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of the entrochi, pafling for the remains of boughs, and the hollow in the middle, for the cavity where the pith of the tree was. The addition of Jilbii facie, was only from the obferving that the top and bottom were radiated, or ftrlated, from the central hole to the circumference, in the manner of antimony. Thefe are truly no vegetable remains, but parts of the arms of that ftrange fifli called Jlella arbo- refcens.
They are all fragments, or fhort pieces, broken from larger; the longeft pieces we meet with feldom exceed two inches in length, and we find from thefe down to fingle joints, as thin a? a fixpence : thefe fingle joints are diftinguifhed by authors from the compound bodies, or entrochi, by the name trochitts. The largeft that we find meafure two inches in circumference, but we have from this fize to the thick- nefs of the fineft pin ; about a quarter of an inch in diameter is, however, the moft frequent fize. The longeft pieces confift of from twenty to thirty joints, and are very various in their thicknefs. Thefe bodies are found fometimes in clay, and fometimes in marble. The Derbyfhire marble, of late come fo much into efteem, owes all its beauty to the great quantity of them it contains ; and they in fome places make up all the fubftance of the mafles of rock, only with a very flender portion of ftone to join them. They are ufually found thrown in irregular directions, and often mew that they have fuffered injuries by accident. In fome the joints they are compofed of are diflocated, and thruft out of their place ; in others the whole fubftance is crufhed flat, as if a hollow cane were trod upon, and fqueez- ed to flatnefs ; and in this cafe, the cracks occafioned by the injury are always manifeft. Thefe injuries mull have hap- pened to the entrochi, while their matter was yet foft; for at this time they are fo brittle, that the force employed to diflocate, or crufh them, would only matter them to pieces, not take that regular effect. In fome the whole feries of joints are diflocated, and the entrochus refembles a pile of crown pieces placed on a table, and then pufhed afide, fo as not to break the pile, but force all the feveral crowns, or joints of it, to hang over one way. Some of them are found twilled like a cord, and fome have the taints evenly ar- ranged, but fluffed full of extraneous matter, as bricks are laid in mortar. The joints of the entrochi vary in thick- nefs, from the thicknefs of a fixpence to a quarter of an inch ; but this is not proportioned by their fize, for there ■are fome of them as fmall as pins, which yet confift of very thick joints.
The outermoft joint is in fome more deeply,andin others more flightly furrowed ; and the outer circle of the points, though generally fmooth, is fometimes radiated. The rudiments of branches from the entrochi are fmall knobs, evidently brok- en off: they are always placed in the middle of a thick joint, between future and future, and fometimes are fingle ; but fometimes there is a whole circle of them round the body of the entrochus in that joint ; and fometimes, befide a re- gular circle of knots, there are other fmaller eminences, like warts, which ftand irregularly above and below them, and give the whole a very irregular figure. Sometimes the en- trochi with thinner joints are found thus knotted, and thefe feem to have been all over covered with joints of fmaller branches; and in the living ftate of the animal, when they were perfect, muft have made a very remarkable figure. Some joints have three regular rows of knots on them, each perfectly encompafling the entrochus ; the middle row, or circle, confifls of large knots, and the upper and lower one of fmall ones. Some of the joints, inftead of having a circle of knots, rife up regularly into a circular fharp ridge be- tween future and future ; and in fome of thofe which have no rudiment of a knot on any part, the joints all rife thus regularly into fharp ridges in the middle, but that alternately, and in a very beautiful order j the one joint having a high and large ridge, and the other a fmall and low one all the way. In others there is the fame fort of difference in the joints alternately, but the one ridge is blunt, and the other ftiarp, and edged all the way : in thefe the joints alfo are alternately larger and fmaller, one than another. In fome the alternate edges are knotted, and in fome there is a dou- ble edge in the middle of every joint : thefe have the ap- pearance of being compofed of a very great number of ex- - tremely thin joints, but this is not in reality the cafe. Some of thefe lad have the double edge in the center of the joint knotted at intervals, and have the appearance of ferrate edges.
Moft of the entrochi have had branches, in greater or fmaller number, iffuing from them ; in all they are inferted deep into the flem, and often, when they have been difplaced, leave deep holes in it. The ftriature of the branches runs tranfverfely to the ftriature of the main flem : thefe branches are of various thickneffes, and fometimes very thin ones grow upon very thick ftems; but the more general rule is, that the thicker the ftem, the thicker are the branches from it. Some of the branches from the largeft ftems are found to be branched again, but this is very rare. The pieces of entrochus which we find, however large, are ufually of a cylindric figure, as thick at one end as at the other ; but
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there are fome few found which fwell out in the middle, and grow gradually taper to each end. Thefe Agricola has defcribed, and efteems them a diftinct kind ; but thefe never terminate regularly, in the manner of perfect bodies, at the ends, but are all fragments as the others are. Phil. Tranf. N° 100.
