N I L
N I P
a very bad kind of cinnamon, and has very little tafte or fmell. It is very feldom fold as cinnamon, but is much in efteem among the natives for its medicinal virtues. They obtain a water, and an oil from it, by roafting, which they anoint themfelves with, to preferve thern from noxious fumes, and infections of any kind ; and ufe the exprcfied juice of the leaves to cool the head, and ftrengtben the brain, rubbing it on externally. Phil. Tranl" N° 409.
NIGELLA, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : the flower is of the rofa- ceous kind, confiftihg of feverai petals arranged in a cir- cular form, and ornamented with a fort of corolla between thefe and the ftamina, made up of a fort of horn-like bo- dies. The piftil ar fes from the center of the flower, and finally becomes a membranaceous fruit, of a roundiib, or oblong, form, and often divided into feverai parts- The fpecies of nigela enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe: 1. The horned, field ntgeila, called by many authors melanthhtm 2. The horned,' held nigella, with blue dou- ble flowers. 3. The horned, field nigella, with white flow- ers. 4. The broad-leaved nigella, with large, fingle, blue flowers. 5. The narrow-leaved nigstla, with large, fingle, blue flowers. 6. The narrow-leaved nigella, with large, fingle, white flowers. 7. The great, double, blue-flowered nigella. 8. The n'gela with fma!!, fingle, white flowers 9. The nigda with fmall, double, white flowers. 10. The Cretic nigella. 11. The broad-leaved, fwcet-fcented, Cre- tic nigeUa-. And, 12. The nge'la with fingle, pale, red flowers. Tourn. Inft. p. 258.
We have fevcral fpecies of this plant propagated in the gardens about London: they are all raifed by fowing the feeds in the fpring, on a bed of light earth, where they are to remain ; and, when they come up, they are to be thinned to proper diftances, and kept clear from weeds. MU/er's Gard. DicT:
NIGHT {Cycl.) — Night angling, a method of catching large and Any nib. in the night. Trout, and many other of the better forts of fifh, are naturally fhy, and fearful ; they therefore prey in the night, as the fecureft time. The method of taking them on this plan is thus : the tackle mull be ftrong, and need not be fo fine as for day - iifhing, when every thing is feen ; the hook muft be baited with a large earthworm, or a black fnail, and thrown out into the river ; there muft be no lead to the line, fo that the bait may not fink, but be kept drawling along, upon, or near, the furface.
Whatever trout is near the place will be brought thither by the noife, and motion of the water, and will feize the worm, or mall. The angler will be alarmed by the noife which the fifh m2kes in rifing, and is to give him line, and time to fwallow the hook ; then a flight twitch fecures him. The beft and largeft trouts are found to bite thus in the night, and they rife moftly in the ftill and clear deeps, not in the fhallow fwift currents. Sometimes though there are fifh about the place, they will not rife at the bait ; in this cafe, the angler mult put on fame lead to his line, and fink it to the bottom. Diet. Ruft. in voc.
NiGHT-Jbaete, in botany. See Solanum.
NiGHT-«#?'&?r.r. See Noctameulatio, andNocTAMBULi,
NIGHTINGALE, p/>.7i>W(7, in zoology. See Philomela.
Virginian N. gut ingale, in zoology, the common, but improper, name of a bird of the grofs-beaked kind, called by authors the coc.othraujhs Indica crijlata. It is a little fmaller than our blackbird ; it has a black ring furrounding the eyes, and noftrils ; the beak is very large and thick, but not altogether fo large as in the com-
mon grofs-beak; and its head is ornamented with a very high, and beautiful creft, which it moves about very fre- quently. It is all over of a very fine, and lively red, but paler on the head and tail than elfewhere. It is brought to us from Virginia, and is much valued in England, for its beauty, and delicate manner of fmging. It is very fond of almonds, and the like fruits. Ray's Ornithol. p. 170.
NIGRITIES ojfium, among the antients. See Caries.
NIL, in botany, a name given by the Arabians to two very different feeds, which are often, by this means, mifhiken in their writings, one for the other. Avifenna tells us fir ft that nil is the feed of a creeping plant, of the bindweed kind, and that this plant had blue flowers, like the cam- panulas, or bell-flowers. But, in another place, he tells us that nil is the name of a plant ufed in dying, which feems to be the fame with our ifatis, or woad. They fometimes call this plant, and fometimes the paint prepared from it by the name nil. The old interpreters of Diofcorides into the Arabic have every where translated the word ifattSi or woad, by the word nil, or the vegetable of which nil was made The interpreters of the Arabians have been all mil- led into errors by the double fenfe of the word nil, and have too often translated what is (aid of the nil, as a dye, or paint, to belong to the feed ; and what is faid of the feed by authors, is, by them, interpreted fo as to be ex- prefTcd of the ifatis.
