Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/809

 Z A R

leaves, and is terminated by an oval anthem. The female flower has a bellied peiianthuim compofed of one leaf divided into two at the end. There are no petals. The piftil has feveral corniculatcd germina, with as many fimple ftyles with plain ftigmata of an oval figure. The (ecus follow thefe, and are as many in number as there were horns or germina ; they are oblong, pointed at each end, and gibbous on one fide, and are covered with a fkin or rind. Linnet Gen. PJ. p. 444. Vaillant, A. G. 1719. Pontedsr Anth. Dillen. Gen. p. 169.

ZANGNIA, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : It produces feparate male and female flowers ; in the male flower the cup is a perianthium, compofed of three leaves of an oval figure, expanding .every way, and fhorter than the flower. The flower is monupeta- lous, but divided into five fegments, and has an open mouth. The fegments are jagged, and are equal in fize, and bend backwards. The ftamina are five filaments of the length of the cup, ftanding open at their ends, and terminated by fim- ple apices. The female flowers grow on feparate plants, and have the cup and flower the fame as in the male, only that the cup Hands upon the germen of the piftil. This gcrmen is oblong, and from it are propagated three reflex come ityles. The lligmata are bifid and curled ; the fruit is a long and very large berry, truncated at the end, and very fmall at the bafe. It contains three cells, and has a curled future near the apex ; the feeds are two ; they are of an oldong figure, and flat Linnm Gen. PI. p. 477. H. Malab. vol. 8. p. 47. 49.

ZANTHENES, in natural hiftory, a name given by the anti- ents to a foflile fubftance found in Media. Pliny quotes De- mocritus for faying, that if rubbed in palm wine and faffron, it became as foft as wax, and yielded a very fweet fmell.

ZARFA, in botany, a name given by Leo Africanus, and 0- thers, to the lotus or nettle tree.

It has been doubted by fome what tree he meant, but his own defcription of the Zarfa clears it up : he fays, that the leaves of the tree are like the nettle, the fruit like a cherry, but fmaller, and in tafte very much like the jujube; and that the Arabians call it rablcb.

ZARIFU, a word by which fome of the chemical writers have exprelTed tin.

ZARNAB, in the materia medica, a term ufed by Avifenna and Serapion to exprefs the carpefia of the antient Greeks. This was an aromatic drug ufed as a fubftitute for cinnamon, and was the young Ihoots of the tree which produces the cubebs, or fome other fuch fhrub. It was a fine aromatic, flomachic, and cordial.

Galen gives an account of two kinds of it, called Laertiaan and Pontiacum, from the names of places where they grew : both thefe feem to have been the roots of the fame tree, and both to have been produced in the fame country Pamphilia, but on two different mountains there.

Some are of opinion that the Zarnab of the Arabians, and carpefta of the Greeks, were not the fame thing, but two drugs very like one another ; but though Paulus /Egincta, and fome others are of this opinion, it fcarce feems clearly made out. See theartlcle Carpesia.

ZARNACH, the fame as the word Zamicb t the name of the orpiment of the Arabians. See Zarnich. It was not confined however to this fenfe alone, but was ufed as a name for other things ufed in painting, and particularly for the lapis armenus.

Aetius tells us, that the Syrians called the lapis armenus Zar- ttacb, and many others have followed their example. Dio- fcorides and Theophraftus keep the words, and the things fig- nified by them, wholly feparate. They call the lapis armc- r.us by the name of armsnion, and the Zarnach by that of ar- renecon, that is orpiment. The red and yellow orpiment were both called by this name, only with the addition of an i- epithet that exprefled the difference of colour. Diofcorides indeed mentions a fort of red arfenic, different from the red orpiment, which he fometimes calls jandaracb ; but the Ara- bians confound all thefe things under the name Zarnach. See the article Carnid.

ZARNICH, in natural hiftory, the name of a genus of fofiils ; the characters of which are thefe : They are inflammable fub- ftances, not compofed or plates or flakes, but of a plain fim- ple and uniform ftructure, not flexile nor elaftic, foluble in ore, and burning with a whitifh flame, ; and noxious fmell like garlick.

Of this genus there are four known fpecies : 1. A red one, which is the true jandaracb. (See the article Sandarach.) 2. A yellow one, found in great abundance in the mines of Germany, and frequently brought over to us among and un- der the name of orpiment. 3. A greenifli one, very conr mon in the mines of Germany, and fold in our colour-ihops under the name of a coarfe orpiment. This is alfo found in our own country among the tin mines of Cornwall. And, 4. A whitifh one, a'very remarkable fubftance, which has the pro- perty of turning black ink to a fine florid red. This is com- mon in the mines of Germany, but is of little value. Hill's Hift. of Fofiils, p. 40.

ZARUTHAN, in furgery, a word ufed by fome to exprefs a hard and unequal tumor of the bread, attended with a burn- ing heat, and a violent but nut continual pain. Suppl. Vol. JJ.

