HIDDENITE 10 HIERONYMITES Pop. about 600,000. The capital is Pachuca. HIDDENITE, a variety of Spodu- mene, discovered by W. E. Hidden in 1879 in North Carolina. Green or yel- lowish green in color; specific gravity, 3.19. When cut and polished, Hiddenite is used as a gem, and is sometimes known as the lithia emerald. Chemi- cally it is a lithium aluminum silicate. HIDES, the skins of animals, either raw or dressed; but the name is more commonly given to the undressed skins of the larger domestic animals, as oxen, horses, etc., the smaller being called skins. See Leather. HIELMITE (he-el'mit), a black min- eral of metallic luster and granular frac- ture. It is a stanno-tantalate of iron, uranium, and yttria, occurring in peg- matite near Falun, in Sweden. HIERACIUM, the hawkweeds, a ge- nus of plants, order Asteracea3. They are perennial herbs, with leaves alter- nate, entire, or toothed; involucre more or less imbricated, ovoid, many-flowered; scales very unequal. H. Canadense, H. venosum, and H. panicidatum are Amer- ican species. H. murorum, the golden- lungwort, or wall-hawkweed, is a native of Europe. HIERAPOLIS (-rap'6-lis), a city of Phrygia, near the junction of the rivers Lycus and Meander, celebrated for its warm springs, and its cave Plutonium, from which arose a mephitic vapor which was poisonous to all but the priests of Cybele. A Christian Church was early established here, and St. Paul mentions it (Col. iv:12, 13). The city is now desolate, but its ruins still exhibit many traces of its ancient splendor. Also a city of Syria, called Bambyce by the early natives, one of the chief seats of the worship of Astarte or Ashtoreth. HIERABCHY, the name used to des- ignate the whole sacred governing and ministering body in the Church, dis- tributed according to its several grada- tions. HIERO, or HIERON I., King of Syracuse. He succeeded his brother Gelon in 478 B. c. The most important event of his reign was the naval victory gained by his fleet and that of the Cumani over the Etruscans in 474, which deprived the latter of their supremacy in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Though violent and rapacious, he was a lover of poetry, and the patron of Simonides, ^schylus, Bacchylides, and Pindar. Hiero died in Catana, Sicily, in 467 b. c. HIERO II., King of Syracuse; born about 307 B. C. He was a son of Hiero cles, a noble Syracusan, who claimed de- scent from the family of Gelon. He was chosen by the soldiers as general in 275 B. c, and recognized as king about 270. In 264 he made an alliance with the Car- thaginians against Rome, and thus be- gan the first Punic War. Being de- feated by the Romans he made peace by the payment of tribute, and was ever after a faithful and useful ally to them. He died in 216 B.C. HIEROCHLOA (-rok'lo-a), the holy- grasses, a genus of plants, order Gram- inacex. H. borealis, the Holy or Seneca grass, is a grass about a foot high, with a brownish glossy lax panicle. It is found in the N, of Europe, and in Amer- ica from Virginia up to the Arctic regions. It has a sweet smell, and in Iceland is used for scenting apartments and clothes. HIEROCLES (-er'6-klez), the name of several Greeks: (1) A professor of rhetoric at Alabanda, Caria. Lived in the 1st century before the Christian era. (2) A writer on the veterinary art, of whose work three chapters have been preserved. (3) A Stoic philosopher, who is said to have flourished about the time of Hadrian. (4) A writer of a work which, under the title of "Traveling Companion," gave a description of the provinces of the Eastern empire. He is supposed to have lived in the 6th cen- tury. (5) A persecutor of the Chris- tians, who was president of Bithynia, and afterward governor of Alexandria. Lived in the 4th century. (6) An Alex- andrine Neoplatonic philosopher; wrote seven books on Providence and Destiny, and a commentary on the Golden Verses of Pythagoras; the latter of which is extant, also fragments of the former. Lived in the 5th century. HIEROGLYPHIC (-glif'ik), in ordi- nary language, written in characters difficult to decipher. Hieroglyphics or hierglyphs are representations of ani- mals, plants, and other more or less material bodies, sculptured on Egyptian temples, obelisks, sarcophagi, etc., and designed for ideographic or other writ- ings. Hieroglyphics are of two kinds: some are ideographs, others stand for syllables or for letters. They are not confined to Egypt; they exist in the ad- jacent lands and in Mexico. HIERONYMITES (-on'i-mitz) , or JERONYMITES (je-ron'-), hermits of St. Jerome (Hieronymus), an order of religious persons established in 1374, who wear a white habit, with a black
