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fometimes a!fo called Jlante r, immabiles, or qu'ufcentes; and by the Greeks irkfe, uMu, jjifuaj.! '. — [= Vid. Philof. Traufaa. N°48l. f Wallis\ Append, ad Ptolenji Harm. P- 159] SI ABLE. Nothing conduces more to the health of a horfe, than the having a good and whorfome Jlable. The fltuation of a Jlable ihould always be in a good air, and on a firm, dry, and hard ground, that in winter the horfe may come in and go out clean. It flrould always be built fomewhat on an afcent, that the urine, and other foulneffes, may be eafily conveyed away by means of drains or finks cut for that purpofe.
As there is no animal that delights more in cleanlinefs than the horfe, or that more abominates bad fmells, care fhould be taken that there be no hog-llie, hen-rooft, or neceffary houfe near the place where the Jlabk is to be built ; for the fwallowing of feathers, which is very apt to happen when hen-roofts are near, often proves mortal to horfes, and the fleams of a bog-houfe, or hog's dung, Will breed many diftempers ; and particularly, they will bring on the farcy and blindnefs in many horfes. It is much "better to build the walls of a Jlable of brick than of front, for the former is always dry, the other often fwcats, and is very apt to be damp, and to caufe rheums and catarrhs to horles that are fet in the Jlable in damp weather.
The walls ought therefore to be of brick, and to be made of a moderate thicknefs, two bricks, or a brick and half at the leaft, both for the fake of fafety and warmth in winter, and to keep off the heat of the fun in the midft of fummer, which would fpoil the horfe's appetite, and fmk his fpirits. The windows fhould be made on the eaft and north fides of the building, that the north air may be let in to cool the Jlables in fummer, and the riling fun all the year round, efpecialiy in winter.
The windows fhould either be falhed, or have large cafe- ments, for the fake of letting in air enough ; and there fhould always be dole wooden fhutters, that the light may be fhut out at pleafure; by which means the horfe. will be brought to fleep in the middle of the day, as well as in the night, when it is judged proper that he fJiouk! do fo. Many pave the whole Jlable with flone, but it is much bet- ter to have that part, which the horfe is to lie- upon, boarded with oak planks ; for it will be not only eafier, but more warm and comfortable to the creature. The boards muft be laid as even as poffible, for this is the way to make the creature lie molt at his eafe, and in the moft healthful pofture. The dealers in horfes generally in- deed make the boards be laid higher toward the top, and flanting down : this fhews a horfe to more advantage as he lies, but it is very uncomfortable to the creature, and his hinder parts are always flipping down, and the hind legs are often made fubjecf. to fwellings by it. The planks fhould be laid crofswife, not len<nhwife, and there are to be feveral holes bored through them to receive the urine, and carry it off underneath"the floor into fome drain, or common receptacle. The ground behind fhould be raifed to a level with the planks, that the horfe may al- ways ftand even, and the floor behind fhould be paved with fmall pebbles, and the place where the rack ftands ihould be well wainfeotted. There are to be two rings placed on each iide of the flail, for the horfe's halter to run through, and a logger is to be fixed to the end of this, fufEcient to poife it perpendicularly, but not fo heavy as to tire the horfe, or to hinder him from eating. The heft: place for him to eat his corn in is a drawer, or locker, made in the wainfcot partition i this need not be large, and confequently need not take up much room, fo that it may be eafily fixed, and taken out to clean at pleafure: by this means, the common dirtinefs of a fixed manger is to be avoided. Many people are againft having a rack in their/ai/w; they give the horfe his hay fprinkled upon his litter, and if they think he treads it too much, or too foon, they only nail up three or four boards, by way of a trough, to give it to him in. The reafon of this is, that the continual lifting up the head to feed out of the rack is an unnatural pofture for a horfe, which was intended to take his food up from the ground, and makes him, as they exprefs it, withy?*ragged! In the way of fprinkling the hay on the litter, or laying it in a trough even with the ground, he not only takes it up as if from the earth in a natural way, but can eat as he lies which is a piece of indulgence that a horfe takes great plea! fure in.
When there is Jlable-ioom enough, partitions are to be made for feveral horfes to ftand in ; thefe fhould always allow room enough for the horfe to turn about, and lie down conveniently in, and they fhould be boarded up fo high toward the head, that the horfes placed in feparate flails may not be able to finell at one another, nor moleft each other any way. One of thefe ftalls ought to be covered in, and made convenient for the groom to lie in, in cafe of a great match, or the ficknefs of a valuable horfe. Behind the horfes there fhould be a row of pegs, to hang up faddles] bridles, and other neceffary utenlils ; and fome fhelves for Suppl. Vol. II.
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the hanging up brufhes, &c. and the /landing of pots of ointment and other preparations.
