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fat next above them. The word occurs chiefly in the defcrip- tion of the Triremes, or three-rowed galleys, in which the fe- cond row of the men were called 'l>ygit<z, and the uppermoft ThranitiE. Mcibom. de Trirem,
THALAMUS, in botany, a term ufed to exprefs that part of the flower in the capitated or flofculous flowered plants, where the embryo fruits ot every feparate flofcule are lodged, and where afterwards the feeds are contained. This is the bottom of the cup, in the central part of which it adheres to the ltalk. Town. Inlt. p. 438. See Tab. I. of Botany, Clafs 1.
THALASSOMELi, the name of a medicine ufed as a purge among the antients. It was compofed of equal parts of ho- ney, tea-water, and rain-water, expofed to the fun in the dog days, in a veflel pitched on the iniide. It purged in the fame manner that fea- water alone would do, but only in a milder way.
THALIA, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, called by Plumier cortuj'a. The characters of which are thefe ; The cup is a fpatha of an ova! figure, terminating in a point, and compofed of only one valve. Tile flower is compofed of five petals, which are of an oblong ovated figure, and are hollowed and undulated at the margin ; two of thefe, which are nearelt the cup, are fmall and convoluted ; the others are nearly e- qual in lize, and are itrait and hollowed. The germen of the piitil is of an ovated figure, and the fruit is a berry of an oval figure, having only one cell, and within chat a tingle bony feed which has two cells, in each of which is a thin kerneh Plumier 8. Linmzi Gen. Plant, p. 522.
THAL1CTRUM, Meadow-rue, in botany, the name of a genus of plants. The characters of which are thefe : The flower is of the rofaceous kind* being compoled of feveral pe- tals arranged in a circular form. '1 he piitil arifes from the center of the flower, and is furrounded by a vail congeries ot itamina. This finally becomes a fruit compofed of feveral capfules gathered into a fort of head ; thele are fometimes alated, and fometimes plain, and each of them contains one oblong feed.
The Ipecies of Thalicirtan, enumerated by Mr. Tournefortj are thefe: 1. The larger Tbaiicirum, with angular orliriated feed-veflels. 2. The larger ThaliSfrum, with Smooth feed- veffels. 3. The great yellow-flowered Tbaiicirum, with yel- low Itamina, and bluith-green leaves. 4. The columbine- leaved alpine Tbaiicirum, with purple Itamina. 5. The great columbine-leaved alpine Tbalutrum, with white itamina and green italks. 6. The Seller alpine columbine-leaved Tbaiicirum, with white Itamina and green {talks. 7. The purple- ftalked columbine-leaved Canada- Tbaiicirum, with white fhmina. 8; The fmaller American Tbaiicirum. 9. The great yellow- flowered fweet-fcented Tbaiicirum. 10. The large-flowered atphodel-rooted fmall TbaliCirum. 11. The early -flowering mountain-TZW;Vr>7<;/>. 12. The lefier Tbaiicirum. 13. The narrow-leaved meadow- fhati&rum:
14. Tfte little trench Tbaiicirum; with thick mining leaves.
15. The narrowcit-lcaved madow-ThaliClrwn. 16. The fmall ftinking Tbaiicirum. 17. ihe little broad-leaved moun- \.-A\n-Tbaliclru?n. 18. The little mounum-Tbaiicirum, with deep red Ihin'mg leaves. Town, Inlt. p. 270.
THALLOPHORi, o^v.p^-., in antiquity, the old men and women, who, in the proceilion of the feftival Panatbeneca, carried olive boughs in their hands. Potter, Archseol. Grasc. T. 1. p, 421.
THALYSlA, QuTwo-ix, in antiquity, a facrificc offered by the hufbandmen after harvelt. For the origin and ceremonies of which, fecPotter, Archa:ol. Grsec. T. 1. P.4C0.
THAMAR, a word ufed by the Arabian phyficians, to exprefs a date. Hence a pedtoral decoction made with dates and other ingredients, was called diatbamyrou; and the word was afterwards corruptly written dicameron.
7'HAOCINUS Color, a term ufed in the Latin transitions of the Arabian writers to exprefs what we call a blue purple, and the Latins pavouaceus color, peacock colour ; which is- alio the literal fignification of the Arabian term.
The antient writers all tell us, that their Indicum when di- luted, nude the moft beautiful colour imaginable of that kind. This is one of many reafons for fuppofing the Indi- cum of the antients, and our Indigo to be the fame fubitancc, becaufe this blue purple is the very colour of that drug when diluted.
THAPSIA, in botany, the name of a genus of plants ; the cha- racters of which are thefe. The flowers are difpofed in um- bels, and are of the rofaceous kind, being compofed of fe- veral petals, difpofed in a circular order on a cup, which af- terwards becomes a fruit compofed of two long Itriatcd feeds, furrounded with a fuliaceous edge, and from both fides emar- ginated inwards. See Tab. 1. of Botany, Clafs 7. The fpecies of Tbapfia, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe: r. The largeft broad-leaved Tbapfia. 2. The large hairy broad-leaved Tbapfia. 3. The ftinking Thapfia, with libanotis-leaves. 4. The {linking Portugal white flowered Tliapjia, with parfley leaves. 5, The narrower leaved Ita- lian Thapfia, called panax afdepium y and Efculapius's all-heal. 6. The brnadeft-fceded Tbapfia, or g'tant-turbith. 7. The fhining alpine Tbapfia, with thalictrunvleaves and white Suppl. Vol. II.
