S I T
SISTRUM, in antiquity, an inftrument ufed for beating time in concerts. It was a plate of founding metal, of an oval form, the upper part of which was adorned with three figures ; that of a cat with a human face in the middle, the head of Ifis on the right-fide, and the head of Nephthys on the left. It was filled with wires of the fame metal, which ferved to beat againft the plate when ihaken. Mem. Acad, Infcript. Vol. 7. p. 249, feq.
SISYMBRIUM, fpearmint, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower confifts of four leaves, and is of the cruciform kind. The piftil arifes from the cup, and is finally turned into a long pod, divided into two cells by an intermediate membrane, and furnilhed with roundifh feeds. To thefe marks it may be added, that there is a peculiar general appearance of all thefe plants, which will eafily diftinguifli them, at hrft fight, from all the others of the fame clafs. The fpecies of Jifymbrtum-, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe. I. The water-jijymbrium, or common water-crefs.
2. The purple-flowered broad-leaved Pyrenean Jifymbrtum.
3. The fmooth rocket-leaved ^mir/am with yellow flowers, commonly called barbarea, and winter- crejfes. 4. The fmall early-flowering fmooth rocket-leaved Jijymbrium, or winter- crefs. 5. The double-flowered fmooth rocket-leaved Jifym- brium* 6. The rough rocket-leaved fifymbrium with yellow flowers. 7. The fhort-podded radifh-leaved w&ter-jijymbri um. 8, The radifh-leaved fhort-podded -wattT-Jijymbrium with variegated leaves. 9. The fhort-podded water fify) hrium with more deeply divided leaves. The three laft are ufually called by authors water-radijbes. 10. The creeping wa.ter-jijymbrium with leaves like thofe of the nafturtiums This is called by fome water-rocket. 11. Thefmail rough- podded mzr(h-Jify?nbriumj called by many rough-podded muf- tard. 12. The fmall fmooth-nodded mzTtti-Jifymbrium. 13. The wormwood-leaved annual fijymbrhtm^ called by many authors fopbia chirurgorum. Town. Inft. p. 226. Sifymbriwn^ among the Romans, was one of the ingredi- ents, whereof the nuptial garlands were compofed. See Nuptial and Garland.
Sisymbrium, in botany, is alfo a name ufed to exprefs the wild water-mint. Dale's Pharm. p. 205. See the article Mentha.
SISYRA, among the antients, a woolly fkin ufed for a cover- ing to beds. Hofm. Lex. Univ. in voc.
SISYRINCHIUM, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower and fruit are the fame with thofe of the iris and xiphion, but the root is compofed of two bulbs, the one lying upon the other, as in the gladiol and crocus.
The fpecies of fifyrinchium^ enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe. 1. The large fifyrinchium with the flower marked with a yellow fpot". 2. The large fifyrinchium with the flower marked with a white fpot. And 3. the lefler fifyrinchium. Town. Inft. p. 365.
SITHCUNDMAN, in our old writers, one whofe province it was to lead the men of a town or parifh. Leg. Inas. c. 56. Dugdale fays, that inWarwickfhire the hundreds were for- merly called fithefocay and that fithefocundman and ftthcund- man was the chief officer within fuch a divifion, i. e. the high-conftable of the hundred. Dugd. Antiq. Warwick. Blount, in voc.
SlTHESOCA, in our old writers, is ufed to denote the diftricl: now called an hundred. The word is Saxon, fignifying a franchife, or liberty. Rot. Pari. 16 Hen. II. Blount.
SITICINES, among the Romans, perfons who founded a kind of trumpet, having a very mournful tone, at the bu- rying the dead. Danet. in voc. See the articles Burying and Burial.
SITONiE, Silwirftt, among the Athenians, officers appointed to lay in corn for the ufe of the city, for which purpofe the T*f*i«j rvf }t«*ii<™«f, or the public treafurer, was to furnifh them with as much money as they had occafion for. Potter, ArdiEeol. Greec. 1. 1. c. 15. Tom. I. p. 83.
SITTA, in the Linniean fyftem of zoology, the name of a diftincl: genus of birds, ufually confounded with the wood- pecker-kind. The characters of this genus are, that the foot has three toes before, whereas the woodpecker has but two fore-toes on each foot ; the bill is angular, and ends in the form of a wedge, and the tail is raifed. The grey, or afh-coloured picus is of this genus. Linnaius, Syftem. Natur.
P-45* .
The picus cinereus, or grey woodpecker, is called in Englifh the nut-hatch or nut-jobber.
It is a fmall bird, not quite fo large as the chaffinch. Its head, neck and back are grey ; its fides under the wings are red, and its throat and breaft of a pale yellow, with a mix- ture of a chefnut brown. The lower part of its belly is covered with red feathers, with while tips or ends, and it has a long black ftreak on each fide, running from the angle pf the beak to the neck. Its long wing-feathers are black, and its tail variegated with black and grey. Its legs are red, and its toes ftand three before, and one behind j not as in the woodpecker, two each way. It builds in holes of trees, and when their entrance is too large, artfully Hops 3
SKE
them up with mud. It feeds on infefis and fruits. It hoard's nuts for the winter, and breaks them by flicking them in a cleft of a tree, and ftriking them with its beak. JJov's Or- nitholog. p. 98.