Avifenna ufes the word ufme, as a name of the leaf of nil: this is to be always underftood as meaning that nil which
is uf^t in dying ; and, after this, he has a {elect chapter on the ifatis, under this name nil. It is probable that the convolvulus, or bindweed, called nil, obtained this name only from its flowers being of the fame colour with the fine blue pigment obtained from the' other nil, or woad,
NILACUNDi, in natural hiftory, a name given to a ftonc of the gem kind, which is half a fapphirc, and half a ru- by. See Sapphire, and Ruby.
The word nilaa is the Indian name for the fapphire, de- rived from the word nil, the name of indigo, and given to this gem becaufe of its fine blue colour, which approached to the tinge of that pigment. The latter part of the word is not calily accounted for, without making a little varia- tion in the fuelling, but, with that, is very clear and eafy. Jacut, or jaruti, and, as fome fpeak it, jaalnit, is the name g ; ven by the Indians to the ruby, and it is only fuppofing the word to be properly mlyamnti, and it exprcfies in their own language, exactly what we underftand by it, a (lone, part fapphire, and part ruby.
NILAHUMATU, in botany, a name given by feverai authors to the fmooth fruited Jlramonium of Malabar. See the article Stramonium.
NILIACUM nisi, a name by which the antients exprefled the ! very fined honey.
iNILICANARAVI, in bo'any, the name by which fome au- j triors call the tree'whofe fruit is the myrabolan ufed in medi- | cine. Hort. Mai. Vol. 1. p. < 9.
NILUFAR, in botany, a name given by the antient writers to the common wate<--'illy. They diftinguifhed this plant by that name from the Indian nymphesa, whofe root was of a cold and foporific virtue, like that of the mandrake. 1 his they call always nenufar. The word nilufar after- wards gave rife to another name linufar : this was only formed of the fame letters a little tranfpofed, and was ufed to exprefs all the kinds of the -water-lllj. The Greeks borrowed the word nilufar of the Arabians, and, at firft, wrote it nilafaran, but afterwards it became contracted into noufaran, and fo it ftands, at this time, in moft of the works of the modern authors of that nation. Neophytus runs into great errors on this account, and confounds together the tri- foliate lotus, with the lotus of j"Egypt ; the leaves of which are like thofe of the nymphesa, or the arum Some writers have fuppofed the and ofa.e to be a kind of nilufar, and to have been defcribed as fuch by the antients, and others have thought the fame of the \ ftraiihtes ; but all this is without foundation. Thefe plants are wholly un- like both to the nymphesa, and to one another, and were never confounded, either together, or with that plant, ex- cept in the brain of fuch authors.
NIMBUS, among the Romans, a fcaxf embroidered with gold, which women wore on their foreheads.
Nimbus was likewife ufed for the money thrown amono-the people, up *n any public occafion. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. in voc.
NINT1POLONG, in zoology, the Ceyl nefe name of a fpe-
- cies of ferpent called alfo ferpens bypnoticus. It is a very
! poifonous fpecies, and its bite brings on a fleep upon the
I perfon, which terminates in death. It is of a deep, blackifli
i brown, variegated with fmall (peeks of white. Ray's Syn.
I Anim. p. 332.
jNINZiN. in the materia medica, a name ufed by fome au- thors for the famous Chhiefe root, commonly called gin-
J feng. See Gikseng, Cycl.
NIPPERS, in the manege, are four teeth in the forepart of a horfe's mouth, two in the upper, and two in the lower jaw. A horfe puts them forth between the fecondand third year. See Teeth.
Nippers is alfo an initrumerrt in ufe among finiths, and far- riers, being a kind of pincers, wherewith, in flioeing an horfe, they cut the nails before they rivet them. It is al- fo ufed in taking off a fiioe.
Nippers, in a fhip, are fmall ropes about a fathom, or two, long, with a little truck at one end, and fometimes only a wale-knot. Their ufe is to help to hold off the cable from the main, or jeer capftan, when the cable is fo fiirny, fo wet, or fo great, that they cannot ftrain it to- hold it oft* with their bare hands.
NIPPLES (Cycl.)— I he nipples of women, in their firft ly- ing in, are frequently fo fmall, and funk into their breafts, that the infant cannot get at them to fuck its nourifhment. The readied method in this cafe is to apply an infant fome- what older, and which can draw ftronger ; or, if this docs not fucceed, to let a woman who has been pradtifed in the art, attempt to fuck.
When thefe do not fucceed, it is common to have re- courfe to a glafs pipe, and the poorer people in fome places ufually make a tobacco pipe ferve the turn. Others apply a (mail eucurbite made of ivory in the form of a hat, which they fuck ftrongly in their mouth. The com- mon fucking-glafs is alfo, when properly applied, of very iignal fervice To do this, the fmall hole at the fide is to be flopped with wax, and the glafs heated with warm water ; or, by holding it .before the fire, fo as to ra- rify, and in part, expel the air. If. is then to be applied to the nipple, which, in this cafe, will not only be pulled
out
