Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/805

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reft of its body of a pale colour, arid the legs arid feet brown- It always is found among the fWect- flowering trees, and is not uncommon in many parts of South -America, T&eyi Ornithol. ■ p. 298.

XOCOXOCHITL, the Indian name of the clove-berry-tree, or the cajfia-caryophyllata, the bark of which is ufed In medi- cine. De Laet. p. 277.

XOMOTL, ill zoology, the name of an American bird, of which the Indians arc very fond, making a part of their gar- ments of its feathers.

Nieremberg has given this fhort account of it. It is a weti- footcd fowl ; its back and the upper part of its wings are black ; and its breaft is brown. When it is angry, it raifeS up .the feathers of its head in form of a creit. Ray's Ornithol.

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XOXOUHQUITICPATLI, an American name of a (lone of the jafper kind, and of a beautiful green ; but ufually palp, and fometimes with a mixture of grey, and variegated in feveral places with (pots of a deeper green. It is found among the feveral kinds of lapis ncphriticus, with which that country abounds, and moil of which the Indians celebrate for their virtues againft difeafes : they are not how- ever acquainted with- any medicinal virtues of this fpecics.

XUCAHA, orXucAAHi, in botany, the name of a plant much famed for its virtues among the antient Arabians, but unknown at this time.

It was called alfo amgaila, and by the Greeks, leucacantha and acantha arabica, and by many other of the names of the gum-arabic-tree. The ufe of .thefe fynonymous terms has led fome to fuppofe that the gum-arabic-tree, and the Xuca- ha or anjgaila, which is another of the Arabian names Ot that plant, were the fame thing ; but this is a great error. The plant Xucaha had a root compofed .of feveral knobs, or feparate pieces, which when feparated and dried, became of a yellowifh colour, a very light and ipongy fubirance, and of an agreeable aromatic fmell, but bitter tafte. The antients com- pared thefe to the cyperus-roots in fhape,, and ufed them as Cordials and ftomachics.

They called the prepared roots bunk^ and the fimilitude of this name in found with the word buna, the fruit of the -Egyp- tian tree ban, that is, coffee, have led fome to fuppofe that it was our coffee which they called by thefe names of bunk and xucaha ; but thefe are all idle conjectures, and the bunk be- ing a root, and the coffee a fruit, is fufficient alone to over- throw this opinion, were there none of the many other reafons againft it.

XYLAGIUM, a name given by fome authors to the lignum fanctum orguaiacum.

XYLOCARACTA, or Xylocaracte, in the materia medi- ca, a name by which fome authors have called the carob, or iiliqua dulcis, the fweet pipe-tree. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2. This was called by fome of the Greek writers xyhceraton, the «ee bearing pods, and from a corruption of this name the other has been formed.

XYLOCARPASUM, in natural hiilory, a name given by fome authors to a poifonous kind of wood.

It was the wood of that tree whofe gum was called carpafum and apocarpafum. This was a much more terrible poifon than the wood, and as it very much refemblcd myrrh in colour, and came from the fame country from whence the myrrh came, it was often found mixed with it, and many people loft their lives by taking it.

XYLOCASIA, a term ufed by fome modern writers on the materia medica, to exprefs what we call caffia Ugnea, a bark fomewhat refembling cinnamon, but -lefs aromatic, and of a mucilaginous tafte.

. The antients, however, did not mean exactly what we do by this term cajfta Ugnea ; they fometimes pealed off the bark of this tree, and kept it feparate ; and in this cafe they called it xaa-ia £-p'£ey& a term we have applied to a very different feme, cajfta fijiula with us fignifying the fruit of the pudding pipe- tree j and when they cut the bark with the wood of the young branches, they then called it. byloeafia or cajfta Ugnea,

XYLOCOCCUM, in the materia medica, a name given by fome of the later Greek writers to the carob-tree, or ftllqua-

. dulcis.

This is alfo called xyloceraton by iEgineta, and by fome of the

- latin writers of the barbarous ages, hylocaratle, a word plainly formed of the others.

XYLOCOLLA, a word ufed by fome of the antient writers to exprefs what was more ufually called tatirocolla, glue made of

t the ears and genitals of a bull.

XYLOCOPIA, f&fttfu&fa among the Greeks, a punifhment with a cudgel. See thearticle Fustigatio.

XYLOGLYCON, in botany, a name given to the carob, or Iiliqua dulcis, by fome of the old Greek writers. The word expreffes a fwect, or fwect-fruitcd tree, and was fufficicntly expreffive of the thing ; but it was afterwards de- graded into a Latin name, fcarce intelligible, fslilicon ; this Ifidore writes ft$cvn$ and fuppofes to be a falfe fpelling of the •word ftUqua ; but it is evidently formed of the word Xylogly- £tn.

Ifidore fays, the acacia of the (hops is the juice of the fruit of this tree ; but this is an error formed on the expeditions of the Su pp l. Vol. II.

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Arabians ; they call by the common name chamub both the caroli-tree and the acacia-tree ; and what they have laid of the latter he has given to the former.

