Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/680

 EUO

tipm 'Eopfo, becaufc the Athenians called the furies, Xffuw ©*«>> i. e. venerable Goddeffes. Pott. Archaeol. Graec. 1. 2. c. 20.

EUMETRES Belt, in natural hiftory_, the name given by the antients to a gem which the Aflyrians held facred to their God, and which many other nations learned from them, to fuppofe very powerful againft magick. Many have fuppofed this to be the ftone we now call occulus beli ; but this is an error, fince Pliny, in his account of the Eumetres, fays, that it was of a very fine green. It was probably a gem of the emerald kind, that ftone having ever been in very high eftecm in the eaftern part of the world, as it is alfo to this day.

EUNOFIUS, a name given by fome authors to the setitcs or eagle ftone.

EVOCATI, among the Romans, foldiers who having ferved their time in the army, went afterwards voluntiers at the re- qucft of fome favourite general. Hoffm. Lex. in voc.

EVOCATION, Evocatio, among the Romans, a religious ce- remony always obferved by them at undertaking the fiege of a town, wherein they folemnly called upon the gods and goddef- fes of the place to forfake it and come over to them, With- out the performance of this ceremony, they either thought that the place could not be taken, or that it would be a facrilege to take the gods prifoners.

The form of Evocation ufed at taking the city of Carthage is related by Macrob. Sat. 11 1. 9. in the following words. Si dens, ft dea es, ait populus, civitafque Carthaginienfts eji in tutela, teque maxims ills, qui urbis hujus, populique tuielam recepijli, precor, venerorque, veniamque a vobh peto, tit vos populutn dvitatemque Carthaginicnfmm deferatis, /oca, templa, facra, urbemque eorum relinquatis, abfque his abeat'ts ; eiqtie papula, civitatique metum, formidinmi, oblivioncm injkiatis, praditique Romam ad me mcojque veniatis ; nojlraque vobis loca, templa, facra, urbs accepting probatiorque fit : mihi quoquc, populoque Romano, mil'itibufque tneis prapofiti flits, id fciamus, inteU'tgamufque, &c, ft ita feceritis, voveo vobis tcmpla, ludof- que fc£iurum.

They always took it for granted that their prayer was heard, and that the gods had deferted the place and came over to them, provided they were able to make themfelves mafters of it. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. in voc. Deus.

EVOCATOR!^ EpiftoU, among the Romans, letters fent by the emperors to command the attendance of any perfon ; or letters granting licence to any one to wait on the em- peror ; every perfon not being allowed this privilege till they had defired and obtained the Evocatoria Epijhlte. Hoffm. Lex. in voc.

EVOLUTE, Evoluta (Cycl.)— The variation of curvature of the line defcribed by the Evolution of a curve, is meafurcd by the ratio of the radius of curvature of the Evoluta, to the radius of curvature of the line defcribed by the Evolution. See MacLaurin\ Flux. Art. 402. Prop. 36.

EU./EMIA, a word ufed by Trcmelius, and fome other writers, to exprefs a good and healthy Hate of the mais of blood.

EUONYMUS, the Spindle-Tree, in the Linnsean fyftem of botany, this makes a diiiin& genus of vegetables ; the cha- racters of which are thefe. The cup is a flat perianthium, compofed of one leaf divided into four fegments which are of a roundifh figure. The flower is compofed of four flat oval petals, longer than the fegments of the cup, and fpread wide open ; the ftamina are four upright pointed filaments fhorter than the cup, and fituatcd on the germen of the piftill ; the an- thene are double. The germen of the piftill is pointed j the ftyle is fliort and fimple ; the ftigma is obtufc ; the fruit is a qtiadragonaf, juicy capfule, of a different colour from the reft of the fhrub, and having four angles, four points, and four cells, with their valves. The feeds are fingle, of an oval fi- gure, and enclofed in the cup. Linnai Genera Plantarum, p. 48.

According to Tournefort' s method the characters are thefe. The flower is of the rofaceous kind, being compofed of fcveral petals arranged in a circular form > the piftil arifes from the cup, and finally becomes an angular membranaceous fruit divided into different cells and containing oblong feeds. The fpecies of Euonymus enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe.

1. The common Euonymus with red fruit. 2. The black fruited Euonymus. 3. The broad leaded Euonymus. 4. The pyracantha-leaved American Euonymus, with ever-green leaves and red verrucofe fruit. 5. The African Euonymus, with mining ferrated leaves. 6. The broad-leaved duftery Ame- rican Euonymus, with pentangular blackifh purple fruit. Town. Inft. p. 647.