Z E B

This is by fome refer'd to the cancer, and accounted a fpeciea of that terrible diforder: its caufe is fuppofed to be a iharp ichorous humor in the blood.

ZAUROS, in ichthyology, a name given by the antient Greeks to that fiih which we call faurus and lacertus, and which is called at Rome the tarantula.

It is truly a fpecies of the ofmerus, and is diftinguifhed by Artedi by the name of the ofmerus, with eleven rays in the

^ pinna am. See the articles Osmerus and Saurus.

ZEA. In the writings of the antient Greeks, this word fome- times is ufed to exprefs the libanotis. Diofcoridcs tells us that the libanotis was by fome called Zea, and by others cachrys. It is remarkable alio, that the word cachrys is by fome ufed to fignify the libanotis, and by others for the Zca. There can- not well be conceived two more differant plants than the Zea and the libanotis, the one being a corn, and the other a tail umbelliferous plant ; and it is therefore unaccountable that that the Greeks and Romans fhould have borrowed of one another the cuftom of calling them both by the fame name.

The word Zea, when taken out of this ambiguity, and afcer- tained as the name of a corn alone, is yet not certain and determinate in its fenfe in the various writers ; molt indeed make it the name of the fpelta, or fpelt corn ; and this cer- tainly is keeping up to the fenfe of Diofcoridcs, whofe Zea is evidently the fpelt corn. He mentions two kinds of it, the monococcous and the dicoccous ; that is, fuch as has only one grain or two in a hufk.

The Zea, or Ze'ia of Theophraftus, is alfo evidently the fame with the Zca of Diofcorides, according to his defcription, but there is much doubt whether it can be allowed to be the Zea of later writers in the fume language. Theophraftus fays, that the Zea is the lighteft of all corn ; and in this Diofco- rides agrees with him: but Mnefitheus in Athenjeus fays, that the grain Zea is heavy, and the bread made of it the heaviefr. and hardeft to be digefted of that of any grain, and that it was therefore to be eat very fparingly, or it would do mifchief ; and that people who had not been ufed to it, could not bear even a little of it without harm.

The fame author adds, that it is a grain only fit to be culti- vated in the cold northern climes, where other corn will not well grow ; and that people, who could cultivate no other corn, were obliged to be very careful in the making of their bread of this, and always cautious of the quantity they eat of it.

It is fufficiently plain from this, that the Zea of this author is wholly different from the fpelt corn, that is, the Zea of the antient Greeks. Galen defcribes a Zca which he fays he had fomewhere feen, agreeing with the characters of this corn, and making a blackifh, heavy, and unwholfome bread. The bread made of the fpelt corn, or Zea of Theophraftus, is lighter and whiter than any other bread ; and the only feed of the corn kind which this heavy and coarfe Zca feems to agtee with, is that kind of fecale or rye defcribed by Pliny, which he fays was efteemed a very bad grain, and only eaten when no other could be had, and which he defcribes as grow- ing up with a thin ftalk, but bearing a great quantity of feeds, and thofe black, heavy, and of a bitterifh, difagreeable tafte. This agrees with the Zea of Mnefitheus, in growing where no other grain would, and in all its other properties. Many authors make the fecale and olyra to be the fame, and many alfo make the olyra and Zea to be the fame ; and thence rye and Zea are by many brought to be the fame corn. He- rodotus tells us of the Egyptians ufing olyra, or, as it is other- wife called, Zea-y fo he exprefles himfelf. And Hefychius fays, that Zea is a kind of grain otherwife called olyra ; and Nicomedes fays, that olyra is a name given to a kind of grain otherwife called rye or fecale.

This author probably means the fecale of Pliny already de- fcribed, which is not the common rye, but the fame grain with the Zea of Mnefitheus. Diofcorides mentions olyra as a grain of the fame genus with what he calls Zea or fpelta, but of a different fpecies ; therefore whatever authors meant by thefe words at other times, it is evident that the olyra in the days of Diofcorides, was very different from rye. The antients in general are very perplexed and confufed in their accounts of the bread corns ; but thus much may be known with certainty of the meaning of the different writers on this fubjecr, and this may be a very fair ftep to the unriddling all the reft.

ZEBET, a word ufed by fome of the chemical writers to ex- prefs dung.

ZEBLICITJM marmor, in natural hiftory, a name given by feveral authors to a foft green marble variegated with black; and white ; and though the authors who have defcribed it have not obferved it, yet it no way differs from the white ophites of the antients. Hill's Hift. of Fofiils, p.485. See the article Ophites.

ZEBRA, in natural hiftory, the name of an animal of the afs kind, common in Africa and in fome part of the Eaft-Indics. It is of the figure and ftature of the mule, but is very diffe- rent in colour, being verv beautifully variegated with fmall broad ftripes of black, white, and brown, drawn from the ridge of the back to the belly. It is a very fwift creature, 6 G and