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©nit. The. eyes are placed near one another in the upper part of the head. There are two back fins. The foremoft one is very fhort. The appendices of the pylorus are from eight to twelve in number.
The fpecies of this genus are only two : I. The Trach'inus with die lower jaw longeft, without beards. This is the fifli . called the draco and araneus marintts, and by us the zveever. The other is the Tracbinus, with feveral cirri in the lower jaw.
This is the uranofcope, or Tracbimts of authors, called alfo caltionymus. Artedi Gen Pifc. See the article Urano-
SCOPE;
The name is originally Greek, the word Tf«%tiw fignifying
rough, fharp, or prickly. It was given to this fifh from the
rays of its back-fin being remarkably rigid, and fharp like
prickles.
Trachinus Lapis, a ftone mentioned by the writers of the middle ages, as pofleffing many great medicinal virtues. It feems ,to have been a kind of lapis nephriticus, being defcribed as bright, but not tranfparent, and being of two kinds, the one blackifh, the other green.
TRACHURTJS, in zoology, the name of a fifh of the cuculus- kind, called in Englifh zfcad, and by feveral authors, furo, faurus, and lacertus marimis.
It very much approaches to the nature of the common mack- rel in colour, ihape, and talle ; infomuch that the French call it maquereau-batard, or baftard-mackrel ; but it never grows to the full fize of the mackrel, and is of a more flat ihape. Its back is of a very mining blue. Its belly white, with a faint blufh of reddifhnefs.- Some have enoneoufly fuppofed, that it had no fcales; but it is covered with confiderably large ones. Its fide-lines arc one on each fide, and are made each of a row of bony (bales* Thefe ha\'e all eminences in their middle, and rife fo high near the tail, as to make that part of the body of the fifh appear fquare. The eyes are large, and the lower jaw is a little longer than the upper. The jaws are rough like files. The back has two fins, a fhort anterior one, and a long one behind it ; and. the tail is confiderably forked. This fifh ufually fwims in large fiioals, and is caught in the Mediterranean, and on the Englifh coafts in Cornwall, and fome other places. It is efleemed a very well tafted fifh. Ray's Ichthyography, p. 290.
Trachurus Brajilienjis, a name given by Mr. Ray to a fifh of the cuculus-kind, commonly eaten in the Brafils, and known among writers on thefe fubjects by its Brafilian name guaratereba. Ray's Ichthyology, p. 291. See the article
GUARATEREBA.
TRACING, in hufbandry^ a term ufed by our planters for the method of preferving the maize, or Indian corn. This, be- ing a large grain, is apt to fpoil, if not carefully preferved. Some thrafh out the corn as foon as the ears are gathered, and lay it up in holes of the earth, which are their granaries : But thofe who have not opportunities of doing this, trace it, that is, they leave it in the ear, and weave, or fallen together a , gFeatnumber of ears by the ends of tbebufks: Thefe traces of corn they hang up within doors, on fuch fupports as will keep them from one another ; and they will, in this manner, keep good the whole winter.
This is a method of our introducing ; but their own, of bury- ing the clean corn, was at leaft as good, and was the fame pradtlfed by the ./Egyptians of old, and by all the wifeft na- tions of the eaft at this time. But whether we have improved their hufbandry in this particular, or not, it is certain that we have greatly affifted them in the planting this corn, which we do by the plough, inftead of the troublefome method they had of doing it with the hoe. The manner of our planting it is this : We plough fingle furrows the whole length of the field,
■ and at about fix foot diftance one from another ; we then
■ plough others acrofs at the fame diftance, and then, wherever the furrows meet,- the corn is thrown in ; it is then covered
, either by the hoe, or by running another furrow behind ft with
. the plough ; and when the weeds begin to overtop the corn, they plough the fpaces again, and by this means deftroy and
•. turn in all the weeds, and give the earth ftirring, that greatly affifts vegetation.
The famous method of horfe-hoing hufbandry, fo celebrated by Mr. Tull in a book written on that fubject, is no other than a bringing home this method of our American planters, in the culture of the maize, and applying it to our European corn, with which, however it can never fucceed fo well. The In- dians, and our planters, join in the method of rarfiflw a hill of
. earth round every -ftalk of the maize ; and when the ground is poor, or out of heart, they bury two or three fifhes, of a kind called by them the aloofe, under every hill, and by this means
• they have a crop double to what would otherwife have been produced. The Englifh have learned this- manure from the Indians; and in New England, where they are near the fifh- ing-ftages, they bury the heads and garbage of the cods, which fucceed as well as the aloofe, and coft nothing but the car- riage.