XYI.OIDES, or Hylodes, in botany, a 1 term ufed by many of the antient writers to diftinguifh thole plants which had woodv ftaliksj though they never grew up to any confiderable fize ; fuch as the garden-thyme, marjoram, arid the like.

XYLON, the cotton-tree j in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of wi'.ich are thefe : The flower confifts of one leaf, and is of the bell-fhape, very wide at the mouth, and divided into many fegments. From its bottom there arifes a pyramidal tube, ufually loaded with ftamina ; and from the bottom of the cup there arifes a piftil, which is infixed in the manner of a nail both to the hinder part of the flower, and £6 the tube. This ripens into a roundifh fruit, divided into four or more cells, opening at the top, and containing numerous feeds wrapped up in a ftringy white fubftance, which is called cotton.

The fpecics of this genus, enumerated by Mr, Tournefort, are thefe: 1. The tree or woody-Cotton, with afmooth ftalk, and a blackifh purple flower. 2. The woody Cotton, with yellow flowers. 3. The woody Cotton with prickly ftalks- 4. The herbaceous Cotton. 5. The American Cotton, with a long pointed fruit : And 6. The fmeft American Cotton, with green feeds. Town. Lift. p. 101.

There are feveral varieties, and not a few dtftinct fpecies of this plant, propagated in the gardens of the curious with us. The nioft common fpecies, which is the Xylan herbacenm, or hcrby Cotton, is cultivated very plentifully in Candia, Lemnos, Cyprus, Malta, Sicily, Naples, and alfo between Jerufa- lem and Damafcus, from whence the Cation is annually brought in large quantities to us in the northern parts of Eu- rope. It is fown on plowed lands in fpring, and is cut down as our corn in harveft-time, being an annual plant. The Cotton is a woolly or downy fubftance, which inclofes the feed, and which is contained in- a brown hufk or feed-veilel. It is from this plant that moft of the Cotton we ufe is produced, the difference of the feveral forts of it being owing to the dif- ferent foil and climates it has grown in, and the different cul- ture it has received.

The Cotton in the wooll, as it is ufually called, is what we have from Cyprus. Damafcus Cotton is called Cotton in the yarn ; and the Jerufalem Cottons, which are called bazaes, are the fineft kinds of all.

AM the kinds of Cotton plants are propagated with us from feeds, which muft be fown on a hot bed early in the fpring ; and when the young plants are come up, they fhould be tranf- planted each into a feparate pot of light earth, which is to be plunged into a moderate hot bed of tanners bark, obferving to water and fhade them till they have taken root; after this they fhould be watered at times, and have as much air as the fea- fon will permit. As they enlarge in fize, they muft be fhifted into larger pots ; but they muft be kept in the ftove, where the herbaceous kinds will annually flower in autumn ; but they will feldom bring their pods to any perfection. Miller's Gard. Diet.

Xylo'n, 5o?ior, among the Athenians, a punifhment inflicted by putting the offender into the ftocks. See the articles Podo- cace and Punishment.

XYLOSTEON, in botany, a name by which fome authors have oiled the fmall red-berried double- fruited cbamecerafus.

XYLOSTEUM, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : The flower confifts of one leaf,- and is placed on a cup, and always difpofed two on each pedi- cle : it is tubular in fhape, and divided into feveral fegments at the edge. The cup finally becomes a fruit, compofed of two berries, which are foft, and contain a roundifh but flatted feed. See Tab. 1. of Botany, Clafs 20. There is only one known fpec"es of this germs, which is the Pyreenan Xylefieum. Town. Inft. p. 609.

XYLOSTROTON, among the antients, an appellation given to mofaic or chequered work. PitiJ'c. Lex. Ant. in voc.

XYMPATHESIS, a word ufed by fome of the old medical writers for fympathy.

XYNERESIS, a word ufed by Hippocrates and others of the an- tients, to exprefs a firm cohefion or connection of any two things: fome ufe it to exprefs that firm {hutting together or 1 clenching the teeth, which happens in convulfions.

XYPHION, in botany, a name ufed by fome authors for the gladiolus or corn-flag, a plant kept in our gardens for the beauty of its flower. J. Rauhin. vol. 2. p. 701,

XYRIS, in the Limwean fyftem of botany, the name of a genus of plants, whofe charters are, that the flower-cup is a fort of roundifh fpike, made up of roundifh, hollowed, imbricated fcales, which divide the flowers; the hufk is fmall and bivalve* each of the valves being compreffed, arched, and in the fhape of a little boat ; they are alto acute, and naturally incline toward one another. The flower confifts of three petals, which are larse, flat, expanded, with notched edges, and nar- row ends, of "the length of the cup they are immcrfed in. The ftamina are three (lender filaments, which are fhorter than the flower. The anthers are oblong and erect. The germen of the piftil is roundifh; the ftyle is finglc and thread-like, and the ligma divided into three parts. The fruit is a roundifh 6 F capfule,