The Jlablts of the nobility are often incommoded by bins for oats placed in them, which take up a great deal of room With very little advantage. Dr. Plot has given us, in his niirory of Oxfordfhire, a very convenient method, ufed by a gentleman of that county; to prevent this. It is done by making a conveniency to let the oats down from above, out of a vefiel like the hopper of a mill, whence they fall into a fquare pipe of about four inches diameter, let into the wall, which comes down into a cupboard alfo let into the wall, but with its mouth fo near the bottom, that there mall never be more than about a gallon in the cupboard at a time ; which being taken out, and given to the horfes, another gallon immediately fucceeds it from above, with- out any trouble to the groom or any body elfe. Bv this means there is not an inch of room loft in the lower part of the Jlable where the horfes ftand ; and there is this «re?t conveniency befide, that the oats are always kept fweet by it ; for every gallon that is taken away puts the whole quan- tity above in motion, by the running down of the gallon that fupplies its place, and no muftinefs ever comes, where there is this continual airing and motion. There may ea- fily be contrived two of thefe, the one for the oats, the other
, for fplit beans; and both of thefe may be let into the range of preffes, the oats and beans being i'eparated above by par- titions. The other rcquif.tes for a Jlable are a dung-yard, a pump, and a conduit ; and if fome pond or running river be near, it is greatly the better. STACCATO, or Stoccato, in the Italian mufic, intimates that every note fhould be divided and feparated from the next in a very plain and diftinft manner, and is much the fame vi'ith fpiccato. Bnffhrd. S i'ACHYS, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower confifts of one leaf, and is of the labiated kind. The upper lip is fome- what atched, and ftands erecr, the lower is divided into three ferments, of which the lower is confiderably the largeft. The piftil arifes from the cup, and is fixed in the manner of a nail to the hinder part of the flower, and furrounded with four embryos, which afterwards become fo many feeds, and ripen in the cup of the flower into a roundifh fhape. To thefe marks it may be added, that the leaves are hoary, as Diofcorides defcribes thofe of Jlachys to be. The fpecies of Jlachys, enumerated by Mr. Tournefortj are thefe. 1 . The great German Jlachys. 2. The great Ger- man Jlachys with paler flowers. 3. The broad-leaved Cretic
Jlachys. 4. The narrow-leaved Cretic ftacliys, called bajlard
Jlachys. 5. The lefl'er ItalianyWjyr. 6. The mullein-leaved fhrub Amerianjlacbys. Tourn. Lift. p. 186. ST-fEBE, in botany, a word ufed by the Greeks as the name of feveral plants, very different one from another. Diofcorides frequently calls the hippophaes by this name
Jleebe ; Theophraffus alfo calls his hippopheos and pheos by the fame name ; and what Hippocrates fays of the fruit of the hippopheos, is by the modern Greeks interpreted the feed oi the Jleebe. The pheos and hippopheos were thorny plants of the fhrub kind, growing on the fea-coafts of Crete and other places, and are ftill called by the inhabitants
Jltebis. But befide thefe there was a fmall plant, called by the old Greek writers flileos. This was a fmall foft herb, growing in damp places, and ufed to fluff beds with, and to other fuch purpofes. This alfo was called by the fame authors Jleebe. See the next article. STrEBIS, in botany, a name given by the modern Greeks to a plant growing very plentifully in the ifland of Crete, and feeming to be the fame with the Jleebe of the antient Greeks, when ufed as the name of the phebs or hippopheos; for the antients ufed it alfo as the name of a low plant of the gnaphalium kind, growing in marfhy places, and ufed to fluff beds, C5V. with.
It is evident that Diofcorides calls the pheos and hippopheos, or, as he writes it, hippophaes, by the name Jleebe \ and Neophytus tells us, that the Jleebe of Diofcorides was called in his time, in the vulgar Greek, Jleebim, and jlxbis. The defcription Diofcorides gives of this plant, is, that it had fmall and flefhy flowers Handing in cluflers feveral toge- ther; and Pliny tells us, that this plant grew in fandy places near the fea-fhores, and had white prickles on the branches, and cluflers of berries like the ivy. In this laft article he feems to go beyond his authority, all the Greek writers, from whom he tranflates this part of his work, fpeakine of the flowers of the Jleebe growing in Corymbi like the ivy, but not giving it the fruit of that plant. Honorius Bellus fays, that the flowers are mixed of a reddifh and greenifh colour; and Diofcorides fays, that the flowers of -his hip- popheos are mixed of a reddifh and whitifh. The whole plant or fhrub is alio defcribed, both by the an- tients and the moderns, under the names of bippvphecs and
fesbis, in the fame manner : they fay it grew to about three feet high, fpreading its branches, fo as to form a round bufh, and that the prickles or thorns grew under the leaves.
They were both put to the fame ufe alfo, and all the in- 3 E e e terprctetj
