Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/959

 .KEN

KEELING, a name ufed in fome Englifh writers for the com- mon codfijh. TAlhtgbhy'i Hift. Pifc. p. 16c. See the articles Asellus and Codfish.

KEELSON, in a ihip, the next piece of timber to the keel, lying right over it next above the floor timber.

KEEPI THEJA, in botany, the name by which fome authors call the tree, on the branches of which 'the gum lacca of the (hops iii ufually found. Herm. Muf. Zcyl. p. u.

&EIKEM, In the materia medica, a name given by the Ara- bian writers to a gum ufed in their time for the makin» of varnifh.

Gum lacca is generally faid to he the fubftance fheant by it, but Avifenna feems to exprefs by it every thing that was ufed as varnifh. Thus he fometiines means by it the <*um fandarach, and fometimes amber. The gum caneamum of the Greeks is alfo certainly often meant by it; but this is farce to be mentioned as an explication of the word, it fcing alrnoft as general a terrri as itfclf, and Handing with many of the old authors for fandarach, gum lace, and amber, as well as for the gum properly exprefl'ed by it. In fhott, all the gums ufed in making varnifh, are in general called by the names of any one of them, and thus vernix; fandarach, caneamum, and lacca', are made fynonymous words, and cither Hands for each of the tilings fignified

, by all the words.

&.EIRAN, in the oriental learning, the Perfian, and Arabic name for the planet Saturn, according to Salmafius. See the article CHltiN.

KEKIO. See the article Fern-o/7.

KELMESAN, in botany, a name given by fonie authors to the acacalis, or wild carob tree. J. S'auhine, V. i. p. 439.

KELP, in the glafs trade, a term ufed for a fort of pot-afhes ufed in many of their works, particularly for the cryftalline metal. It is the calcined allies of a plant, called by the fame name, and in fome places fea thongs or laces, a fort of thick leaved fucus or fc-a. wrack: the alga angujlifolia vitrariorum of John Bauhine. This plant, if kept moift a little after gathering, will mew afterwards, though long kept, its white fait upon the furface of its leaves. This plant is thrown on the rocks and fhores in great abundance, and in the furnmer months is raked together, and dried as hay in the fun and wind, and afterwards burnt to the afhes called hip, which are ufed not only in the glafs, but in the alum works. Merret's Notes on Neri, p. 263.

KEMA, in natural hiftory, a name given by Leo Africanus, and other writers of the African hiftory, to a fort of fubtcr- ranean production of the vegetable kind, greatly efteemed as a delicious food. The Arabian writers on medicine have often mentioned it, and that under names fufHciently re- fembling the modern African appellation, fuch as camabe, camab, kemah, and camba. Leo Africanus alfo calls them terfez in fome places, and afcertains their being the fame thing, by telling us, that the terfez were called by the Ara- bian phyiicians camba. There has been much difpute about what thefe really were: fome have fuppofed them to be the zelem of the anticnt Arabians; hut crroneoufly, for that was a fruit. Some have thought them the roots of the tarfi, or trafl, called avel/amta by the Spaniards, from their like- nefs to a hazel nut in fhape; and others have fuppofed them the fame with our earth-nuts, or the roots of the bulbo- caftanum. But Scaliger declares againft this, and tells us from Leo Africanus, that they are found as large as a quince, and of a moft delicious flavour. He adds, that the inha- bitants call them camba, but the Arabian phyiicians have foftened the word into iemab. We fee, by the precedino- obfervation, how little truth there is in this account of the names. Leo tells us that thefe roots, as he calls them, are produced in the defarts of Numidia in vaft abundance, and are carefully fought after by the people of all the neighbour- ing country, and are eaten ftewed in milk and water. We find no account of any plant growing up irom thefe, but, on the contrary, are told, that they fend up no part above the furface of the earth. From this, and from their delici- ous flavour, it is eafy to fee that they are not the roots of any plant, but a fine kind of fubterraneous mufhroom, or truffle. Thefe are white on the outfide, and lie generally pretty deep in the earth. Scaliger, Exerc. 93.

KEMUM, in botany, a name ufed by fome authors for the cuminum, or cummin; the plant which produces the cum- min feeds of the fhops. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.

KENAM, or Kzlam, in the materia medica, the name the Chinefe give to the fined, fweet fcented calambac wood. Dale, Pharm. p. 448. See Calambac.

KENKS, in the fea phrafe, are doublings in a cable or rope, when it is handed in or out, fo that it does not run fmooth; or when any rope makes turns, and does not run fmooth, _ and clever in the block, they fay it makes kents.

KENNE, in botany, a name ufed by fome authors for the liguftrum, or privet. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.

Kenne is alfo ufed by fome writers for a ftone, as they call it, generated in the corners of the eyes of a flag, and pof- feffing many medicinal virtues. This is doubtlcfs what we now call the lacryma cervi, or flags tears.

KENNETS, in our old writers, a fort of coarfe Welch cloth, mentioned in the Stat. 33 Hen. VIII. c. 3. Blount.

