of the head rifes into an acute angle ; the forehead is flat ; and the eyes round and large, and placed high. Its mouth is very fmall ; and its teeth are very flender, and ftand clofe together. The upper jaw has on each fide four fharp thorns growing from it, and the lower two very large and fharp ones, bending downward, and in fhape and ftructure rcfem- bling a cock's fpur j and from thefe, there runs up a row of fmall thorns to the eye. JVilkughby, Hift. Pifc. p. 218.

ACARI, or Acaris, in natural hiftory, an animalcule bred in wax ; faid by Ariftotle to be the leaft object of human fight. Coft. Lex. Med. p. 5. Card, de Subtil. 1. 9. p. 369. Scalig. ad Cardan. Exerc. 194. §. 7. p. 600. Morhof. Polyhift. Philof. 1. 2. P. 2. c. 14. 11. 3.

Acari, or Acarus, is alfo ufed for a kind of vermin lodged under the cutis, where preying on the parts, it excites an itching, and raifes pimples.

The Acari, according to fome, are the fame with what we otherwife call cirrhones, cyrones, or firones'; others will have them the, fame with the teredo; others diftinguifh them from all three. 'Jun. Nomcncl. p. 76. V. Aldrovand. de Infeft. 1. 5. c. 4. Pifo> de Morb. Cogn. & Cur. 1. 1- c. 4. Caft. Lex. Med. p. 5.

A German phyfician has traced their origin ; he finds the Acari arife from milk-meats turning ftale and four. Their feat is chiefly in the hands or feet, rarely in the arms or legs. Ludovk. in Ephem, Germ. dec. 19. obf. 39. p. 109. Game-* rar. Mirab. Cent. 9. P. 83. & Hildan. c. 1. obf. 96.

ACARNA, in botany, a name by which Theophraftus, and fome other writers, exprefs the common artichoak. Ger, Emac. Ind. 2.

Monf,