Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/891

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tubrinated'; the ttylcs are two in number, hairy, and bent back. The iligmata are alfo hairy. The flower clofely fur- rounds the fijed, and falls with it. The feed is oblong, bellied, and angular, pointed at both ends, and marked with a longi- tudinal furrow. Linn&i Gen. Plant, p. 16.

HORKHOUND. See the article Marubium.

HORIZONTAL (Q-f/.)— Horizontal Line, or bafe of a hill, in furveying, a line drawn on the horizontal plane of the nil], or that on which it ftands.

Horizontal Roots. See the article Fibrose Roots.

HORMEZION, or Hormesion, in natural hiftory, the name of a gem defcribed by Pliny, and feeming to have been a fpecies of hyacinth ; he fays it was very bright, and of a yellowifh red or flame colour, with a whitifh caft at the edges.

tlORMlNODES, in natural hiftory, the name of a gem de- fcribed by Pliny, and others of the antient writers. The ftone itfeif, they tell us, was either black or white, but had in it a green fpeck, furrounded by a circle of a bright yellow. It ieems to have been no other than one of the oculus beli's of our jewellers.

HORMINUM, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefc. The flower confifts of one leaf, and is of the labiated kind. The upper lip is fmall and galeated, the under one is large, and divided into three fcg- ments, the middle one being hollowed like a fpoon. The piftil arifes from the cup, and is fixed in the manner of a nail to the hinder part of the flower ; this is furrounded by four embryo's, which afterwards become four feeds, and ripen in the cup of the flower.

The fpecies of Horminum, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe : i, The garden Horminum, with purple fpikes, 2. The red fpiked Horminum. 3. The green fpiked Hormi- num. 4. The broad-Ieav'd wild verticillate Horminum. 5. The napus-Ieav'd Horminum. 6. The lefler Horminum, with finuated leaves, and a fmall blue flower. 7. The mea- dow Horminum, with very fmall flowers. 8. The lavender- flower'd wild Horminum. g. The lavender-flower'd wild Horminum, fmelling alfo like lavender. The Englifh name of this genus of plants is Clary, but it is an indeterminate one, becaufe it is alio ufed as the name for the jelarees, a different genus of plants, though by many authors confounded with the other under the name Horminum. Toum. Inft. p. 178.

Horminum has been much celebrated as a cardiac, but is now lefs ufed than formerly. The dried herb, given in infufton or decoclion, is good in the fluor albus, but mould be given with other medicines. It is alfo commended in colics, flatulencies, and hyfteric complaints ; alfo as an antifpafmodic, and in epi- Iepfies.

HORN {Cyd.) — The Horns of many animals, particularly of the deer kind, are caft every year, and new ones grow up in their places. With us the deer drop them in March, and the new Horns are full grown by the July following. Voflius very juftly ranks this among the raoft wonderful phenomena of nature; he fays, that we have nothing analogous to the growth of fuch hard and folid bodies of fo great a bulk, in fo iliort a time.

Many idle opinions have been formed of the caufe of the fal- ling of thefe parts of the animal ; and worms in the head, and many other things, have been fuppofed inftrumental to it, which have no fhare in it. The true reafon feems, that thefe are a fort of vegetables growing on the animal, as our nails and hair have by many been faid alfo to be ; and there appears a great analogy between them and the fprouting of the leaves and branches in trees and plants. Trees commonly caft their ripe fruit in fummer, and drop their leaves in autumn, becaufe the fap, or nourifhing juice flows into them no longer j and in the fame manner, at certain ftated periods, the bluod and juices ceafe to flow into thefe parts of the animal, and they drop ofF. The cavernous part, at the root of the Horns, pro- bably grows hard, and the pores through which the veflels pals, grow up at this time, and then, as no juices can be car- ried through them to the Horn, it is not at all wonderful that it decays, and falls ofF, for want of nourifhment. It is probable that this ftoppage of the pores, and denying of the paflage of any juices, happen in the Horns as foon as they are arrived at their full growth in July ; but they are fo firmly fixed to the head, that it takes a long time for them to loofen and fall, whereas in the leaves of plants the pedicles ate fo tender, that they wither and fall immediately on the juices ceaftng to flow into them. This analogy between the opera- tions of nature, in the cafting the Horns of deer, and the fal- ling ofF of ripe fruit and leaves from vegetables, will gather great ftrength from obfervation of the orange and other trees. If the ftalk, from which a ripe orange has fallen, be compared with that part of the forehead of a deer from which a Horn is juft fallen, there will be feen fuch a fimilarity between the one and the other, that it will appear very obvious, that nature has operated by the fame laws in both. Philof. Tranf. N°. 227. p. 494.

