Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/428

 414 O R F K the kind of fraud necessary to constitute forgery. Thus if a quack forges a diploma of the college of surgeons, in order to make people believe that he is a member of that body, he is not guilty of forgery. The crime of forgery in English law has been from time to time dealt with in an enormous number of statutes. &quot; Mr Hammond, in the title Forgery of his Criminal Code, has enumerated more than 400 statutes which contain provisions against the offence &quot; (Sir J. T. Coleridge s notes to Blackstone). Black- stone notices the increasing severity of the legislature against forgery, and says that &quot; through the number of these general and special provisions there is now hardly a case possible to be conceived wherein forgery that tends to defraud, whether in the name of a real or fictitious person, is not made a capital crime.&quot; These Acts were consolidated by 1 Will. IV. c. G6, now repealed. The later statutes, fixing penalties from peual servitude for life downwards, were consolidated by the 24 and 25 Viet. c. 98 (the Forgery Act). It would take too much space to enumerate all the varieties of the offence with their appropriate punish ments. The following condensed summary is based upon chapter xxiv. of Sir J. Stephen s Digest of the Criminal Law. 1. Forgeries punishable with penal servitude for life as a maxi mum are (a) Forgeries of the Great Seal, Privy Seal, &c. (b) Forgeries of transfers of stock, India bonds, exchequer bills, bank-notes, deeds, wills, bills of exchange, &c. (c) Obliterations or alterations of crossing on a cheque. (d) Forgeries of registers of birth, &c. , or of copies thereof and others. 2. Forgeries punishable with fourteen years penal servitude are (a) Forgeries of debentures. (b) Forgeries of documents relating to the registering of deeds, &c. (c) Forgeries of instruments purporting to be made by the account ant general and other officers of the Court of Chancery, &c. (d) Drawing bill of exchange, &c., on account of another, per pro curation or otherwise, without authority. (c) Obtaining property by means of a forged instrument, knowing it to be forged, or by probate obtained on a forged will, false oath, &c. 3. Forgeries punishable with seven years penal servitude : Forgeries of seals of courts, of the process of courts, of certificates, and of documents to be used in evidence, &c. Forgery of trade marks is a misdemeanour punishable with two years imprisonment. (E. R.) FORGET-ME-NOT, or SCOEPIOX-GEASS (German Ver- gissmeinnicJtt ; French, gremillct, scorpionne), the name popularly applied to the small annual or perennial herbs forming the genus Myosotis of the natural order Boraginacece, so called from /n s, a mouse, and o?, an ear, on account of the shape of the leaves. The genus is represented in Europe, North Asia, North America, and Australia, and is characterized by oblong or linear stem- leaves ; flowers in terminal scorpioid cymes (see BOTANY, vol. iv. p. 125, fig. 169); small ebracteate blue, pink, or white flowers ; a five-cleft persistent calyx ; a salver or funnel-shaped corolla, having its mouth closed by five short scales ; and hard, smooth, and shining nutlets. The com mon or true Forget-me-not, the Water Myosote, M. palus- tris, With., is a perennial plant growing to a height of 6 to 18 inches, with rootstock creeping ; stem clothed with lax spreading hairs ; leaves light green, and somewhat shining ; buds pink, becoming blue as they expand ; corolla rotate, broad, with retuse lobes, and bright blue with a yellow centre. The divisions of the calyx extend only about one-third the length of the corolla, whereas in the other British species of Myosotis it is deeply cleft. The forget-me-not, a favourite with poets, and the symbol of constancy, is a frequent ornament of brooks, rivers, and ditches, and, according to an old German tradition, received its name from the last words of a knight who was drowned in the attempt to pro cure the flower for his lady. It attains its greatest perfec- tion under cultivation, and, as it flowers throughout the summer, is used with good effect for garden borders. A variety, M. strigulosa, is more hairy and erect, and its flowers are smaller. The species M. versicolor bears both blue and yellow flowers. FORKEL, JOHANN NIKOLAUS (1749-1818), was a native of Coburg in Saxony. As a practical musician, especially as a pianoforte player, Forkel achieved some eminence in his profession ; but his claims to a more abid ing name rest chiefly upon his literary skill and deep research as a writer and historian in the department of musical science and literature. He obtained the degree of doctor in philosophy, and for some time held the appoint ment of director of the music at the university of Go ttin- gen. The following is a list of his principal works : Ueber die Theorie der Musik, Gottingen, 1774 ; Miisicalu Kritische Jjibliotkek, Gotha, 1778 ; Allgemcine Geschichte der Miisil; Leipsic, 1781, The last is his most important work. He also wrote a Dictionary of Musical Literature, which is full of valuable material. FORLI, the ancient Forum Livii, a city of Italy, at the head of a province which was formerly a legation of the Papal States. It is situated in a fertile plain between the Montone and the Ronco, a little to the right of the railway line between Rimini and Bologna, about 50 miles S.E. of the latter city. It is a well-built and flourishing town, with broad streets and a central piazza, which was reckoned one of the finest in Italy, but has been completely modernized in 1873. The cathedral is of special interest for the chapel of the Madonna del Fuoco, so called from the long-laboured masterpiece of Carlo Cignani ; and the church of S. Girolamo contains frescoes said to be by Melozzo da Forli, the Conception by Guido Reni, and a beautiful tomb erected for a Barbara Ordelaffi of the 15th century. From most of the other churches the paintings have been removed to the jnnacoteca or picture- gallery in the convent of the Frati della Missione, where, besides Melozzo and Cignani, Palmezzano, Guercino, Guido Reni, and Zanganelli are represented. The citadel, known as Rocca di Ravaldino, was founded in 13G1 by Cardinal Albornoz ; it is in great measure destroyed, and what still remains is utilized as a prison. Besides its administra tive and ecclesiastical offices, the town possesses a chamber of commerce and arts, a public library, and several institu tions for higher education. A considerable trade is earned on in the varied agricultural produce of the neighbourhood, and there are manufactures of silk ribands and twist, of oil cloth, nitre, wax, matches, and tiles. The population in 1872 was 15,324. Forli is said to have been founded either by Livius Salinator or by Lucius Arminius, after the defeat of Hasdrubal on the Metaurus in 207 B.C., but its t name does not appear in Strabo or Ptolemy. After the fall of the Roman empire it became a republic, and had authority, it is said, over no fewer than 5 cities and 40 towns and villages. It stood a long siege from the French in 1287, and re mained independent till 1315. During the troublous times of the 14th and 15th centuries the Ordelaili, the Orgogliosi, and other powerful families were in possession of the lordship, which finally came to Pope Julius II. in 1503. In 1521 a battle was fought in the neighbourhood by the French and the Spaniards. On the occu pation of the county by the republicans in 1797 the town was made the head of the department of the Rubicon. A considerable number of eminent men are natives of Forli : Cornelius Gallus, the Latin poet; Guido Bonate, the astrologer; Melozzo, the painter (see next article) ; and Morgagni, the founder of pathological anatomy, born in 1682. Cignani and Torricelli are both buried in the cathedral. FORLI, MELOZZO DA (c. 1438-1494), an eminent painter, particularly renowned as the first who practised foreshortening with much success. He was born, as his ordinary designation indicates, at Forli about the year 1438 ; he came of a wealthy family named Ambrosi. In all probability, Melozzo studied painting under Piero della Francesca, of Borgo S. Sepolcro ; he seems also to have been well acquainted with Giovanni Santi, the father of Raphael. It has been said that he became a journeyman