Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/465

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of their growth, which may be eafily done without disturb- ing them, as they lie naked on the furface of the leaf. When firft laid, thefe eggs are oblong, perfectly pellucid, and of a whitifh colour ; in a few days they are perceived to be much larger than at firft, and a final] yellow fpeck is feen in each of them: they after this continue to grow larger, till they are of twice the bignefs that they were at firft, and this yellow fpot encreafing, foon begins to put on the oblong form of the falfc caterpillar, which is to be hatch- ed from it. After fome days, there are evidently ken two black fpots on one extremity of it, which are the eyes, and after this the growth of the included animal becomes fo quick, that in a day or two after, if the egg be examined by holding it againft a ftrong light, the compleat animal may be feen in it, doubled in two in fuch a manner, that its head and tail are brought to touch. Thefe eggs, when depofited on the leaf, are fixed down to it by fo ftrongly vifcous a fluid, that they cannot be taken off without break- inf ; but there does not appear to have been any aperture made by the faw of the animal in the places where they are laid. It is poffible that there might be a fmall wound made in the leaf under each, which though not capable of receiv- ing the egg, might however ferve to pour forth a juice fuf- ficient to keep the egg moift j but thefe apertures muft be very fmall, if there are any fuch, fince the microfcope difco- vers no traces or remains of them. There feems a plain proof that the egg receives fome fort of benefit, and that a very effential one to its prefervation, from the juices of the plant on which it is depofited, fince if thofe leaves be pulled off from the plant, and left to dry, the eggs always dry up with them, and perifh ; whereas, if the ends of thefe leaves be put into water, and the leaf be by that means preferved frefh and juicy, the creature hatches from it as well, as if it was left upon the tree. It fhould feem from this that the eggs of thefe files, when introduced into wounds in the branches of trees, become a fort of grafts, and live on the juices of the plant, and that thofe on the leaves have the fame juices conveyed to them in fome other manner. Thir is certain, that whereas the frefhnefs of the plant is abfo- lutely neceflary to the hatching of thefe eggs, it is not at all fo to the eggs of other infects which lay upon them. The butterfly lays its eggs on fome particular fpecies' of plant, according to its kind ; but this is only that the cater- pillar, when hatched from it, may have proper food ; for if the leaf, or which thefe eggs are laid, be dried, the eggs neverthelefs hatch at their proper period, and fhew that the juices of the plant, or its continuing frefh, were of no ne- ceffity or ufe to them. The ofier-fly gives yet another dif- ficulty, however, in regard to this fyftem, of the eggs of thefe fites receiving nourishment from the juices of the plant ; for it frequently lays feveral rows of eggs on a leaf, and the eggs in fome of thefe lie two deep : now the queftion is, in what manner the juices of the plant, fo neceflary to thefe eggs, are carried to the upper row ? unlefs we can folve this, by fuppofing that the eggs of the under row con- vey juices to the upper ones, by communications of vehels, where they touch, the folution of this difficulty appears no eafv tafk. Reawnurs Hift. Inf. Vol. 9. p. 164.

SERRATED leaf, in botany. See Leaf.

SERRATULA, faw-iuort, in botany, a name given to feve- ral fpecies of jcuca. See Jacca.

It feems very exprefsly proved by Diofcorides, Pliny, Anto- nius Mufa, and feveral other of the antients, that the betonica, or, as they fomctimes wrote it, vetionica, was our ferratula. They mention its growing in woods, and having leaves deeply fmuated, or cut in, and indented all about the edges, and fay it grew in wet fhady places. All this agrees very well with our cut-leaved fcrratula, and with the betonica, or vettonica of the .antients. Apuleius confounds the brittdnita antiquorum with the betonica, and fays that it has large leaves like the dock.

PHny and this author feem to have drawn their knowledge from the fame fource ; and if Pliny, though he has not faid it, fuppofed, as this author does, that beton'tca and britiamca

• were the fame, it is then no wonder that he fays the betonica had leaves like a. dock, for Diofcorides himfelf fays this of the br'ittanica.

SERRATUS (Cy<:/.)— Serratus major, in anatomy, a broad flefhy, and pretty thick mufcle, lying on the lateral partoftht thorax, between the ribs and fcapula, by which it is covered

being in the back part, where it terminates by digitations of unequal lengths in a radicated difpofition, their extremi- ties defcribing an arch or curve. From thefe digitations it is that it has its name.
 * Its figure is that of an irregular fquare, its greateft breadth

It is inferred backward in the internal labium of all the bafis of the fcapula, from the fuperior to the inferior angle ; from thence running forward wholly fTefhy, it encreafes gradually in breadth, and' is inferted in. all 'the true ribs, and often

. -in one or two of the falfe ones," by the fame number of di- gitations. Though the digitations of this mufcle give it a radiated appearance from the fcapula to the ribs, yet thefe radii do not all lie in that difpofition, which at 'firft fight

, ©ne would be apt to imagine. The mufcle is made up of;

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two planes, one great, the other fmall: the fmall plane looks like a diftinct narrow mufcle, clofely adhering to the fuperior edge of the great plane. It is fixed by one extre- mity under the fuperior angle of the. fcapula, and by the other to the firft rib by a fmall inferdon, and to the fecond rib by a broad one. This plane is eafily ken by turning the fcapula forward, having firft feparated the rhomboides; but when it is turned back, the pec~toralis minor being firft cut oft, this plane does not appear, being covered and hid by the broad one. The broad plane may be divided into two portions, one fuperior, the other inferior, adhering to each other at their edges.

