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lim he was particularly fond of, and which feems to have been one great ingredient in his alcaheft.
HERRING, in ichthyology. See the article Harengus.
Herring Gull, in zoology, the name of a bird of the larus kind, called by authors larus dnereus maximus, or the great grey gull. It is of the fize of our common duck, its beak is yel- low, and is narrow, and two fingers breadth long, a little hooked at the end, and has on the lower chap a fine red fpot. The eyes arc encircled with yellow or red, perhaps in the dif- ferent fexes ; its hinder toe is very finall ; its head, neck, rump, and tail, and its whole upper furface is white, except that the back and fliort feathers of the wings have a little greyifhnefs ; the long wing feathers are black and white ; its wings, when folded, reach to the end of the tail. It feeds on herrings and other fifh, and is a very voracious bird. Ray's Onitbolog. p. 262.
HERTHAMAN, in the materia medica, a name given by Avifenna and Serapion to the grain called zea, ufed much in medicine in their time, and fuppofed to be of a middle na- ture between wheat and barley.
HESPERIS, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the cha- racters of which are thefe : The flower confifts of four leaves, and is of the cruciform kind ; the piftil arifes from the cup, and ripens into a long pod of a cylindric form, divided by an intermediate membrane into two cells, and containing round - ifh or oblong, and cylindric feeds, which are lodged in the depreflions of the intermediate membrane. The fpecies of He/peris enumerated by Mr. Tourneforr, 2re thefe: 1. The purple-flowered garden Hefperis. 2. The white-flowered garden Hefperis. 3. The green-flowered garden Hefperis. 4. The double purple garden Hefperis. 5. The double white garden Hefperis. 6. The double gar- den Hefperis, with variegated flowers. 7. The fweet-fcented pale-flowered mountain Hefperis. 8. The wild fcentlefs Hef- peris- 9. The Syrian Hefperis, with articulated pods. 10. The wild Hefperis, fmelling like garlic, commonly called alliaria, jack by the hedge, or fauce alone. 11. The yellow flowered Hefperis, with very narrow pods. 12. The fquare- podded Hefperis, with leaves like thofe of leucoium. 13. The fquare-podded Hefperis, with ferratcd leucoium leaves. 14. The dufky -flowered Hefperis, with horned pods. 15. The little procumbent fea Hefperis. 16. The (mall-flowered wild Hefperis. 17, The narrow-leaved hoary fea Hefperis. 18. The blue-flowered hairy African Hefperis. 19. The Cut- leaved Hefperis, with variegated flowers. 20. The narrow- leaved Portugal Hefperis, with dentated leaves and purple flowers. 2r. The Spanifh Hefperis, with divided leaves, and lunated pods. 22. The broad-leaved fea Hefperis* with a three-pointed pod. 23. The fhrub Sicilian Hefperis, with three-pointed pods. 24. The Sicilian Hefperis, with corono- pus leaves, and with three-pointed pods* 25. The great Afri- can Hefperis, with coronopus leaves, and blue flowers. 26. The fmaller African Hefperis, with coronopus leaves and blue flowers. The great diftinction of the Hefperis from the leu- coium, is that its pods are cylindric, not flatted j and its feeds tumid, and not marginated, and are received in certain hollows in the feptum of the pod. Toum. In-ft. p. 322. The Hefperis of Cafpar Bauhine, Ray, &f, is the viola matro- nalis, or dames violet. Vid. Dale's Pharm. p. 200, 201.
HESYCIUS, in natural hiftory, the name of a fly of the car- nivorous kind, often found preying on the bodies of other flies, beetles, tSfc, and of ferpents ; whence it has been called alfo ophioboros. Its wings are of a fhining pale yellow, or the colour of polifhed brafs ; whence it has alfo been called byfome chalcomuia.
HETERODOX, heterodox!, in botany, that fet of fyftematical writers on this fcience, who formed their diftributions and clafTes of the plants on wrong foundations, not on the divi- sions made by nature in the different ftru&ure of the parts of fructification in the different clafles, but on the fhape of their leaves, or roots ; or who rang'd them by their common names, according to the letters of the alphabet. Linnai Fund. Bot. p. 2.
HETEROPHAGI, in natural hiftory, a term ufed by fome authors to exprefs a peculiar ctafs of infects diftinguifhed by their eating many different things, but not feeding on one another, as thofe do which are of the clafs of the allelophagi, of which there are a great number of fpecies.
