Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/956

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Continually {hooting up a number of young branches, which after a time will all (hare the fame fate. Philof. Tranf. N°. 456. p. 353.

Nothing can give a more lively and beautiful idea of the whole bufmefs of petrifaction, than this appearance of the feveral ftates or ftages of it in the Ivy, and other vegetables in thefe places. It is evident, that in thefe places not only the water diftilling out of the rocks is able to depofit ftony matter on the vegetables, £$c. in form of incruftations, but even the fleams and exhalations being highly fated with thefe ftony particles, are capable of working the fame effect. This is evidently the cafe in regard to feveral pieces of the incru- , ftated Ivy, which have never been in the way of water, and yet are as compleatly covered with ftone as the reft ; and this is the only method in which the ftony matter is conveyed into the internal parts of the plants that are really petrified in thefe places. For experience fhews in regard to thefe, that they are not petrified firft, and afterwards incrufted, but it is plain, that the incruftation is made firft, and that afterwards, when in a long fpace of time the vegetable matter within is perifhed and wafted away, the cavity that it leaves, by this means, is filled up afterwards with the fame ftony matter. It Is evident that this inner part of the petrifaction was not formed while the vegetable yet exifted by the infinuation of ftony matter into its pores, but that it is a mere mafs of ftone -added afterwards, fince it has never any the leaft trace of the ■inner ftruclure of the vegetable : And this ftony matter, tho' ufually much more firm and folid than the outer cruft, muff- in many cafes have been formed merely by vapours, as it is in places where water is never found to come on any occafion. The water of fome fprings may be fo loaded with ftony mat- ter, as perhaps by penetrating the pores of wood, and other lax bodies, to encreafe greatly their fpecific gravities, yet furely it is contrary to the laws of matter to fay, that there are any hidden properties in that water capable of changing the bodies put into it, into other bodies fpecifically different. A piece of wood put into one of thefe fprings may in time lofe its texture and coherency, by the admittance of hetero- geneous particles of different attractions ; but the caufe of co- herency in the parts of the original body muft ceafe and be difTolved, before it can be find to become a part of any other body whatever. Afterwards, indeed, the fpace that was poflefled by the parts of the original body, may be fupplied by thofe of the new one, fo as to make in time an uniform ftone in the fhape of the original plant ; but if this petrified plant be ftill kept in the place, where the fame petrifying quality con- tinues to act upon it, it will lofe even that fhape, and become a part of that body which is contiguous to it, and fo a great number of thefe plants thus petrified, arranged near to one an- other, will compofe large mafFcs, and perhaps whole ftfata of ftone. This is clearly the cafe in regard to many of the lime- ftone rocks about the places where the petrified Ivy is found ; and perhaps it might be carried fo far as to ftrengthen our conception about the general formation of the ftrata of lime- ftone and marble ; that appearing to be every where (not- ■withftanding that Dr. Woodward difpatches them much more expeditioufly) but efpecially in the Peak of Derbyfhire, fuch a petrifaction as has been defcribed, only perfectly finifhed. Philof. Tranf. N°. 456. p. 356.

Ivy Re/in, in the materia medica, is brought from Perfia, and fome other of the hot countries, where alone it is to be found in any confiderablc quantity. Mr. Ray, indeed, mentions fome of it having been found on Ivies in Worcefterfhire, and other authors in other parts of Europe ; but thefe are only fingular inftances of what may happen, our fhops being obliged to be fupplied from the Eaft.

The antient Greeks were acquainted with this refin, which they called lacryma hederee, as fome alfo do to this day. It is faid to be emollient and detergent, and to make a noble bal- fam for frefh wounds •> but is never ufed by us with thefe in- tentions. The Perfians efteem it much as an aftringent.

IXALOS, in natural hiftory, a name given by the Greek writers to the creature which we call the chamoy goat.

IXIAS, in botany, a name given to the chameleon thiftle, of the white kind; and in the materia medica of the antients, to a poifon, againft which they have prefcribed many remedies. The ufe of fynonimous words among the antients has given great occafion to error and confufion in the writers of later times ; and this is a very remarkable inftance of it. An expli- cation of this confufion is neceffary, in order to the understand- ing- either of Pliny, or of almoft any other author who has hap- pened to mention the poifon Ixias, or the chamseleon thiftle. it is to be obferved, that the words, tho* fynonymous with us, are not truly fo in the original Greek, the one being a fub- ftantive of the feminine gender, always ufed alone, and with the particle « prefixed to it, and the other being a mafculine adjective, and always introduced by the particle 3, and pre- fixed to the word chamsleon. The word Ixias, when ufed as a fubftantive, and having the particle r * prefixed to it, Sig- nifies no other than the common bird-lime which was in ufe at their times as well as now, and was efteemed, if given in- ternally, one of the flow poifons. Galen fays, it was one of thofe which took time to perform its fatal office ; and Diof- corides and others inform us, that the manner of its killing the perfon to whom it was given, was by clogging and gluing

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up the interlines, fo that nothing could pats thro'. In '■>-'■ fenfe bird-lime was efteemed a poifon, and when the word Ixias was ufed as a fubftantive of the feminine gender, and written n *|(fc*s it always was meant as the name of this lub- ftance alone.