The growth, and calling of the Horns of deer, is a very An- gular circumftance in the animal world. The ftag puts out its firft Horns in the fecond year of it age, and after this they Sup PL. Vol. I,

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caft them every year in March. The lufty and well fed ones caft their Horns firft ; the fickly or weak ones fometimes keep the 'old ones till the end of April. Thefe Horns are fattened to the bones of the fkull, not to the fkin of the head only, as fome people would have it tiiought, who are for making the cafting of them the lefs wonderful. About ten days after the Horns are caft, the new or young Horns begin to appear ; they are foft and hairy at firft, but they grow hard in about three months, and the ftag then rubs off" their hairy fkin. The number of branches in the Horns is proportioned to the age of the animal, the young ones always having but few, the old ones moft.Six or feven branches are the common number, and in Tufcany they have fometimes eight or nine. But in Saxony, where thefe creatures are very long lived, they are fometimes feen with fourteen or fifteen branches, and fome- times more. The young Horns, while yet foft, are full of blood-veffels, and if cut off, efpecially if near the head, they are found to bleed very violently, and the creature will fome- times even bleed to death at the wound. This blood was found by Rcdi to coagulate alfo like the other blood of the ftag, let out of the other parts of the body ; though this is contrary to the accounts of Ariftotle and Galen. Blood- vcflels are fent in large numbers into all Horns, while young, to furnifh them with nouriftiment for their increafe and growth ; but when they are arrived at their full growth, thefe veflels dry up, there being no farther occafion for them ; and hence it is that no ill fymptoms attend the falling off of thefe parts, when full grown. If a ftag be caftrated while he is fo young as not to have Horns, he will never have any at all, and it caftrated afterwards, while his Horns are on, he will never caft them, but always retain the fame pair which he had at the time of the operation. ReiU, Exper. See the articles Castration, Stag, crfr.

Horn, in the manege: To give a ftroke with the Horn^ is to blood a horfe in the roof of the mouth, with the Horn of a ftag or roebuck, the tip or end of which is fo fharp and pointed, as to produce the fame effccT: as a lancet. We ftrike with the Horn in the middle of the fourth notch or ridge of the upper jaw.

Horn Coot, a name given by fowlers to the great Horn owl, A fportfman who has got one of thefe birds, has a conftant lure to draw together almoft what numbers of others he plea- fes. The method of taking other birds by it, is thus : The fportfman fixes upon fome fingle tree which ftands in the middle of an open field, and cutting the boughs of this into a regularity, he fpreads nets all about it, and then places his owl within them, with a firing faftencd to its leg, by means of which the bird may be put in motion by the fportf- man as he ftands at a diftance under covert. There are to be two perches placed near one another, (o that the owl can eafily go from the one to the other. It is the nature of this bird to fly only by night, and therefore whenever it is feen by daylight, all the other birds quarrel with it, and abufe it ; even the hawks will make at it wherever it comes in their way. The fportfman depends upon this, and as foon as he fees any bird approach, or as foon as the owl, who fees far- ther than he can, gives him the fignal that fome bird is in fight, he pulls the ftring, on which the owl, being difturbed* flys from one perch to the other. This draws the ftrange bird to her, and flying violently at her, it is entangled in the net placed with that intent, and the fportfman muft imme- diately run up and take it out, and replace the net for the next.

HoRK-FiJb, an Englifh name for the fifh which we alfo call the garfifh. It is by fome accounted a fpecies of the acus or tobacco-pipe fifh ; but the only reafon for this opinion, feems to have been, that it is as long and flender as that fifh. It 19 properly a fpecies of pike or efox. See the articles Acus and Esox.

HoRt-i-.fY/'j, in zoology. See the article Cornutus Pifcis.

HoRN-Oiy/, in zoology, the name of a fort of owl diftinguifhed by two clufters of feathers ftanding up over its ears, and re- fembling horns. There are two kinds of this bird, a larger and a fmaller ; the firft diftinguifhed by the name of the bubo, the great Horn-owl, or eagle-owl ; and the other called the otus, or noftua attrita. Ray's Ornithol. p. 63. See the ar- ticles Bubo and Otus.

HORNET, Crabro, in zoology ; this infect is very bold and venomous ; and wholly refembles the wafp, only it is twice as large, and that the head is of a longer and flenderer fhape, and the eyes formed fomewhat like a half moon. They build under ground, and in winter hide themfelves in hollow trees. They feed on flefh, and, when very hungry, will feize upon a fmall bird. Mouffett relates, that they have been feen fingly to pur- fue and kill a fparrow, and afterwards feed on its flefh. See the article Wasp.

Hornet Fly, in natural hiftory, a very large two-winged fly, which has the fhape and colours of the Hornet, and is, at firft fight, fcarce to be diftinguifhed from it. The princi- pal colour of the body of this fly is yellow ; but it has two long and large black lines placed tranfverfely on it, and has a black corcelet, and a yellow head. Rtaumur, Hjft. Inf. vol. 4. p. 481. , „

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