HETEROSTROPHE, an epithet applied to certain fheils, the wreaths of which turn a contrary way from thofe of other lhells of the fame genera, We have in the Philofophical Tranfactions an account of two very remarkable fpecies of fnail-fhells of this kind, eafily diftinguifhable from one ano- ther, and more eafily from all other fheils, becaufe the turn of the wreathes is from the right hand to the left, contrary to what is to be feen in other fnails. Thefe are fmall, and therefore efeaped the pbfervation of naturalifts a long time ; neither of them much exceeds an oat corn in thicknefs, and they are of the figure of the turbines laves of Aldrovand and other authors. The fmaller of thefe is very thin and tender, the opening of the fhell is pretty round, and the fecond turn or wreathe is very large in proportion to the fize of the crea- ture ; the other wreathes, which are about fix in number, are ftlll Ieflened to a point. The turben, or conical figure,' is
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nearly a quarter of an inch, and the colour of the fhell ap- pears dufkifh ; but when the animal fhrinks into it, and the fhell is held up to the light, it appears of a pale yellowiih hue. The larger fort are twice as long as thefe, and are confidera- bly thick-fhelled : Thefe are very much of the figure of an oat corn, being pointed at the ends, and fomewhat fwelled in the middle. The opening of this fpecies is not round, as in the other, but has a finus in the lower part ; there are about ten fpires, which all turn from the right hand to the left ; the colour of this fhell is a dark and reddifh brown. When thefe fmall fnails creep, they lift up their fheils fo as to turn the point towards a perpendicular, and throw out two pair of horns, as moir of the other fnails do. Ariftotle affirms all thefe creatures to be of fpontaneous birth, not at all contri- buting to the generation of one another, and having no fex ; but later obfervation proves the error of this abundantly ; and the author of the account of thefe two remarkable kind of fnails obferves, that they are always found in pairs in the month of March, and that about that time it is common to fee them in the very a£t of venery. Philof. Tranf. N° 56.
HEWHOLE, or, as it is pronounced in fome places, the high- hoo, a name given by many to the common green wood- pecker, from its making holes in trees.
HEXACHORD, {Cyd.) in mufic, is by fome ufed for the fixth. Hence we meet with Hexachordum majits £3° minus. In the table inferted under the head Interval, we have re- trained the term Hexachord to fignify the fixth of the Greek fcale, which is not a true fixth major, but a comma more, - being a tone major above the fifth, bee thearticle Interval.
HEXACONTALITHUS, in natural hiftory, the name of a ftone defcribed by Pliny, and other of the antient writers, as being very fmall, yet fhewing an almoft infinite variety of colours. It feems only another name for the opal.
HEXAEDROSTYLA, in natural hiftory, the name of a ge- nus of fpars. The word is derived of the Greek J'|, fix, ^)a, fide, and r&os, a column. The bodies of this genus are fpars of a columnar form, adhering to fome folid body at the bafe„ and terminated at the point by a pyramid. The pyramid and column being both hexahedral, or compofed each of fix fides. Of this genus there are three known fpecies : 1. A flehder one with a long pyramid ; this is compofed of fo pure and clear a fpar, that it refembles cryftel, and is found in Ookey Hole, on Mendip Hilis, and in fome other parts of England. 2. A fomewhat thick one, with a long irregular pyramid, found in the mines of Cornwall and Devonlhire., and common alfo in thofe of Germany. 3. One with a very inort pyramid ; this is found in the Derbyfhire lead-minesj, and in great plenty in thofe of the Harts Foreft in Germany Hill's Hift. of Foil", p. 218.
HEXANDRIA, in botany, a clafs of plants with hermaphro- dite flowers, and fix ftamina or male parts in each, which are in fome plants all of the fame length, and in others are alternately one fhorter and another longer. The word is derived from the Greek \i, fix, and drip, male. The plants of this clafs are garlic, hyacinth, meadow-faf- fron, tsY. See Tab. 1. of Botany, Clafs 1,
HEXAPYRAMIDES, in natural hiftory, the name of a genus of fpars. The word is derived from the Greek H, fix, and. vvfetfim, a pyramid. The bodies of this genus are fpars formed into pyramids, compofed of fix fides or planes, and affixed to no column, but adhering to fome folid body by their bafes. Of this genus there are only two known fpecies. 1. A fhort one with a broad bafe ; this is a very rare fpecies, and found only, fo far as is yet known,, in the great mine ae GofTelar in Saxony. And, 2. A long pointed one, with a narrow bafe ; this is found in the fifliires of the alabalter quar- ries of the Harts Foreft. Hill's Hift. of Fofl". p. 225.
HEXIS, in the writings of the Greek phyficians, a word ufed to exprefs a firm and permanent habitude, in oppofition to fchefis and diathefts 3 importing a tranfient or 'eafily removed difpofition.
HL/ENA, in zoology. See the article Hyjena.
HIASTAOTOMTEHOM, a Chinefe name, expremng a plant, the root of which is faid to change, at a certain time, into a worm. Mr. Reaumur has given it the name oiplante-ver'm the French, but he has difcovered the error of fuppofing fuch a transformation ; the whole truth of the cafe being, that a, certain caterpillar, when about to change into the chryfalis ftate, fo nicely joins itfelf to the root of this plant, as to ap- pear a part of it, See the article Plante-ver.
HIATICULA, in zoology, a name which many ufe for the bird called in Engrifh the fea- lark, and by fome authors cba- radrius. This laft name being however given by different authors to other birds, it fhould feem beft to retain the word hiaticula, as the diftinctive name of the fea-lark. This bird is fomewhat larger than the common lark ; it has a black ftreak above the beak, and a white one running from one eye to the other ; its neck is variegated with two rings, the upper white, and reaching up to the beak, and the lower black, and covering part of the breaft. Its back is grey, and its breaft and belly white s its beak is Ihort, and part yellow, part black, and its legs of a pale yellow. It builds among the rocks on the fea-fhores, and lays greenifh eggs fpotted with brown, and altogether brown a: the larger end. It is
very
