Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/270

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'Cure her of the itch, was flead alive by it; yet this properly managed, and infufed in oils, has proved one of the grcateft of all remedie, for cancers.

The fhrub ufed in dying, and called by the French redo- 1, by fome authors coriarin. and by others the myrt!e-leaved rhus-,

. is generally known to to the world only as a drug ufeful in the dreffing of leather ; but Pliny, and fome other old writers, have given it the character of an ufeful external medicine, and a remedy againft poifons ; yet with all this inattention of the moderns, and all the praifes of the antients, this plant is truly a very terrible poifm. The grown cattle refufe to feed upon it, but the young lambs and kids often eat of it in thofe parts of Europe where it is common ; and if they eat the full- grown leaves, they are killed by it ; if the young moots only, which is more ufually the .cafe, they are then only affected with fpafms and a fort of drunkennefs, of which, after a few hours, they recover. Nor is this fingular to this poifonom plant, fince it is well known, that many plants, of very im- proper kinds for food, are yet eaten in their young fhoots : and Linnreus has recorded it of the Laplanders, that they even eat the young moots of the poifonom blue aconite, or wolf's bane ; and even in France they eat the firft fhoots of the cle- matitis, or flammula repens, the full-grown leaves of which are of fo acrid a nature, that they ferve the beggars to eat ul- cers in their arms and legs, to give them a pretended title to charity.

The redout is not only a potfen to animals, but its fatal effects have been feen on the human fpecies. A girl in France, whjere it is very common, gathering its fruit among black- berries, eat of them, and died epileptic, in fpitc of all the affiftance that could be given her : and another inflance is given from the Hotel Dieu at Paris, where an unhappy travel- ler, a robuft man, was brought in epileptic, and died fo ; tho' the caufe was not known, except by a vomit which was given him bringing up fome of the berries of this pernicious plant, and fome more of them having been found inhisitomach when diffecled. Mem. Acad. Scienc. Par. 1739.

Poison-u/W, in botany. See Toxicodendron.

POLA, in zoology, the name of a flat fifli, fomething refembling the foal; but morter and fmaller, commonly called cynoglojfus and Unguatu'a. See Cynoglossus.

It is caught in the Mediterranean, and fold in Rome and Ve- nice for the table. Bellon. de Acjuat. Vol. I. p. 37.

POLAEDRASTYLA, in natural hiftory, the name of a genus of cryftals. The- word is derived from the Greek m>t>t, many, sfyu, fides, the privative particle a., not, and r&ws» a column ; and expreiTes a cryftal compofed of many planes and having no column.

The bodies of this genus are cryftals compofed of two octangu- lar pyramids, joined bafe to bafe, and confequently the whole body confuting of fixteen planes. Of this genus there are only two known fpecies : 1. A brown kind with fhort pyra- mids, found in confiderahle plenty in Virginia on the Tides of hills; and, 2. a colourlefs one, with longer pyramids. This has yet been found omy in one place, which is the great mine at Goffelaer, in Saxony, and there ufually lies at great depths. Hill's Hift. of Foil: p. 171.

POLE (Cyd.)~ Hop-VoLF.Sy the upright pieces of wood that ferve for the hops to twift round and grow upon. The number, length, and bignefs of the poles are to be regulated according to the bignefs of the hills, and their! diirance, and the nature of the ground, and ftrength of the plants.

If the hills are wide, there mull be the more poles, fome- times four or five to a hill, or more than that; but if they ftand near, two may ferve for every hill. In hot, dry, and hungry ground, the poles fhould ftand nearer than in rich mellow land, where they are more fubject to grow grofs and heavy.

If the plants are ftrong, and the ground rich, the poles muff. be both large and long, or elfe the crop will fuffer greatly : if the crop be poor, it is bell to have but few, and thofe fmall and fhort poles, otherwife the hop will eafily run itfelf out of heart, and the root will be impoverifhed. The poles mould never be made over long the firft year. The properefb wood for hop-poles is the am or the alder, and if they have a fort of fork at the top, they will keep up the hop the better. The poles are to be difperfed between the hills, to be' in reauinefs; but they mull not be fet up till the plants begin to appear, that it may be known where they ought to be placed. This may be continued till the plants are a yard high, but it ought to be Sniffled by that time, becaufe the plants will be Hunted or injured in their growth, if they have not fomething to fupport them when arrived at that heighth. The poles mull: be placed not in the hill, but near that part of it out of which each plant to be fupported grows. They muft be driven far enough into the ground, fo that they may rather break than be torn up. Their depth is to be judged by the nature of the ground, their own height, and their expofure to the wind. Let all the poles lean outward one from another, that they may feem to ftand at an equal diftance at the top, to prevent the choaking up the plants below ; and they fhould 9lways lean towards the fouthj that the fun may tlje better

POL

fhinc in among them. A Hoping pole is always more ready to bear a quantity of bops than an upright one, and the fun fhines on more of the plants at once by means of it. It is always neceffary to keep fome fpare poles, by way of refcrve, to be ready in cafe of the others breaking ; for in this cafe, the bops are foon fpoiled with lying on the ground. If a.pole be over-burthened with bops, they may be unwound, and wrapped round a ftronger pole put in the place of the other.

