Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/528

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fly ius been deceived by the hear refembtance of the two words, and has given the qualities of ivy to the ciftus, and thofe of ciftus to the ivv : but lie is the more excufable in this, iincc we find the two iiames ufed indifcriminately, tho' cer- tainly by a miftake of the copyifts, in the books of Theo- phraftus.

This author certainly meant it of the ctfttts, that it was of two kinds, theni.de and female; (o be exprefles the having two colours in the flowers, red and white ; for he never could give us this account of the ivy: yet his tranferibers have given K.T-^f, ciffia, ivy, not cifikat, or ajlus, for the name of the plant of which the author (ays this, 1 heophraflus, in another place, fays, that the male cijlm has a flower in all refpeel:s re- fembling a rofe, but that it is fingle, and has no fmell : this alio is attributed to the c/'fjus by the copies ; and from this is derived that ftrangc error of Pliny, who fays, that the ivy has a large purple flower, like the fingle wild role. It is true, indeed, that Pliny gives the word hedera here, which has no alliance with, or rJemblance to the iwme of any other plant, and therefore it could not eafily be believed that be could mean any other. But when we find that Pliny, who washimfelf nobo- tanift, but only a compiler of the o,inions of others, tran- flated this pafiao-e from (o warrantable an author as Theophra- ftus, and that the copyifts of Thcophraftus had given the word ciffks hiftcad of cijlhm in the place^ which word cijfits might very juftly, in the general, be translated ivy, we find Pliny, as a calle&ot (which is the light in which all judicious people look upon him) to be very pardonable. The variation in the orthography of the word jiurfof, cijihus, may be in- deed juftified, as to the ftri&nefs of grammar, by the ufe of onj of the Greek dialects, which turns 9 into a- : thus the word «ft*we is written b fome ctam?., and ©to;, Esq;. But in a cafe where the ufe of this dialed was wholly unneceflary, and where it brought in fo much confufion, by rendering the names of two different plants the fame, it is not to be imagined that

- fo correal; a Writer as Thcophraftus, or fo judicious a botanift as he appears to be throughout his whole treatife of plants, would have himfelf indulged the ufe of it. Paulus JEgmeta. has a chapter about efflus, which is not to be

1 underftood as the name of ivy, but of the cijius ; andTheocri- tu.5, when he tells us that the C'JJ'us flowers like the rofe, evidently means the ci/fus, not the ivy. The Greek writers of later times have added yet to the confufion, by calling the common wild or dog rofe cijj'us ; but this is more rarely met with. The old fcholiaft on Theocritus gives the cij/us and eynofrhodon as fynonymous words. See the article He- dera.

CITADINESCA, in natural hiftory, a name given by fome writers to the Florentine marble, which is fuppofed to repre- fent towns, palaces, ruins, rivers, &c. Thefe delineations are merely accidental, and are ufually much affifted by the ■imagination* tho' the natural lines of a ftone may fomctimes luckily enough reprefent the ruins of fome antient building, or the courfe of a river. We have in England a kind of fep- taria, or ludus helmohtii, which has fometimes delineations of this kind confiderably beautiful, tho' very irregular. The Florentine marble, as we fee it wrought up in the ornaments of cabinets, &c. owes a great deal to the fkill of the work- men, who always pick out the proper pieces from the mafs, anddifpofe them in the work fo as to make them reprefent what they pleafe.

CII'HARA. SccKinnor.

CI fHAROEDUS, in antiquity, the fame ■withciiharijia. The citbarcedi had the preference of all other muficians, from whom they werediftinguiihed by an embroidered cloak, which was peculiar to them. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. in voc.

C1THARUS, in zoology, the name of a fifh common in the markets of Rome and Venice, and frequent in the German and Mediterranean feas. It is a flat fifh, of the turbut kind ; but it is covered with large fcales. Gef. p. 269.

CITILLUS, in zoology, the name of a fmall animal of the nioufe kind, which lives in caves and holes of the earth. Its body is of the fhape of the common weafels, very long and thin : the tail is very fhort. Its colour is a pale (Every grey, like that of fome rabbits. It rcfembles the mole in its want of external ears; but it has apertures which ferve it to the fame purpofe, in the manner of birds. They live together in communities, great numbers being ufually found in the fame cave, with a large ftore of nuts, chefnuts, and other fruits. Their flefli is very well tafted, and their fkin much ufed in cloathing in the cold countries. They are found not only in the very cold climates, but in Bohemia, Auffria, and Hunga- ry. Say's Syn. Quad, p 220.

CITIZEN (Cycl.) — The Romans were antiently fo particularly careful to preferve even their common citizens from any mix- ture of fervile blood, that they prohibited all marriaoes be- tween them and freed flaves, or their children. And it was decreed, as a fpecial privilege and reward to one Hifpala, of libertine condition, for her difcovery of the impieties of the bacchanalian myfteries, that a citizen might take her to wife, without any difgrace and diminution of his rig ts a. Thefe diftin&ums, indeed, began to be difregarded towards the end of the republic?, with rcfpe& to the ordinary citizens,

but were kept up to the laft, with regard to the fenate *«U [' Lv xxxix. 19. b Middlet. of Rom. Sen. p. 105.] See the article Senator.