1 he lands on which the maiz or Indian corn has grown, are as well fitted for our European corneas if they had been kid fallow. The reafon of this is, that the plants of the Indian corn itanding at fix- feet -diftance from each other, the far
greater part of the ground has remained unoccupied,- and at the fame time has had the advantage of often ploughing to kill the weeds, which is a benefit equal to that of dung and reft. All this, though it tends to prove the doctrine of horfe-hoeing hufbandry not new, yet it ftrengthens the fyftem greatly. The Indians, who do not intend an after-crop of European corn, occupy all the ground which they have been at the paias of clearing for the maiz, in another manner : They plant with the corn, in the fame hill, a kind of kidney bean j this grows up with the corn, and its ftalks climb up about thofe of the maiz, which ferve as well as fticks or poles for it. In the center, at every vacant place between the hills, they plant fquafhes or pompions, which fucceed very well ; and often, after the laft weeding of the ground, they fprinkle in a quantity of turnep-feed ; fo that when the harveft is over, they have a crop of turneps for the winter. Phil. Tranf. N°. 14.2.
Tracing, among miners. See the article Training.
TRAC I'ORi/E, among the Romans, were diplomas or tickets given by thq emperor to fuch as he fent into or called out of the provinces, whereby they were entitled to the ufe of the public poft, and to be maintained at the expence of the go- vernment. Pitifc, in voc.
TRAGACANTH, or Qaat's-Thorn, Tragacantba, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : The flower is of the papilionaceous kind, and its piliil, which strifes from the cup, finally becomes a bicapfular fruit, containing feveral kidney-fhaped feeds : To this it is to be added, that the leaves ftand in pairs upon the ribs, which ufually terminate in a prickly point.
The Cpecics oi Tragacanth, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe: 1. The common Tragacanth. 2. The woolly Tragacanth, fuppofed to be the poterhim of Clufius. 3. The purple- flowered ever-green Alpine Tragacanth. Tourn. Inft. p. 417.
TRAGACANTHUM venereum Indicant, in natural hiftory, a name given by fome writers to the birds nefts fo famous in foops in China, and in fome parts of Europe, for their cordial reftorative, and provocative virtues. They are the nefts of a kind of Indian fea-fwallow, and are made up of a fubftance refembling gum-tragacanth, and, like it, melting in a jelly in any warm and watery liquor.
TRAGASIAN Salt i a term ufed among the antients for a fort of fea-falt, very little different from the common kind, being made by the evaporation of the water of fome fait ponds near the fea-fhores.
TRAGELAPHUS,- in zoology, the name of an animal of the goat-kind, of which there are two fpecies, the one defcribed by Gefner, the other by Bellonius.
The Tragelaphus of Gefner is- a little larger than our common deer ; its colour the fame with that of this creature, and its hair of the fame fort and length ; but its body is thicker ; and its legs much fhorter. Under its chin it has the beard of the goat j and all the way along the under part of its throat there runs a feries of long hairs, which hang down almoft to its knees ; the upper part of its neck has a mane of long hairs alfo, which are much darker-coloured than thofe of the body. Its knees are covered alfo with long and thick tufts of hair, reach- ing a good way backwards. Its hoofs fall off every year. The horns refemble thofe of the ram* or rather of the goat, and are black, and bent backwards. The ears are fhort. The eyes, the tail, and the parts of generation, are the fume as in deer. It is a very gentle animal, and full of fport and play, and is found wild among the rocks. The Tragelaphus of Bellonius, is a creature with the hair of the goat, but without its beard ; its horns do not fall of, and are of the ftiape of thofe of the goat, but not unfrequently curled like thofe of the ram. Its head, face, and ears, are very like thofe of the ram ; and its fcrotum is very large, and hangs down in the fame manner with that creature's. Its legs are of the length of the ram's ; its hips under the tail are white i its tail black ; and its neck, both on the upper and under part, and its breaft alfo, are fo hairy, with long hairs, that they look as if covered with one continued beard. The hairs on the fhoulders and breaft are long and black ; it has on each fide a remarkable grey fpot j it's noftrils are black, and its mouth and the under part of its body white. Ray's Syn. Quad. p. 82.
TRAGI A, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the cha- racters of which are thefe : It produces male and female flowers on the fame plant. In the male the periantbium is divided into three fegments, which are ovated, acute, and expanded. There are no petals. The ftamina arc three ca- pillary filaments, of the length of the cup ; and the antheras are roundifh. Plunder makes this cup a monopetalous funnel- fafhioned flower ; but this does not appear to be realty the cafe. In the female flowers the cup is divided into five fegments, which are ovated and hollow. The germen of the piftil is roundifh, and furrowed with three lines. The ftyle js fingle, erect, and longer than the cup. The ftigma is trifid and expanded. The fruit is a very large tricoccous capfule, of a roundifh figure. The feeds are fin- gle and roundifh. Linnai Gen. Plant, p. 448. Plumier* Gen. 12.
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