It is generally fuppofed that the Euonymus of the antients is the fame plant that we at this time call by this name. The words of Theophraftus have probably given occafion to this opinion ; as they found at firft reading like words exprefling the characters of the fruit of this tree ; but on a clofer in* fpe£tion, they will be found to exprefs a fruit of a very dif- ferent kind. This author fays, that the fruit of the Euony- mus is like the pod of the fefamum, marked with four pro- tuberant ribs, and hard within, and divided into places for four orders of feeds. It is plain by this, that as their fefa- mum bore an oblong pod marked with four ribs, fo as to feem of a quadrangular figure ; fo did their Euonymus, and 4

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that in this long pod there were four orders of feeds, each of thefe orders containing a great many feeds. Now the fruit of our Euonymus is fhort and not at all like a pod, and contains only four feeds and not four orders of feeds : there is alfo this farther proof of our Euonymus not being that of the antients that ours is awholefome food to cattle, and theyareveryfond of cropping it whenever they can reach it, and never get any hurt by it j whereas the Euonymus of the Greeks was poifonous to cattle, according to Theophraftus. Pliny, theophrafius. See Kusanus. EUPATORIUM, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe; the flower is of theflofcukms kind, and is compofed of a number of fmall corollulas, from, each of which there grows a long capillament bifid at the end. Thefe are divided into many fegments, and ftand on embryo feeds, being contained in a long fcaly and cylindric cup: the embryos afterwards become feeds winged with down. The fpecies of Eupatorium enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe.

1. The common Eupatorium. 2. The Eupatorium, with long wrinkled leaves and purple ftalks- 3. The larger Eupa- torium, with great long and wrinkled leaves and green ftalks. 4. The nettle-leaved New England Eupatorium, with purple flowers and fpotted ftalks. 5. The hairy betony-leaved Eu- patorium of New England, with white flowers. 6. The per- foliate Virginian Eupatorium, with very long pointed iage-like leaves. 7. The mullein-leaved Eupatorium of Virginia.

8. The foft hairy nettle- leaved American Eupatorium.

9. The fhrubby American Eupatorium, with atriplex leaves and white flowers. T .o. The purple flowered American Eu- patorium, with flix-weed leaves., 1 1. The purple flowered fhrub American Eupatorium, with ground-ivy leaves. 12. The American Eupatorium, with butter-bur leaves. Tournef. Inft. p. 4.55.

Eupatorium, or the common hemp agrimony, ftands re- commended as a hepatic and vulnerary, and has been alfo ufed in catarrhs ; but it is at prcfent very little known in the ihops.

EUPET'ALOS, in natural hiftory, the name of a gem defcribed by the antients as famous for its variety of colours. Pliny I- 37. C. ic. tells us that it {hewed at once blue, fire co- lour, red lead colour, and yellow. It feems to have been the opal, and that Pliny's defcription of it in this place was taken from fome author he did not perfectly underftand, as is the cafe in many of his accounts from the Greeks.

EUPHEMISMUS, 'E^r,^.^?, in rhetoric, a figure which ex- prefies things in themfelves difagreeable and fhocking, by terms implving the contrary quality ; thus, the Pontus, or black fea, having tlie epithet of aim;, (i. e. yihofpitable) given it on account of the favagc cruelty of thole who inha- bited the neighouring countries; this name, by Eupbe/nifm t was changed into that of Euxlnus. Thus Ovid. Trift. 1. 3.

elc S- J 3- ... _.

Dum me ierrarum pars pene noviffima Pontt, Euxinus falfo nomine dlctus habet. In which fenfe, it only makes a fpecies of irony. But every euphemifn is not irony ; for we fometimes ufe improper and foft terms in the fame fenfe with the proper and harfh. See Faff. Rhet. 1. 4. p. 1S6. feq.

EUPNOEA, in medicine, is a right and natural refpiration.

EUPORIA, in medicine, is an eafy preparation of medicines, or the eafinefs of their operation. Blancard.

EUPHORBIA, in botany, a name given by Linnaeus and others to the Eupborbium plant, and to fome fpecies of the tithymalus and tithymaloides of Tournefort. See Tithymalus and

TlTHYMALOIDES.

The curious in gardening propagate twelve fpecies of the Eu- pborbium plant in their ftoves; they are all natives of very warm climates, and being replete with a milky juice, they require very little water ; nor muft they ever be planted in a rich foil, which is very hurtful to them. The proper foil for them is a mixture of one half fea-fand, one quarter light frcfls earth, and one quarter lime-rubbifh. This fhould be mixed three months before it is ufed, and very frequently turned in the mean time. AJiller's Gardners Diet. The plants are propagated by planting in this foil, their cut- ings, in the months of June and July. Thefe fhould always be taken off from the old plant at a joint, and fhould be laid by for a week in a dry fhady place before they are planted, that the part cut off from the old plant may have time to harden and dry. They fhould then be fet in very fmall pots and have a little water to fettle the earth to their roots. They are after this to be fet for a day or two where they may have the morning fun, and after this to be plunged into a hot bed of tanner's bark, and ibaded in the great heats of the day. In fix weeks will have fhot out their roots, and are then to be treated as the cercus's and other fucculent plants of the fame kind. EUPHRASIA, Eye-bright, in botany, the name of a genus of plants the characters of which are thefe ; the flower is of the perlbnated kind, divided into two lips, and having the upper one placed ere<5r. and divided into feverai fegments. The lower one divided into three principal fegments, each of which is alfo bifid. The piftil arifes from the cup, and is fixed in the manner of a nail to the back part of the flower : this

finally