The female chamasleon thiftle, or, as fome call it, the white chameleon thiftle, was found in thofe countries fometimts to exfudate near its root a fort of gummy juice, which was fo like bird-lime in its quality of tenacity, that it was called by the fame name by thefe authors, and the plant which was found to produce it was dittinguifhed from the other by the addition of a word to its name, expreilive of this glue.' In calling it the glue chameleon, or bird-lime chamadeon, they could ufe no other word than that by which they exprelled fuch a fubftance, and therefore they called it the Ixias cha- maeleon. This, however, they always expreffed by both words together, and by prefixing the particle 3 denotative of the gender, to denote the word Ixias there to be an adjective fignifying vifcous, and not the name of bird-lime : They wrote it on this occafion 5 i$f«f x a f Mi7 ^ m t and by Tbeo- phraftus it is called l$m a*HW&). If this name had been ufed by all the writers, as well as by this great author, there coulil have been no confufion between things in themfelves fo un- like as the chamasleon thillle and common bird-lime ; yet Pliny has tranflated as belonging to the chamseleon thiftle all that the Greek writers have faid of bird-lime ; and others, looking upon him as a good authority, have branded a very innocent plant with the name of a poifon. The roots of the white chamseleon being efculent, and its gum, tho' like bird- lime in vifcoiity, yet being inofTenfive to the human body. See the articie Chameleon.

IXOPUS, in botany, a name given by Cord us, and fome other authors, to the chondrilla or fuccory. Get: Emac. -Ind. 2.

IXORA, in the Linngean fyftem of botany, the name of a ge- nus of plants, the characters of which are, that the calyx -is a fmall erect perianthium, divided into four fegments, and re- maining when the flower is fallen. The flower confiftsof one petal, which is a {lender, cylindric, and very long tube, with a flat border, divided into four fegments, of an oval figure. The ftamina are four very fhort and crooked fila- ments, placed in the notches of the flower. The antherse are oblong. The germen of the piftillum is roundifh. ' The ftyle is fiender, and of the length of the tube; and the ftigma is bifid. The fruit is a roundifh berry, containing only one eel), in which are four feeds, convex on one fide, and angu- lar on the other. Linnai Gen. Plant, p. 27.

JYNX, in zoology, the name of a bird of the woodpecker kind, called alio the torquilla, and in Englifti, the wry-neck. It is a little fmaller than a lark. Its beak is of a bluifh colour, and is not fo ftrong and thick as in moft of the woodpecker kind. It can at pleafure raife the feathers of its head into a fort of creft, and is a very beautifully variegated bird. Its co- lours are a pale grey, or afh-colour, a white, a brownifh ied, a deep plain brown, and black. Its head is grey, and is va- riegated with tranfverfe black lines. Its belly and breaft have a caft of yellowifh in the grey, and are in like manner va- riegated with black lines. Its breaft is white, with the fame variegation. Its back is black, and the reft of the colours are beautifully mottled en its wings. It has a very whimfi- cal way of turning and twilling its neck about, and brineing its head over its fhoulders, whence it had its name Torqitilla y and its Englifh one of wry-neck. It feeds on ants, which it very dexteroufly transfixes with the bony and {harp end of its tongue, and then draws them into its mouth. Hay, Or- nithol. p. 95. See Tab of Birds, N°. 13.

IZTICHUILOTLI, in natural hiftory, the American name of a ftone found in New Spain, and fome other places ; it is very hard, of a beautiful black, and takes a fine polilh. The Americans are very fond of it as a gem, and wear it by way of ornament ; but they attribute no medicinal virtues to it. De Laet mentions an American ftone in his pofleluon, which was cut by the Indians into a flat oval plate, and was of a beautiful black, but with two round fpots of a filvery white. He fuppofes this to have been the uterinus tapis, and proba- bly it was either that ftone, or of the fpecies here men- tioned.

IZTICPASO-QUERZALIZTLI, in natural hiftory, thename given by the natives of fome parts of America to a ftone fa- mous for its virtues in curing the colic, and many other dif- eafes, externally applied : It is of a beautiful green colour, and is by Ximenes fuppofed a coarfe fpecies of emerald ; but is more properly a very fine kind of lapis nephriticus, of a pale green colour, very hard, and more pellucid than the other fpecies of that ftone, but yet always fhewing that greafy look on being polifhed, which characterizes all the nephritic {tones. It is ufually found in large manes, and the Indians cut it into flat pieces, which they apply to the navel in the colic, and in other difeafes, to the part affected, and fuppofe it has great power in promoting a difcharge of the noxious humours. Ds Laet.

IZTLI, in natural hiftory, the American name of a fpecies of ftone, of which the natives made their weapons of war, &c. before they knew the ufe of iron. It is called by De Laet and other authors, lapis novacularum* See the article No- vacularum Lapis,

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