K E R

Eennets, in a fhip, arc 'fmall pieces of timber nailed to the infide of tile fhip, unto which the tacks and fheets are be- layed, (as they call it) i. e. fattened. KERATOPHYTUM, a name by which Boerhaave expreiTes the black coral, called alfo aritipatbes, lithipbytmi, and pfcude- coraV.htm. Boerb. Ind. A. 6. KERF; is the notch or flit that is made by the faw between

two pieces of wood, when they are fawing afunder. K.ERFE-KARUMFEL, in the materia medica, a name given by Avifenna, and others, to the wood of the clove tree, as the wood of the cinnamon tree was called kerfs darfmi; and many others in the fame manner. KERMES (Cycl.)— The iermes is the moft famous', and moft valuable creature of its kind, and is properly an infeft of the gall-infea clafs, and. of that genus whole figure refem- bles a Inhere; from which a fmall Part had been cut oft". This fpecies is found on a particular kind of the ilex, known by the name of the Ilex aculeata cocci glancl'if era. This never arifes beyond the height of a fiiiall fhrub, and is very plentiful in the uncultivated, parts of Provence and Lari- guedoc, and in fome other Places; as. in Spain, in the if- lands of the Archipelago, and particularly in Crete. The peafants make their harveft of thefe animals; from off thefe flirubs, at the proper feafon; and though the hiftory of this drug^ is a fubjefi: well worthy the attention of every na- turalift, yet it is but of very late years that it has been en- quired into with any degree of accuracy. Meflrs. de la Hire and Sedileau opened a way fo the knowledge of it, by their hiftory of the gall-infect of the orange tree; but ail the advantages that might have been expected thence were not foon obtained, nor was the refemblance and ftrict ana- logy between the flat ah'd the fpherical gall-infefls fo foon. obferved, as might have been expefled. The kermes, when at its full growth, appears a fmall fheli fixed to the branches of this fhrub, or feems a purfe or bag, the covering of which is fufKcicntly ftrong, bright and fhining, and of the colour of a ripe plum, and covered with the fame fort of whitish powder, as that fruit is when ripe. This powder the people of the place call the flower of the kermes. Thofe who have never feen kermes, otherwife than in the fhops of the druggifts, may naturally think it of a reddifh brown; but this is not its natural colour, hut is the effect of the vinegar they ufe for its prefervation; that re- maining oh the branches, and which has not been affected by vinegar, having nothing of this colour, but exaflly that of ripe floes in the hedges.

The people in the places where the kermes is produced, know it in three different ffates, according to the ftages of its growing. Its firft ftate is toward the beginning of March; at this time they term it. the fetting worm. It is at this feafon as fmall as a grain of millet, and it feems to fome, that this is the feafon at which it begins to fix itfelf in its place, after having run about at its liberty during the winter on the ground; but it is much more probable, that this is the feafun only at which it begins to acquire a fenfible hulk, and quits the leaves of the tree to fix itfclf on its branches. Viewed in this ftate with the microfcope, it appears of a fine bright red, and has all about, and under its belly, a downy fubftance, which ferves it for a bed. It has alfo fome parcels of the fame cottony matter on its back, and where that is not fo covered, the microfcope difcovers feveral fmall fpecks of the colour and brightnefs of burnifhed gold. The next, or fecond ftage of its growth, is in the month of April. The people of the country then diftinguifli it by the term of the worm which has hatched; but their manner of exprefling themfelves is very irregular, fince all that they mean by this is, that the creature has now acquired its full growth, and perfect fhape. It is in this ftate round, and of the bignefs of a pea; but its fize is by no means cxafily determinable, being larger or fmaller, according to the fa- vourablenefs of the foil and feafon. Its fkin is at this time become firm, and the downy matter, which was before laid on it at intervals, and in little bundles, is now equally fpread all over it, and lies in form of powder on its whole furface, and it now appears no other than as a fhell, or bag full ot a reddifh liquor, refembling a pale coloured blood. The third ftage of its growth is toward the end of May; and at this feafon there are found in this bag, or, more pro- perly fpeaking, in the belly of the animal, eighteen hun- dred, or two thoufand fmall round bodies. Thefe are its eggs, which, in the natural courfe of things, coming after- wards to hatch, would afford fo many animals of the fame fpecies. Thefe eggs are not more than half the fize of poppy- feeds, and are all full of a pale red juice; and viewed by the microfcope, are feen fpanglcd over with a vaft number of gold coloured fpangles. The fkin o{ the belly of this creature contracts inward, and approaches to the back as thefe eggs are difcharged, and the eggs by this means find a place within the fhell made by the body of the animal; as is the cafe in all the reft of the gall-infetyt clafs. There are two kinds of kermes; the one, that which has been already defcribed, which is of the colour of a plum, and which lays red eggs. The other is whitifh, or fom'e- what reddiih, and is covered in the fame manner as the

other