(TTRAGO, in botany, a name given by fome authors to the common garden balm. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.

CITRE/E menfa, in antiquity, tables made of the wood of the citron-tree, very beautiful, and greatly cfteemed by the an- tient Romans. See Citreum.

Many people have fuppofed this citrum to be the fame with the cedar, and have judged partly from the funilitude of founds between iitrees and cedrea mvnfsv, that thefe works of the antients were all made of cedar ; but the Greeks diftin- guifh (hem every where, calling the cedar, cedrus, «3£os, not thya ; nor did they ever confound the two trees together.

CITREUM, the citron tree\ in botany, the name of a genus of trees, the characters of which are thefe: the flower is of the rofaceous kind, being compoftd of feveral petals, arranged in a circular form. The pifHJ arifes from the cup, and finally becomes an oblong fruit, with a very thick pulp, divided into feveral cells, and containing juicy matter, and veficles with callous feeds. To this it is to be added, that the leaves are fimple, not heart-fafliioncd at the bot:om, as thofe of the orange.

The fpecies of citron enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefts! i. The common citron. 2. The fweeter tafted city on. 3. The great-fruited citron. 4. The citron of Corcyta: and, 5. The Creric citron. Tourn. Inft. p. 620. See Citron.

CITRIL, in zoology, a name given by many to the citrinella, or verzell'ino, a bird common in Italy, and kept in cages for its beauty and fine notes : called by many authors alfo thraupis; See the following article.

CITRINELLA, in zoology, the name of a fmall bird, com- mon in Italy, and very much refembling our common linnet in fhape. Its head and back are green ; its rump of a green- ifh yellow, and its neck, with fome what of the bindmoft pare of the head, grey. In fome birds of this fpecies, the head, the upper part of the neck, and the fhoulders, are of a varie- gated colour, with a mixture of brown and yellowifh green. Its breaft and belly are all green in the female, but in the male the upper part of the breaft and the belly are yellow : the tail is black, tipped with green; and the wings are alfo bl.ick, tipped fometimes with green, fometimes with white. Its beak is very fhort and ftrong, and its feet flefh-colourcd, or whitifh. It fings very finely, and is kept in cages in many parts of Italy. Says Ornithol. p. 193.

CITRINUS, in natural hiftory, the name of a peculiar fpecies of fprig cryftal, which is of a beautiful yellow. Many of the common cryftals, when in the neighbourhood of lead mines, are liable to be accidentally tinged yellow, by an admixture of the particles of that metal ; and all thefe, whether finer, or coarfer, have been too frequently confounded together, undef the name citrine ; but Dr. Hill has afcertaincd this to be a pe- culiar fpecies of cryftal, different from all the other kinds in form, as well as colour, and diftinguifhed by the name of clli- pomacrojlyhmi lucidum f.avefcens pyramids brevi. It is never found colourlefs, like the other cryftals, but has great variety of tinges 5 , from that of deeper ochres to a pale lemon colour. It is very plentiful in the Weft Indies, and is found in fome parts of Bo- hemia. Our jewellers have learnt from the French and Itali- ans, who are very fond of it, to call it citrine, and often cut ftones for rings out of it, particularly out of the pyramid, which is always finer than die column, and thefe, after they have palled through two or three hands, arc generally mis- taken for topazes. Hill's Hift. of Foff. p. 180.

CITRON (Cyd.) — We have feveral fpecies of this tree in the greenhoufes about London ; their culture and management is the fame with that of the orange, fee Orange; but they are tenderer and mould have a warmer fituation in winter, otherwife they are fubje£t to caft their fruit ; they ihould alfo continue a little longer in the houfe in fpring, and be carried fooner into it in autumn, and have a warmer, and better-defended fituation in fummer. Miller's Gard- ner's Diet. See Citri-um.

Citron wood, the wood of an American tree, called by the natives candle-wood, becaufe being cut into fplinters, it burns like a candle. The tree is frequent in the Leeward iflands, and grows to a confiderable fize ; the leaves are like thofe of the bay tree, but of a finer green ; the flower is fweet and much like thofe of the orange; the fruit fucceeding thefe is black, and of the fize of a pepper-corn. The trunk is fo like the yellow faunders in colour, that there was once an opinion that it was the fame tree, and much of it was imparted into Europe, and fold as fuch; but they were foon found to be different, the true faunders being of a fweet fcent, and but moderately heavy and-refmous, but the ci- tron wood confiderably heavy, very oily, and of 2 ftrong fmell. It is of no known ufe in medicine, but is ufed in France and Germany by the turners, being a firm fine grained wood, and taking a fine polifh, and with age be- coming of a very beautiful brown. /Wr'sHift. of firugs, P- 64.; CITRUL, citrulluS) in botany, a name given to a genus of plants otherwife called angaria. See Ancuria.

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