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 690 EPIRUS EPISCOPAL CHURCH important of all, in an economic point of view, is the lotrytis Basxiana, which is so destruc- tive to the silkworm. This disease is called muscardine. The spores enter the air tubes of this worm, sending their mycelium through its tissues, and always cause its death. After this the plant pushes its fruit-hearing stems into the outer world, and converts its victim into a mass of mould, from which fresh spores are sent off to spread the disease. Although it only attacks the larvae, it may by inoculation be cultivated upon the chrysalis and moth. The intestines of insects and worms which live in decayed wood are often found filled with most curious forms of vegetative life, as Dr. Leidy has shown in the case of the iulus terrestris, and the very entozoa which dwell within their intestines are covered with .similar growths. Those who would pursue this sub- ject still further will find much to interest them in the following works : Robin, Histoire naturelle des vegetaux parasites (2 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1853); Kiichenmeister, "Manual of Parasites," translated for the Sydenham society (2 vols. 8vo, London, 1857); Berkeley, "Intro- duction to Cryptogamic Botany ;" and Leidy, "Flora and Fauna within Living Animals," in the " Smithsonian Contributions to Knowl- edge," vols. v. and vi. (Washington, 1853 and 1854). The term epiphytes is also applied by botanists to plants which grow upon other vegetables, but which do not derive their nourishment from them. (See AIR PLANTS.) EPIRUS, next to Thessaly the largest province of ancient Greece, in the S. part of modern Albania, bounded IS", by the territory of the Gresco-Illyrian tribes, E. by Thessaly, S. by ^tolia, Acarnania, and the Ambracian gulf (now gulf of Arta), and W. by the Ionian sea. The Ceraunian mountains separated it from Grecian Illyria ; the Pindus, famous in mythol- ogy, from Thessaly. Its climate was mild, and its soil less fertile than that of other parts of Greece. The river Acheron received the waters of the Cocytus within its limits, and flowed into the Ionian sea. Epirus was divided into the districts of Chaonia, Molossis, and Thesprotia, named after the most numerous and powerful of its ancient tribes. Its most remarkable places were : Dodona, with the ancient oracle of Jupiter ; Canope and Bu- throtum, with harbors, chiefly communicating with the port of Brundusium in southern Italy ^Ambracia, the capital of King Pyrrhus and his descendants, on the gulf of the same name ; and Nicopolis (city of victory), on the same gulf, founded by Octavianus Augustus, in commemoration of the battle of Actium, near the opposite shore. The Epirotes had their share in Grecian fame and history, though the other Greeks did not consider them as be- longing to the Hellenic race. Pyrrhus or Neop- tolemus, the son of Achilles, is mentioned as king of Epirus after the Trojan war. Olym- pias, the mother of Alexander the Great, was a princess of this country. But their most dis- tinguished man was King Pyrrhus (295-272 B. C.), who, in spite of the remonstrances of his chief minister Cineas, destroyed his armies and ruined the state in brilliant campaigns against the Romans and others. Oppressed by Mace- don, the Epirotes were delivered by their an- cient enemies the Romans, but proved faithless to their deliverers, supporting against them both Antiochus the Great of Syria and Perseus of Macedon. They were subdued by Paulus JEmilius (168 B. C.), and cruelly chastised, numerous cities being destroyed, and 150,000 of the inhabitants sold into slavery. Epirus was now a province of Rome, and shared the fate of its eastern dependencies. In 1432 it was conquered by the Turks, from whom it was wrested in 1443 by the famous Scanderbeg, prince of Albania. On his death in 1467 it was reconquered by Mohammed II., and has since been ruled by Turkish pashas, among whom, in the early part of the present century, AH of Janina distinguished himself by his crimes, talents, and revolts against the authority of the sultan. The insurrection of the Suliotes, in southern Epirus, ended in their own ruin. As volunteers they promoted the independence of Greece without achieving their oAvn. The modern inhabitants are mostly Arnauts. EPISCOPAL CHURCH, Protestant, an ecclesiasti- cal body in the United States which derives its origin from the church of England. Previous to the American revolution members of the church of England were constantly settling in all parts of the colonies. In Maryland espe- cially they were very numerous, and in 1692 they seem to have constituted a majority of the population sufficiently large to establish their religion as the religion of the colony. In ac- cordance with the prevailing views in the mother church, they held to the necessity of the episcopal office in order to give validity to their ecclesiastical functions. But no bishop was provided for them until after the peace of 1783. Up to that time the Episcopal church in this country was under the oversight of the bishop of London, and American candidates for the ministry were under the necessity of crossing the Atlantic to obtain orders. Efforts had indeed been several times made in the old country to secure an episcopate in the colonies; but these efforts were always defeated by a two- fold influence, one growing out of political com- plications and animosities, and another a jeal- ousy of episcopacy as associated with lordly titles and vast incomes. It is also affirmed that, especially in New England, a fear that if the colonial dependence of our country on the crown of England should be much longer per- petuated, the establishment of an episcopate like that in England would be inevitable, con- tributed much to the zeal which characterized the struggle for American independence. In this state of things, as was natural, when the war had actually broken out, some of the church of England people, and more especially those of the northern states, were opposed to