SIUM, in botany, the name of a genus of umbelliferous plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower is of the umbelliferous kind, being compofed of feveral unequal leaves, arranged in a circular form. The cup finally be- comes a roundifh fruit, compofed of two feeds, which are gibbofe and ftriated on one fide, and flat and plain on the other. To this it is to be added, that the leaves ftand by pairs on the ribs, and have a fingle one to terminate the ends.
The fpecies of Jium, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe. 1. The common, or long-leaved Jium, or water- parfnep. 2. The Jium with ferrated leaves. 3. The great broad-leaved Jium. 4. The Jium with deeply jagged leaves. 5. The creeping umbelliferous Jium. 6. The Jium whick has umbels at the joints of the ftalks. 7. The Rdd-Jium, called honewort, or eorn-parftey, and by authors Jel'mum Jii Jaliis. And 8. the aromatic Jium, or Jifon of the (hops, called by many amomum, and Alacedonian parjley. Town. Inft. p. 308.
SIXTH (Cyd.) — Sixth, in muftc, is not properly an original concord, as is advanced in the Cyclopedia, fince it arifes from the fubtraftion of the third from the oilave. There are properly but three original concords, the oftave, fifth, and third major. Philof. Tranf. N a 48i. p. 267. Seethe article Interval
Dimimjlied Sixth, in mufic. See DiMiNisHEDy»A&.
SIZE (Cyd. )— The Ihreds and parings of leather, parchment, or vellum, by being boiled in water, and {trained, make Jize b . This fubftance is ufeful in many trades. Mr. Boyle mentions, among other ufes, that fine red Hands, and hang- ing Ihelves, are coloured with ground vermilion tempered with Jize-, and when dry, are laid over with common var- nifh '.—[■ See Glue, Cyd. • Boyle's Works Abridged, Vol. 1. p. 150.]
Gold Size. See Gold jize.
SIZEL, in coining, is ufed where pieces of money are cut out from the flat bars of filver, after having been drawn through a mill into the refpeitive fizes or dimenfions of tho money to be made ; the refidue is called Jizd, and is melted down again. Low/id's E(T. upon Coin, p. 96.
SIZING, in mineralogy, a term ufed by the Cornifll miners for a peculiar method of feparating the purer from the im- purer parrs of an ore by means of fieves. When the oro has been powdered, they put it into a wire-fieve with fine holes, and in this they fift it till the fine part goes through: this is properly what is called fixing. They fend the larger, or coarfer part, to be powdered again, and putting the reft into a neve with a clofc bottom, they let in a ftream of water from a cock, and by means of continued fhaking it about, they caufe the lighter and fouler parts to be warned over the rims of the fieve, and the remaining powder is the black tin.
SKAITE, in ichthyology, the Englifh name of a fpecies of the ray-fifh, called by the generality of authors raia undu- lata, and raw Lsvis, and by fome tubus. It is diftinguifhed by Artedi by the name of the variegated rny-fijh with the middle of the back fmooth, and with only one row of fpines in the tail. See Raja.
SKEGG, in a (hip, that fmall and (lender part of the keel, which is cut flaming, and left a little without the ftern-poft. It is now much out of ufe.
SKELETON (Cyd.)— We have, in the Philofophichal Tranf- acfions, an account of an human JJielelon, all the bones of which were fo united, as to make but one articulation from the back to the os facrum, and downwards a little way. On fawing fome of them, where they were unnaturally joined, they were found not to cohere throughout their whole fubftance, but only about a fixth of an inch deep all round. The figure of the trunk was crooked, the fpina; making the convex, and the infide of the vertebrae the con- cave part of the fegment. The whole had been found in 1 charnel-houfe, and was of the fize of a full grown perfon.
Vegetable Skeleton. The preparations of leaves, fruits, roots, i$c. called vegetable Jkdetons, are made in this manner. Chufe for this purpofe the leaves of trees or plants, which are fomewhat fubftantial and tough, and have woody fibres, fuch as the leaves of orange, jafmine, bay, laurel, cherry, apricot, peach, plum, apple, pear, pop- lar, oak, and the like ; but avoid fuch leaves as have none of the woody fibres, which are to be feparated and preferved by this method j fuch are the leaves of the vine, lime-tree, . and the like. The leaves are to be gathered in the months of June or July, and fuch to be chofen as are found and untouched by caterpillars, or other infefls. Thefe are to be put into an earthen or glafs veffel, and a large quantity of rain-water to be poured over them ; and after this they are to be left to the open air, and to the heat of the fun, with- out covering the veffel ; when the water evaporates, fo as to leave the leaves dry, more muft be added in its place :
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