Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/438

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turc the dewtiy -matter which grows on the back of colts- Yoot leaves.

The two fides of the animal are covered alfo with two ■other lifts or ftripes ; thefe go off from the main ftripe at the top, and thefe are about a quarter of an inch broad; -they are covered with a fine and fort hairy nefs, of more than ^a quarter of an inch long, of a fine changeable red and .gteen colour, and of prodigious beauty and brightnefs, A- •jmong this long hair of the ftripes on the fides there are fer a vaft. number of -long and fliarp prickles ; they are about the fame length with the hair, but they are as ftiff as a hog's Itriftle, and are very fliarp at the points, and of a black colour; there are feveral hundreds of thefe on the two fides. The tail, or fmaller end, terminates on the back in two Tcales, which are very bright and fine; under this is the anus, at which the creature voids its excrements. The larger endhas no part of the common, characters of a head, except -the mouth; but as it has this, and ftands oppofite to the tail, it is properly enough culled fo in defcription. It lias no horns, no eyes, nor any other of the common organs of infects heads.

The mouth is very wide, in proportion to the fize of the creature, and is not placed at the extremity, but fomewhat under the belly part ; fo that when the back of the creature is viewed, the mouth is not feen. The belly is fmooth and $iat, and is covered with a thin fkin, much paler coloured than that of the back, and irregularly variegated with a number of brown fpu.ts, of different fizes and ihapes. With- in an inch of the tail there are ken on this under part fe- veral marks, like thofe of the annular divifions of the bodies of infects, but they do not mew tbemfelves on the back. The legs arc, placed in two rows, each of the whole length of the body of the fifh ; they begin from the angle of the mouth on each fide, and are continued to the tip of the tail. Thofe Handing near the mouth are longer than the others, ■which gradually decreafe till they are very fhort at the tail ; the longeft arc about a quarter of an inch in length., and the fhorteft not a fixth of that length.

The whole number of legs is feventy two, thirty fix ftand- ing on each fide. From within the body, through the mid- dle of each leg, there panes a clutter of three or four prickles ; thefe are larger or fmaller, according to the fize of the leg, and vary alfo in number, the longed legs having moft of them ; they give ftrength and firmnefs to the legs, ferving them in the place of bones, and iffurng out beyond the end of the leg, in the way of claws; they ferve the creature for the laying faft hold of any thing it pleafes. On each fide of the upper, or back part of the fifli, there are alfo placed a number of foft, flat, and fmooth fins ; thefe ftand near the legs, and are placed face to face in fuch a manner, that each foot has its correfponding fin. The fins are ex- ■ actly of the fame number with the legs, and, like them, are largeft toward the head, and go off gradually tapering ward the tail.

Thefe ferve the creature in the office of a fifh, giving it power to fwim in the water, as the others ferve it as a rep-v tile to crawl upon the ground at the bottom. The fins on each fide are fringed with the fame changeable coloured hair, that the ftrrpes on the back are.

On opening the body there appears a mufcular organizati- on, elegantly contrived for the working fo great a number of legs and fins. This appears in form of one large and broad red mufcular congeries, and from this there are propa- gated on each fide thirty fix pair of rays, or oblong and flendcr mufdes, every pair ferving for the motion of one leg and one fin. Thefe are very diftinctly vifible, and re- prefent the fpine and ribs in fome fifh. And in this the wonderful care of nature is feen, in regard to this little ani- mal, which, by means of thefe difiindt mufcles, is able to move every fingle leg or fin feparately, and confequently can put as many, or as few as it pleafes, in motion at a time. It is plain alfo, from the ftructure of the body of this crea- ture, that it can at pleafure roll up its body into a round form, and in that cafe will appear as a globe covered with long and fharp prickles : this is probably its practice, when in danger of being devoured, and may ferve it on many occaiions. It has been thought by fome, that Rondeletius means this creature by his phyfalus ; but this does not appear to be the cafe on a careful examination. Philof. Tranf. N° 225. Ecolopendra marina., a name given by Dr. Molyneux to a new fpecies of fea animal, of the centipede fcohpendr kind. See Tab. of Microfcopical Objects, Claf,, 1, This remarkable infect, taken in the Irifh feas, is evidently the fame animal defcribed by Oligerus Jacohieus., in the Afta inedica Haffhenfia, under the name of Vermis aureus, oi erucxe marina: fpecies rarior. It was caft on fhore in Holland, at Katwik op Zee ; and Aldrovand feems to have meant it alfo under the name of the broad bodied chefnut coloured fea fcolapendm with numerous yellow feet. The figures and defcriptions in both thefe places are however very imperfect, and the account given by Dr. Molyneux is the only one at all to be relied on, of this ftrange animal. Philof. Tranf. N°224.

