Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/455

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or uppermoft of which, goes a little toward the infide, the fecond more backward, and the third lower down. Before it is inferted, it fends off fometimes an aponeurofis, like that of the biceps. Winflcw's Anatomy, p. 216.

SEMINAL {Cycl.) — Seminal leaves, two foft, plain, and un- divided leaves, that firft fhoot forth from the grcateft part of all fown feeds, and are different from thofe of the fuc- ceeding plant in figure, texture, and all other refpecls.

Seminal root, in natural hiftory, a name given by Grew to that part of the feeds of plants, which may otherwife be

' called the inner body of the feed : this is distributed through the parenchyma of the feed, but is wholly different from it, and diftinguiftied by Dr. Grew from the radicle, which be- comes the plant root in its future growth. The parenchy- ma of the feed is, in fome degree, that to the feminal root which the mould or earth is to the plant root, or ra- dicle • and the Jemtnal root is to the plant root, what the plant root is to the trunk. Gretu's Anat. of Plants.

SEMINALIS, in botany, a name by which fome authors have called borfetail. Gcr. Emac. Ind. 2.

SEMINARY, (Cycl.) in gardening, the term ufed for the feed plot, or place allotted for raifing plants from feed, and keeping them till they are fit to be removed into the garden, or nurfery.

When the feminary is intended for trees, it muff be large, and of a foil adapted to the generality of the trees intended to be raifed in it : but that which is moft in ufe, is for the fupply of the flower-garden, and is the place where flowers are to he raifed from their feeds, to procure varieties, or, as the florifts exprefs it, new flowers ; as alfo for the fowing all the biennial plants, to fucceed thofe which decay in the flower garden.

The feminafy fhould always be fituated at fome diftance from the houfe, and be walled or paled round, and kept un- der lock and key, to keep out dogs, &c. and to prevent a great deal of damage, that is frequently done by thofe who are not acquainted with gardening, before they are aware of it. The feveral directions, for the management of the fe- minary, are to be feen under the names of the feveral plants intended to be raifed in it. Miller's Gard. Diet.

SEMINERVOSUS, in anatomy, a name given by Riolan, and fome others, to a mufcle of the thigh, more generally known by the name of the femitendinofus. The French in general, however, call it le demi nerveux, Cowper calls it femincrvofus feu femitendinofus ; and Albinus feems to claim the merit of afcertaining its true name of femitendinofus. It is a long mufcle, half flefhy and half tendinous, or like a nerve. It is fituated a little obliquely on the pofterior and inner part of the thigh. It is fixed above to the pofterior part of the tuberofity of the ifchium, immediately before, and a little more inward than the biceps. It is afterwards

- fixed by flefhy fibres to the tendons of the biceps, for about the breadth of three fingers, ,much in the fame manner as the coraco-brachialis is fixed to the biceps of the arm. From thence it runs down flefhy toward the lower part of the in- fide of the thigh, having a fort of tendinous interfection in the inner part of its flefhy portion. Having reached below the middle of the thigh, it terminates in a fmall long round tendon, which runs down to the infide of the knee, befide that of the gracilis, where it expands in breadth. It is in-

. ferted in the infide of the upper part of the tibia, about two or three fingers breadth below the tuberofity of the fpine,

■ immediately under the tendon of the gracilis internus, with which it communicates. It has the fame oblique form with the gracilis and fartorius, and fends off a like kind of apo- neurofis. Winflow's Anatomy, p. 215.

SEMINIUM, a term ufed by the writers on fbffils to exprefs a fort of firft principle, from which the feveral figured ftones, or, as they are more ufually called, the extraneous foflils, are fuppofed to have their origin.

- The generality of the learned world, at this time, fuppofe thefe to be the remains of real fhells, &c. brought from the fea to the places where they are now found, at the time of the univerfal deluge. See the article F iguked Jlones. But thofe who diflent from this fyftem pretend, that thefe foflile bodies, though they exactly reprefent fhells, fcfe. yet never were in the fea at all, but that their minute firfl: prin- ciples, or, to ufe their own term, their feminia have been carried from the fea, through fubterranean paffages, to the places where we now find the compleat fhells, &c. into which they have grown. Langius, who has written exprefsly on this fubjecT, though he has candidly collected all that has been faid in favour of the diluvian fyftem, by the abettors of it, yet is not convinced by thofe arguments, but rather inclines to the other fide of the queftion, or the rife of fuch foflils from feminia.

The fubftance of this hypothefis is as follows : that the fen- fible and perfectly formed feeds, or principles of growth of fhell-fifhes, and other fea productions, which, yet extremely fmall and light, is raifed from among the flefh of putrid, cr at leaft of dead fea fifh of thefe kinds ; and thence, by its extreme lightnefs, is wafted up and down in the water, and after that is raifed among the vapours [filling from that water ; and being then received into the air, fluctuate about Suppl. Vol, II.