The largefr. fort of bop-poles fhould be twenty foot long, and nine inches in circumference, for hops at fuil growth ; and they fhould be polled about fourteen days after the dreffing in of rich land. An acre of bop ground generally requires about three thoufand }oles.

When the hops are grown to three foot high, they are to be conducted to fuch of the poles as are neareft, or have feweffc hops on them ; and they are to be wound about thefe poles ac- cording to the ccurfe of the fun, and tied to them loofely with fomerufhes, or with foft yarn : two or three Airings are fufK- cient to each pole, and great care is to be taken that the young fhoots are not broken in the doing this; they are much more brittle in the morning than the heat of the day. During the months of April and May the plants are to be carefully at- tended, and kept turned round the poles ^ and when out of" reach, a fork, ftick, or ladder are to be ufed to this purpofe.

About Midfummer they ufually leave running at length, and begin to branch; fuch as do not, mould have the end broke off, to incline them to it, it being much to the advantage of the owner that they fhould branch out. From the middfe of May to the end of fummer, the ground between the poles fhould be dug or turned up with a plough, to kill the weeds ; and the earth about tfej hills raifed higher, to keep them moift. MortimerS Hufb, p. 177. See Hop.

POLLMARCHUS, HoAqaa^jos, among the Athenians, a magi- ftrate who had all theftrangers and fojourncrs in Athens under his care, over whom he had the fame authority that the archon had over the citizens.

Jt was the duty of the polemarchus to offer a folemn facrifica to Enyalus, (aid by fome to be the fame with Mars, but by others to have been only one of his attendants ; and another to- Diana, furnamed Ay^a, in honour of the famous patriot Harmodius. It was alfo the bufinefs of the polemarchus to take care that the children of thofe who had loft their lives in their country's fervice, mould have a competent maintenance out of the public treafury. Potter, Archsol. Grsc. 1. 1. c. 12. T. r. p. 77.

POLEMONlUM, polemony, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : the flower con- fifts of a fingle leaf, and is of a rotated form, and divided into fegments at the edge. From the cup there arifes a phtil, which is fixed in the manner of a nail to the middle part*of the flower, and finally becomes a roundifh fruit, or cafe, di- vided into three cells," which are full of oblong feeds. The fpecies of polemonium, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe: I. The common blue flowered pokmemum, called by fome Greek-valerian, with blue flowers. 2. The common white-flowered polemomum, or Greek-valerian, with white flowers. 3. 1 he polemoiiium with variegated flowers, or Greek- valerian, with flowers ftriped with blue and white. Town, Init. Bot. p. 146

POLE VIE, rio^a.. among the Athenians, ten magistrates, who together with three that had the care of the money allowed for fbews, had the power of letting out the tribute money, and other public revenues, and felling confifcated eftates ; all which bargains were ratified in the name of their prefident. Beiidcs this, it was their office to convict fuch as had not paid the tribute called M*W«, and fell them by auction. Pater, Arch. Gra?c. 1. 1. c. 14. T. 1. p. 80.

POLGAHA, in botany, a name by which fome authors have called the cocoa-nut tree, or palma Inclka nucifora of other writers. Herm. Muf. Zeyl. p. 50.

POLIA lithargyrus, a term ufed by Diofcorides to exprefs the white litharge, which we call litharge of filver. T he proper fenfe of the word polia, is hoary, or grey, and it very well exprefies the colour of this fubftance ; but the com- mentators have not been fatisfied with this obvious meaning, but have made it pelia, and fome of them ficelia. See the article Litharge.

POLIEIA, n Mi. a, in antiquity, a folemnity of Thebes in honour of Apollo, furnamed w^io;, i. e. grey, becaufe he was reprefented in this city (contrary to the practice of all other places) with grey hairs. Potter^ Archseol. T. 1. p. 426.

POLIIFOLIUM, in botany, the name of a genus of plants de- fcribed by Buxbaum, the characters of which are thefe : the flowers are monopetalous, of the bell-fafliioned globofc kind ; the feed-veffel is' divided into five parts, and contains a number of roundifh feeds; the leaves are like thofe of the poly-mountain, whence the name; the flowers refemble thofe of the arbutus, or ftrawberrytree ; and the fruit that of the ciftus.

The plant has been known among authors before, tho' ill- 3 fpecies,