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flowers. 8. The hairy thalictrum- leaved Portugal Tbapfia* Tourn, Inlt. p. 311.
The root of the Tbapfia is ufed in medicine : There are two kinds of it, the white, and the black.
The white Tbapfia, called alfo by fome grey turbith, is the root of a plant fomewhat refembling fennel. This is full of a milk-like juice, fo very fharp that it will bring off the fkin, if fuffered to touch the face. This root is feldom ufed under its own name, but is fometimes fold for the turbith root. They may be diftinguifhed however, by the turbith's being of a reddilh grey without, and of a whitiih grey within, and heavy and hard to break ; on the contrary, white Tbapfia is light, wrinkled, and of a iilvery grey on the outfide, and fo hot and acrid to the tafte, that if new it will blifter the mouth.
The black Tbapfia is of too dufky a colour to be ufed as an adulteration of turbith, and too hot and acrid to be prefcribed internally. Lattery's Diet, des Drog.
Some ot our druggifts receive the roots of this plant inftead of turbith, and tell it as fuch. It is happy for us, that it is not much in ufe. It purges very violently both upwards and downwardsj and ought to be bammed from among the num- ber of medicinal limples.
Betide the poifonous root known by the name Thapfia, the an- tients have defcribed three other vegetable fubttances under it. The Lycium-wood ufed at this time, as alfo of old in Crete, as a yellow dye : The Scytbica radix, or liquorice ; and the luteola, or dyers weed. The Greek Tbapfos figniiies a pale dead yel- low colour, and is applicable either to the fubltance or the juice or tincture of all thefe.
Paulus ^gineta and Alexander Trallian, in their catalogues of the things ufed to dye the hair yellow, mention the plant which they call rohia % or herba robia, which they fay dyed every thing of a gold colour.
Democntus calls the fame plant ceco?nenia, and places it alfo among the herbs, ufed in tinging the hair. And fome of the more modern Greeks have called it cymene. It is itill irequent in many parts of Greece, and is ufed there as well as here, to dyt things yellow. Some have called it carniola ; and Macer makes it the fame with the ifaiis or woad ; but very erroneoufly. Some have called it rubia ; but thele have care- fully diltinguiihed it from the rubia radix, or madder, which dyes red. The old fcholiatr. on ./Egineta has alio called this plant by the lame name with woad, and plainly fhews 'he thought the two names fynonymous, by rendering the if at is of his author by the word cymene, which is plainly the fame plant with the carniola, that is the luteola of the Ronians. See the article Cymene.
THAPSOS, in the materia medica of the antients, a name given to a kind of wood of a pale yellow colour, ufed of old in dying linnen and woollen cloths.
It has by fome been fuppofed, that Tbapfos and Thapfia were the fame plant ; but there is no one circumstance in any of the accounts of authors, to favour fuch a conjecture. The Tbapfia was always defcribed as a plant whofe root was poi- fonous ; but the Thapfos, as a tree, whofe wood was not eiteemed dangerous, and was ufed by the dyers ; not the root,, but the wood of the trunk and large branches. The natural colour of the wood being of a livid and dull yellow, it be- came an emblem of death ; and the word Tbapfs is ufed by fome .of the Greek writers, as a name for the colour of dead corpfes.
The people of Crete at this time ufe the lycium-wood in dying a yellow colour, and it is probable that the Tbapfos was this very tree. Diofcorides tells us, that the wood of this tree was alfo ufed at his time to tinge the hair yellow, which was a favourite colour with the Greeks. The lycium is of a co- lour fomewhat deeper than our box-wocd, and parts with its flain fo eafily that it feems very proper for fuch a purpofe. See the article Thapsia, fupra.
THAPSUM, among the old Roman writers, a common name for the verbafcum, or mullein ; but as there were many other plants, very different in their nature, yet whofe names re- fembled this ; fuch as the Tbapfia, or deadly carrot, and the Tbapfum, or genijhiia tindoria ; it was foon found ncceilary to add fome other name, and it was then called T'bapjum bar- batum, or barbaffutn.
The Greeks ufed the word Thapfon for a yellow colour, and called in general all yellow things by that name. Hence the great confufion that has arifen by calling the Tbapfia root the liquorice root, the lycium wood, and the gcniftella flowers, all by the common name Tbapfum. The reafon of the geni- ffella being called Tbapfum, was, that its flowers were yel- low, and were ufed to colour the ladies hair; that being the
- favourite colour of thofe days. The flowers of mullein are yellow, and feem more fit for the colouring the hair, than thofe of the geniftella ; their colour being more eafily feparat- ed, and' continuing on (o well that the glovers of many parts of England ufe them in the feafon for colouring their yellow gloves.
It is probable,- that the 'ladies of old ufed this, as well as the
geniftella, for this purpfcfe ; and it might hence obtain the
common name Tmpfatn. The other part of its diftinction,
X I i I barbatutn,