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in that vehicle alfo, till it is received into the pores or iit- teftines of the earth ; and when there, is wafted about by the afcent and motion of the vapours, and a number of other accidents, through the fiftures of the feveral ftrata, and even through the pores of ftone; and that it thus wanders about, at the will of fuch irregular agents, till in its courfe it chance to find fome bed, or matrix, proper to its growth or expanfion, and when received into that it adheres firmly to it, and is no more the fport of the pafling exhalations* but remains there, till by the mediation. of the fubterranean heat its principles of growth are put in action, and its la- tent plaftic power excited. Then they fayj that by means of its feminal aura, and the lapidific, or petrifying nature of the place where it lies, all fuch fluid matter, as. is fitted to make a part of its fubftance, is collected to It, and is pe- trified, or hardened into ftone, and confequently that a ftony body is thus found, of the fame fhape and figure in which a fhelly one would have been formed in the fea, where there would have been no petrifying principle to have made it afliime the nature of a ftone.

The arguments ufed, in fupport of this hypothefis, are thefe. That there are difficulties attending every fyftem, by which men have attempted to account for the finding of fea fhells at the tops of mountains j but that this fyftem is liable to lefs than the others, as it is much more eafy to conceive how the feminia, or minute firft principles of thefe things, fhould be carried to fuch diftant and high places, than how the full grown bodies themfelves fhould 3 and particularly, that it is very difficult to conceive how fuch large and tender fhells, as thofe of the cornua ammonis, fhould be carried unhurt to fuch heights; though not very wonderful, that the femhitum of fuch a fhell fhould be carried thither, and there grow into the fhape of its parent animal. The congeries of extremely minute fhells, that we find in fome places immerfed in hard ftones, are urged as another argument againft the diluvian hypothefis, as it is fuppofed that their tender ftructure in that ftate could never have fupported the tofling about in an ocean of waters ; and Langius adds to thefe general arguments two others, from the cornua ammonis of the foflile kingdom, which were in his own poffefnon ; the one of which he fays was truly in an embryo ftate, and very incomplete, and the other had a vaft number of fmall fhells of other kinds enclofed in it, which he fuppofes to have grown there. To this he adds the impo {Ability, as it appears, of certain conchita:, which are compofed of thin lamina?, bearing the dafhing of the waters, by which they muft have been brought to the places where we find them* without being broken all to pieces, which yet are found whole and unhurt on mountains 3 and finally* that there occur in fome ftones the figures of fhe)l-fifh, of an uncommon* and even monftrous kind, fuch as it is fuppofed never exifted in their mutilated or compleated figures in any living ftate.

Thefe foflile fhells are ufually found throughout of one and the fame fubftance, and that the mofl: different imaginable from the fubftance of the living creatures which they re- prefent ; and often, though found in pairs* and perfectly clofed on all fides, yet when broken they are found full of the fubftance of the ftone in which they lie, and the arma- ture of feveral kinds of them, particularly of many of the cornua ammonis, is fuppofed to plead greatly in favour of this hypothefis ; as it is not of the nature of, or »t all ow- ing to the fubftance of the matrix, in which they lie, or of the matter of which they are formed, and is therefore to arife folely from the nature of the f minium, from which they are formed.

The immenfe number of the fea fhells, as they are called, thus found foflile, is alfo thought to argue much on this fide of the queftion ; as the favourers of this hypothefis fuppofe that the fea could not, at any one time, have given up fuch numbers as the earth is ftocked with, though there are no limits to the numbers fuppofed to be raifed from feminia 5 and the immenfe columns of black marble, found in Ireland, and found of fuch regular joints, are brought as a proof of the poflibility of fuch a formation of foflils as this from fe- minia, which they fuppofe muft have given origin to thofe pillars.

The fyftem of the deluge, as delivered by Woodward, is the hardeft thing for the abettors of this doctrine of the feminia to get over ; but tho' they affirm that this author's account is contrary to reafon, and to the fcripture account of that fatal cataftrophe, yet it is not eafy to account for many things, In regard to foflils, on any other foundation. They obferve that as this deluge was univerfal, all places through- out the earth ought to have been furnifhed with foflile fhells by it; but that this is not' the cafe, fince many large tracts of land have none of them. It is ufually obfened, that the, deluge only could carry fhells into the heart of mountains J btit the affertors of this doctrine affirm, that this may be done according to their fyftem, fince the jemima of foflils may be as eafily fuftained in the air, as thole of plants and ani- mals, and that they may fo be conveyed into the inmoft re- cefles of the earth through pores and cracks, not vifible to us ; and they fay } that when there they do not want a 2 F i' f proper