Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/423

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The third fpecies is the yellow leaved fardonyx, which, as its veins are as truly of the matter of the yellow cornelian, as thofe of the former fpecies are of the red, is certainly en- titled as much as they to the name of fardonyx. This is a very beautiful ftone, and was well known among the an- tients by the name of the onyx hi qua chryfohtht color, or the chryfolite onyx. The chryfolite of the antients was the gem we now call the topaz, and the zones of this ftone are truly of that colour, though of lefs tranfparence and bnght- nefs. It is found in pretty large maffes, but always flat, and full of numerous cracks and flaws, fo that few pieces of it can be obtained of any fize. Its zones are fo many flat and regular plates or tables, laid evenly on one another, but divided by other zones of the matter of the ftone : this is of a clear and beautiful pale brown, and the zones being of an extremely bright yellow, the whole is very beautiful. It is found in many parts of the world, but is no where common, it being rare to meet with two fpecimens of it to- gether. Arabia, Armenia, Perfia, China, and New-Spain, have all been known, at times, to produce it. In Italy it is very much valued, but with us it is hardly known. The fourth fpecies is the orange coloured fardonyx, or the bluifh white onyx with orange coloured and whitifli zones. This is a very Angular fpecies, and is not without its beauty, though greatly inferior to the former. Its ground, or balis, is a bluifh white, and its zones are made of the matter of the deeper yellow and the white cornelian laid alternately, and often intermixed with other zones, made of the com- mon matter of the ftone. It is found in iEgypt, Arabia, and the Eaft-Indies, and not unfrequently in Germany, but the European is greatly inferior to the Oriental. Thefe are all the genuine fardonyxes ; but the ftone called fardonyx, in Pliny's time, being properly a camsea, not a far- donyx, is to be feen under that head. Hill's Hift. of Foil", p. 497.

SARFAR, a name given by fome of the chemifts to iron.

SARGAZO, or Sargaso, in botany, a name for the plant commonly called fea lentils; a fmall fea plant found among the rocks, and fometimes at open fea, and fuppofed to be a good diuretic. Mont. Exot. p. 7. Pifo, p. 18.

SARGO, the name ufed by Aguftino Scilla, in his book of petrifactions, for the name of one of thofe kinds of fea fifh, in the hinder part of whofe jaws are found thofe round denies molares, or grinder teeth, which, when found in a petrified ftate, are called bufonita, or toadftones. It is very certain, that by far go Scilla means no other fifh than the J, argu s ; yet Mr. Willughby fays that the fargus has none of thefe round grinders, or tubercula offea, as he call; them, and makes this one of the characters by which the fargus is to be diftinguifhed from the fparus and fcarus, and other fifh.es of that tribe.

It is probable that Scilla, who wrote more exprefsly on thefe fubje&s, differed his fargus with too much accuracy, to be miftaken in this material part of it ; and it is poflible that Mr. Willughby, though a very accurate writer, might over look thefe teeth in the hinder part of the jaw of a fifh which he was only defcribing in the common way, and had no peculiar reafon for examining in fo nice a manner juft in this part, Philof. Tranf. N°2ic.. p. 195.

SARGUS, in zoology, the name of a fifh well known, and much efteemed among the antients, and not uncommon at this time in the markets of Rome, Venice, c5V. being cauo-ht in the Mediterranean and Adriatic in confiderable quantities. See Tab. of Fifhes, N° 54. It fomething refembles the fparus in figure, but its nofe is longer and more pointed, and turns up a little, and its fore- teeth are fhaped like two human teeth, which ftand in the fame part of the mouth. It has no tubercles in the hindi part of the jaws, as the fparus has ; and its whole body is variegated with brown tranfverfe rings, refembling the va- riegations of the perch, and has only one fin on the back, the anterior rays of which are prickly, the hinder ones not at all fo. IVdlughby, Hift. Pifc. p. 309. Gefner, de Pifc.

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Sargus, in zoology, is alfo the name of a river fifh, called by others gardon, far dm, and cephalus, and by many fup- pofed to be no- way eflentially different from our common roach.

It is a river fifh, very much refembling the chub in its gene^ ral figure, and the fize of its fcales, but it has a fmalle: head, and a fomewhat broader body than that fifh. Its back is bluifh, its neck greenifh, and its belly white. It has no teeth. Its eyes are yellow, and it is ufually lefs fat than the chub.

It is a very brifk and lively fifh, and is a fort of emblem of health among the French, and ufed proverbially as fuch in the fame manner as the roach among us. We fay of a healthy man, he is as found as a roach, they, he is as found as a gardon. It is common in the rivers of France, Italy, and Germany, and' is efteemed but a moderately fine fifh for the tabic. [Villugkby's Hift. Pifc. p. 260.