The fuperior portion is thin, and takes up about three quarters of the bafis of the fcapula, reckoning from the fu- perior angle; from thence it contracts by fm:.ll degrees, and forms two digitations, very like thofe of the fmall 'plane, which they cover by their infertions in the two firft true ribs, or in the fecond and third, and fometimes in all the three. The inferior portion is fixed in the lower quarter of the bafis fcapula;, from whence it expands itfeJf by fix or feven very long flefhy digitations, which decreafe in breadth as they defcend, and are inferted in the manner beforemen- tioned, in the fix or feven ribs which follow the two firft. IVmflovSs. Anatomy, p. 176. Serratus ?ninor, in anatomy, a name given by Riolanus to the mufcle, more commonly known by the name of .the Jerratus a?iticus. See Serratus, Cycl. Serratus pojlicus fuperior, a flat thin mufcle, fituated on the upper part of the back, fixed on one fide by a broad aponeurofis to the lower part of the pofterior cervical liga- ment, and to the fpinal apophyfes of the two laft vertebra of the neck, and two firft of the back ; from thence it runs down a little obliquely forward, and is inferted by broad flefhy digitations in the pofterior part of the fecond, third, fourth, and fometimes of the fifth true ribs, near their angles ; but fometimes it has no infeition in the fecond rib. It is covered by the rhomboides, and clofely united with it. Winfiow's Anatomy, p. 231. Serratus pojlicus inferior, a flat thin mufcle, lying on the lower part of the back.

It is fixed in the laft fpinal apophyfis of the back, and in the three firft of the loins by a broad aponeurofis ; from thence it runs up a little obliquely, and is fixed by flefhy broad digitations in the laft four falfe ribs. Its infertions in the loweft rib are near the cartilage, and in the other three near their angles. It is covered by the latiffimus dorfi, to which it adheres very clofely, and it covers the facro-lum^ baris, and longiffimus dorfi. Winjlow's Anatomy, p. 231. SERTA, garlands, among the antients. See the article Gar- land, Cycl. SERTULA campana, in botany, a name given by fome au- thors to melilot. Ger. Emae. Ind. 2. SERTULARIA, in botany, the name of a genus of fea plants, comprehending, according to Linnaeus, the corallines and acetabulums of Tournefort, and the opuntioides of Boerhaave. The generical character of thefe plants is, that they are a kind of lithophyta, which are jointed and compofed of fe- parate parts, faftened to each other by the ends, in the man- ner of the gems of a bracelet, or beads of a lady's neck- lace. SERVE, in- the fea language. To ferve a rope, is to lay fpun yarn, rope yarn, finnet, a piece of canvas, or the like, -up- on it, which is rolled faft round about the rope, to keep it from fretting or galling in any place. SERVITIIS acquietandis, a writ judicial that lies for a man diftrained for fervices to one, when he owes and peiforms them to another, for the acquittal of fuch fervices. Reg. Judic. 27. Blount, Cotvel. SERULA, in zoology, the name of a webfooted fea-bird, a kind of rnergus, very common about Venice, and called by Mr. Ray rnergus cirratus fufcus, the brown crefled diver, and fuppofed to be the anas longiroflra, or long beaked duck of Geiher.

It is very nearly of the fize of the duck ; its head, andthe upper part of its neck, are of a dufky yellow. The crown of the head is of a much dufkier and browner colour than the reft, and has a creft of feathers hanging down frorh it. Its back is of a brownifh- hue, with a very faint admixture of grey. . Its throat is of a pure white- in its upper part, but lower down it is variegated with white, black, and a reddifli brown. Its belly is all white. Its beak is fiender, and rounded,, and is' three fingers breadth' long;-: The upper chap is of a brownifh green, and the under. -one red;- It terminates in a hooked point, and both chapsare all the way ferrated, .or notched like the teeth of a faw. The wings are very fmall and fhort. Jldrovand. Vol. 3. p.2&i. Ray's Ornitholog. SERUM (C>f/.)— There have been inftances, in which the blood has been found to contain with its coagulum a fub- ftance, very different from what we ufually underftand* by th'e word ferum. Dr. Stuart has given an account of a -man in an inflammatory fever, from whofe arm 'eight ounces of blood was taken, which,' when it had ftood fome time, af- forded, inftead of ferum, half its quantity of -a white liquor,

like