Scolopendra fcutata, in natural hiftory, the nnme of an animal of the infect kind, found in the year 1736 by Klein in Pruffia, and at the fame time by Mr. Brown in fome parts of Kent.

It was met with in Pruffia in vaft abundance, in the places where they take crayfifh, and having not been met with there before, furprifed the people employed in that fifhery fo much, that they brought home many of them. In Kent its appearance was attended with greater Angularity, Mr. Brown found it in a pond on Bexby common, where the country people had obferved vaft numbers of them for five or fix weeks before. This pond was quite dry on the 24th of June that year, but being filled by the thunder fhower on the 25th of the fame month, the pond was obferved to fwarm with them in two days, by a farmer watering his cows there ; and what is very obfervable is, that there ap- pears no channel into this pond, that could convey them from any other place.

The creature is about an inch and half in length, and fome- what lefs than an inch in breadth, and though fo fmall, yet bears a great refemblance, in many of its parts, to the great Molucca crab, called by fome the buckler crab. When the back is viewed, it is feen to be covered with a cafe or fhield, fo that it in fome meafure refembles a tortoife, only it is remarkably gibbous, or prominent all along the middle of the back, and has a triangular opening in the fhell ' near the tail. This covering is of the confiflence of the upper wings of the beetles, and the eyes are prominent, and placed beyond it. When the creature is turned upon its back, fo that the belly comes in fight, there are obferved a vaft number of legs, and every one of thefe is fumifhed with a fort of bag at the end, which finally divides itfelf into feveral fingers or toes, and all thefe are compufed of a number of articulations, in the manner of the antennse of the common infects. There ifl'ue from the tail two long and flender bodies, articulated in the fiime manner; thefe are about a third of an inch in length, and greatly refem- bling the common antenna;. On the head alfo it has two fhort horns, ftanding in the common place of the antenna?. When the cafe or fhell is taken off, the rings, of the body- are found to be about thirty in number. The legs are very extraordinary, they are forty two on each fide ; the twenty that ftand next the head are nearly of the fame fize, but then they grow gradually fmaller towards the tail. The feet confift each of five membranaceous claws; thefe are flat, and have a ftiff rib in the middle, and are befet at the edges with hairs, in the manner of the legs of a crab. On the lower fide of the leg hangs an oval bag ; and beyond that grows a large thin membrane, which can be extended at the creature's pleafure by means of a ftrong rib, which runs all the way along its middle. This membrane, and alfo the whole foot, are convex toward the head, and concave on that fide that ftands toward the tail ; the thigh, or firft joint of the leg, is webbed on each fide, and indeed the whole ftructure of the legs feems calculated for fwimming, rather than for walking. Philof. Tranf. N°447. p. 151.""

SCOLOPENDRITES lapis, in natural hiftory, a name given by fome authors to a fpecies of the lapis fyringoides, or pipe ftone, the tubules of which they fuppofed to refemble the figure of the body of the fcolopendra.

SCOLYMUS, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower is compofcd of a number of fcmiflofcules, each placed on an embryo feed, and perforated in its bottom part by the capi'mment which runs out from the embryo. The femtfiofcules are feparatcd each from the next by a little leaf, and are all contained in a fquammofe cup. The embryos afterward become feeds af- fixed to the thalamus of the flower, and adhering to thofe little leaves which feparated the femi-flofcules. See Tab. 1. of Botany, Clafs 13.

The fpecies of fcolymus, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe. 1. The fcolymus with gold yellow flowers, called by authors the yellow flowered thijlle, and theyelfow thorn. 2. The annual yellow flowered fcolymus. And 3. the tall African yellow flowered fcolymus. Tourn. Inft, p. 489. It is not certain that any of the antients ufed the word fcoly- mus as the name of the plant we call the artichoak. TTheo- phraftus, Diofcorides, and indeed all the antients, have de- fcribed this plant; butTheophraftus fays that. only its roots were eatable, and Diofcorides fays ib of its young fhoots. It feems, therefore, that they meant our chardon by this name, the ftalks of which our gardiners have a way of blanching for the table.

Thefe Greek writers had indeed another name for the arti- choak, they called it acanthe. This cannot be doubted by any, who will obferve their accounts of the acanthe, which tell us that it was of the thiftle kind, but had a large and roundifh bead, compofed of fcaly leaves, in the manner of the cone of the fir or pine, (the pine apple as we vulgarly call it) and that in this head was contained its only efculent part.

This name acanthe being very like the word acanthus,

the name of the branca urfma, or bear's breech, there have

been many errors in the editions of the anticiu Greeks,

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