STELENCHIS, a ftrigil, or an inftrument ufed in the baths to rub off the fweat from the fkin.
STELITyE, Xt«*..1*i, in antiquity, perfons who had under- gone the punifhment called Jtw, See Stele.
STELLA (Cycl.) — Stella crinita, in natural hiftory, a name given by Linkius to a genus of Jlar-fi/b, the characters of which are thefe; that they have more than five rays, and from thefe have feveral other lateral proceffes, which are co- vered with a fine down or hair.
Stella lapis, in the materia medica, the name of a flone which has been very differently interpreted by different writ- ers. Some have fuppofed it the ajleria of Pliny, and fome the common corolloide ajlroites ; but Mefue explains it to be the lapis lazuli.
This ftone, and the fapphire, being both blue gems, have been very fubject to be confounded together; and the fap- phire of the antients was indeed no other than a kind of lapis lazuli ; but this author has always diftinguifhed between the modern fapphire and the lapis lazuli, by calling the latter Jlella lapis, and the former zempbyriis. This word has been by fome written zepbyrus, and its meaning much doubted of, but it is plainly the name of the fapphire ; and this word is only formed on the Arabian name of the fame gem, which is fempbir. See the articles Zemphyrus and Semphir.
Stella lumbricalis, in natural hiftory, a name given by Lin- kius, and others, to a kind of Jlar-fijl) with an undivided body, and with five vermiform rays.
Stella marina, in natural hiftory, a genus of animals, the characters of which are thefe. It is a foft animal divided into many parts, or compofed of many fegments, or lobes, run- ning out from a central part, and refembling the radii of a circle, or the rays of a Jlar, as it is vulgarly painted. The central part is the body, and has always a mouth in its lower fide ; and the rays, commonly called arms, and by fome very improperly legs, all ftand at equal diftances from one another. The upper part of the central nucleus of this animal is called the back, and the lower the belly, hut in both thefe the ftructure is very different in the feveral diftinct fpecies of the creature.
The fkeleton of the Jlar-fijb examined, fliews the body to be made up of joints, very different in number and figure 5 and in fome, this articulated fubftance is made up of very fmall, and in others of very large pieces ; in fome alfo it is covered with a very thick fkin, and in others with a very thin one; this however, in the firmeft ftate, never approaches to a ftielly hardnefs, and is rather callous than teftaceous, or cruftaceous, as fome have called it. The parts, of which all thefe fifh are invariably compofed, are the trunk or body, and the lobes : thefe are of no determinate figure, nor hava any thing certain, but that there is a mouth, or aperture, for the taking of food, in fome part of the under plane of the trunk; and the only apparent fenfation the animal has, is that of touch or feeling. The common pofition of the mouth is in the center of the body, and the conformation of it is this : the under part of each lobe runs toward a point with the reft at the center of the body, and thefe feveral productions of the lobes make a fort of lips', the ends of each of which are armed with a number of fharp teeth, which ferve to take and convey the food into the body. From this mouth there goes a feparate canal to all, or many of the lobes, which runs through their whole length, and becomes gradually narrower, as it approaches the extremity : thefe things are conftant in all the fpecies, all their other properties differ in the different ones.
Some genera of the Jlella: marina: have their body multifid., and have juft as many canals in their belly as there are lobes or arms, one conftantly and regularly running to each ; while others have feveral cylindric rays or lobes, which are not perforated with any canal : hence the general number of them are divided into the whole, and the multifid kinds. In the multifid kinds the lobes, or ravs, are ufually five in number, though fometimes they are more, fometimes fewer : hence authors have eflabliflied a triple diftinction of thefe creatures. 1. Thofe which have juft five rays. 2. Thofe which have more than five. And 3. thofe which have a ■ fmaller number than that. The whole bodied ones are alfo arranged into their feveral genera in the fame manner. The moft frequent kind of Jlar-fjb is that. which has five rays, which illue in the manner of fo many vermiform, or worm-like proceffes : thefe therefore are called Jlella vermi~ formes, or the worm-like Jlar-fijh. Another kind, nearly approaching to the nature of thefe, has more than five rays, and from the fides of thefe other tranfverfe proceffes bein^ produced, which are covered with an extremely fine kind of down, or hairynefs ; thefe are called the hairy Jlar-fijb. A third kind is called the ajlropbyta, or plant-likeyfar-^ .' this is compofed of a body from whence there arife a great
number