SARIGOY, in zoology, a' name by which fome call the creature we know by the name of the opoffum. See the article Opossum. Suppl. Vol. II.

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SARIO, in zoology, a term ufed by fome authors for the fal- mon when in the middle ftage of its growth, when it is paft its younger ftate, in which it is called a falar, and is not yet arrived at what is properly called a falmon. Wil- lugbbfs Hift. Pifc. p. 189. See the article Salmo.

SARISSA, in antiquity, a very long fpear ufed bv the Macedonians. ./Elian fays, that by the antient ufage they ought to be fixtecn cubits in length ; but that in facl they were but fourteen, two cubits being allowed for the handle, and the other twelve to cover their bodies. Pit'ifc. in voc.

SARMATICA lues, a name given by fome authors to the plica polonica.

SARMEN1US lapis, a name given by the writers of the middle ages to a ftone faid to be ufed in the polifhing of gold, and to have virtues in medicine alfo; fuch as prevent- ing abortion, and the like.

It feems to have been only a corrupt way of fye\\\ng famius lapis, a ftone to which Pliny has attributed the fame virtues.

SARMENTOUSy?a/*. See the article Stalk.

SARONIA, Sopnw, among the Greeks, a feftival kept in honour of Diana, furnamed Saronia, from Saro the third king of Tra^zene, by whom a temple was erected, and this feftival inftituted to her. Potter, Archseol. Graec. Tom. I.

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SAROS, Eajfc?, in chronology, a period of 223 lunar months. Suidas in voc. E«p«( Mem. Acad. Infer. Tom. 8. p. 283. The etymology of the word is faid to be Chaldean, fignify- ing reftitution, or return ofeclipfes; that is, conjunctions of the fun and moon in nearly the fame place of the ecliptic. The faros was a cycle like to that of meto. See the article Metonic, Cycl.

SAROSEL, in the glafs trade, the name of the room into which the mouth of the Leer opens, and in which the glafs veflels are placed, when taken out of the Leer. The men who attend to do this are called the farole men. Neri's Art of Glafs, p. 244.

SARPA, in zoology, the name by which the falpa, a very beautiful fifh of the Mediterranean, is known in the Italian markets. Gefner de Pifc. p. 979. See Salpa.

SARPICULA, among the Romans, a term ufed by the old Roman writers to fignify a pruning hook. Pitifc. in voc.

SARPLAR of -Wool, a quantity of wool other wife called a pocket, or half fack ; a fack containing eighty tod, a tod two ftone, and a ftone fourteen pounds. See the article Sack, Cycl.

In Scotland it is termed farpUatb, and contains eighty ftone. Vid. Dia. Ruft. in voc.

SARPOE, a name given to the fifh called by authors falpa. See Salpa.

SARRACENA, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower is of the ro- faceous kind, and is compofed of feveral leaves, arranged in a circular form, and placed on a one leaved cup, divid- ed into many fegments at the edges, or fometimes of a num- ber of diftinct leaves ; from the center of the cup there arifes a piftil, which carries on its top a fort of membranaceous fhield, which finally becomes a roundifh fruit, ufually di- vided into five cells, and containing oblong feeds. There is only one known fpecies of farracena, which is the farracena with hollow and auriculated leaves, commonly called the bAloiv leaved fea lavender, the Vunonio congener of Clufius. Tourn. Inft. p. 657.

SARRIYION, farritio, in Roman authors, the term ufed to exprefs what we call hoeing in hufbandry, or fomethino- analogous to it, that is a way of ftirring up the earth about young plants, and deftroying the weeds that would grow among them. When the plants had been fome time come up, they ftirred the land with wooden rakes or harrows, and then went over the fields, and pulled up the weeds by hand.

Columella fays, that they fowed the medica by fcattering the feeds on the furface of the ground, and then raking them in with iron rakes, and that at different times. After this they went over the ground again with the fame inftruments, to root up the weeds which would have choaked the young plant. They both harrowed and hoed rajlris with rakes ; To that their occatio and farritio were performed with much the fame fort of inftrument, and differed only in the time or feafon at which they were performed : the firft was at feed time, to cover the grain and level the ground, and the other was to move the ground after the plants were up. They ufed two kinds of farrition ; the one was intended only to move the ground, the other was to cover up the young plants,' that th^y might grow the more ftrong and vigoroufly. The antients all fowed their corn under fur- row ; that is, they firft levelled the ground by harrowing, then fcattered the feed upon it, and afterwards plowed it in. This method left the ground very uneven, and the corn came up moftiy in the loweft places betwixt the furrows, which always lay higher. This we fee is always the cafe at preibnt, where the fame method is followed; and the underftanding this explains a paflage in Virgil, which many have been perplexed about, cumfulcos equant fata, when the corn is as high as the furrows, which it is plain it couid not X x x be