J A S
J A T
it only exerts at the time of biting, and its poifon is fo fatal
that it will deftroy a man within four and twenty hours.
Ray's Syn. An. p. 330.
JARDES, or Jardons, in the manege, are callous and hard
fwellings in the hinder legs of a horfe, feated on the outfide
of the hough, as the fpavin is on the infide. Jardons lame a
horfe, unlefs you give the lire dextroufly and betimes.
Quillet. See the article Fire.
JARIBOLUS, lafi|3*Ao?, in antiquity, one of the Palmyrenian
gods. This deity in all appearance had the fame attributes
with the god Lunus ; for Jari fignifies the month over
which the moon prefides. Mem. Acad. Infcrip. T. 3. p.
177. See the article Lunus.
JARRETIER, in the manege, an obfolete French word, fig-
nifying a horfe, whofe houghs are too clofe together ; which
is now exprefTed in French by Crocku, i. e. crooked or hooked.
JARUS, in botany, a name by which fome authors have called
the arum, or wake-robin. Ger. Kmac. Ind. 2. JASINE, in botany, a name ufed by the antients to exprefs a fmall kind of climbing plant, much reiembling that from which they obtained the drug called fcammony. They there- fore called this fometimes the fmall fcammony, or jcammo- nia parva. It climb'd upon trees, and had fmall ivy-like leaves. Pliny has defcribed fuch a plant as this under the name of Langini ; and it feems very probable that this was only a corruption of the word Jafine, that author having taken moft of his accounts from the Greeks, and having frequently miftaken their names. JASIONE, in botany, a name given by Linnaeus to a genus of plants ; the characters of which are thefe : The common perianthium of the flowers is compofed of ten leaves, which Hand alternately one below another : This contains a great number of flowers which are affixed to fhort pedicles. The peculiar perianthium of each flower is indented in five places, and is placed upon the germen of the piftil. The feparatc flowers are each compofed of five leaves, which are joined at the bafe : The ftamina are five very fhort filaments ; the apices are oblong, of the fame number, and are joined alio at the bafc. The piftil has a roundiih germen placed under the cup of the flower. The ftyle is very (lender, and of the length of the flower, and the ftigma is bifid. The fruit is a roundifh capfule crowned with its proper cup, and con- tains numerous fmall feeds lodged in two cells. Linnai Gen. Plant, p. 427. JASMEL./EUM, a medicinal oil, called alfo by the Perftans Jaj'me ; It is made by putting two ounces of the white flowers of violets into a pint of oil of fefamum. It is ufed to anoint the body after bathing, and is in great efteem among the Perfians for its fragrancy, tho' it is a fort of fmell which many would rather think oftenfive. JASMINE, Jafminum, in the Linnasan fyftem of botany, a fhrub which makes a peculiar genus of plants ; the charac- ters of which are, that the perianthium or cup of the flower is oblong, tabular, and compofed of one leal, with an ere£t extremity divided into five fegments. The flower is com- pofed of one petal which makes a long cylindraceous tube ; the extremity or mouth of the flower is flat and parted into five fegments ; the itamina are two fhort filaments ; the an- thcrae are fmall and hid in the tube of the flower ; the piftil— lum is compofed of a roundiih germen j the ftyle which is fmgle, and like a thread of the fame length with the ftamina, and a bifid ftigma. The fruit is a fmooth oval berry, with one cell within it, which contains two large oval but fome- what long feeds covered with a membrane, and convex on one fide and plain on the other. Linnai Gen. Plant, p. 3. The characters of this genus, according to Tournefort, are thefe : The flower coniifts of one leaf, and is of a funnel- like fhape, and divided into fevcral fegments at the edges. The piftil arifes from the cup, and is fixed in the manner of a nail into the hinder part of the flower. This finally be- comes a foft fruit or berry, which contains one or two fee-da. Tournefi Inft. p. 597.
The fpecics of Jajmine enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe : 1. The common white- flowered Jafmine, or J '1 •JJ'amy. 2. The great Spanifli 'Jajmine, with the flowers red on the outfide. 3. The Spanifli Jajmine, with proliferous flowers. 4. Thewhite-flowercd fweet-fcented trifoliate Jafmine. 5. The trifoliate Jafmine, with yellow flowers. 6. The com- mon berry-bearing trifoliate yellow Jajmine. y. The broad- leav'd double-fruited Indian Jajmine. 8. The narrow-Ieav'd double-fruited Indian Jajmine. 9. The broad-leav'd In- dian Jafmine, with double-belly' d fruit. 10. The broad- leav'd fingle-feeded Indian Jafmine. 11. The white -flower- ed tree Jajmine, with fweet-fcented bay-like leaves. 12. The white-flowered tobacco-leav'd tree Jafmine. 13. The nightfhade-leav'd tree Jafmine, with bluifh-black berries. 14. The violet-leav'd fcentlefs creeping Jaf- mine. JASP ACHATES, in the natural hiftory of the antients, a name given to a fpecics of agate, variegated with the matter of the jafper, and therefore being properly diftinguifhed by this name. It is found at this time very plentifully both in the Eaft and Weft-Indies, and in many parts of Italy, Ger- many, and other parts of Europe j and is a very elegant 3
ftone. Its colouring is always compofed of a brown and green, but it is very irregular in the admixture of thefe. Sometimes it is one equally coloured mafs, and is only diftin- guifhable from the green jafpers by its fupcrior hardnefs and brightnefs ; but it is much more frequently found of a browniin green ground, variegated with irregular concentric circles of a fairer green j and often with fome of a beautiful red, or with a brownifh green ground, irregularly clouded and fpotted with thofe colours > it often has alio an ad- mixture of white and yellow.
Our lapidaries efteem the oriental pieces of this ftone very valuable, and work them into many forts of toys. The Ger- man are fofter, and of little value. Hill's Hilt, of Foftils, p. 489. JASPER (Cycl.) — The curious Beccher having a mind to melt a Jajper, powdered it, and putting it into a crucible, luted down the lid on it, and giving it an intenfe fire melted it, and found this very remarkable truth, that the colour of this ftone tho' no more permanent in the fire than that of other gems, yet may be laved after its being railed in vapour as other fublimcd fubftances are ; accident, and not any plan of operation, afforded this ; but the fact is worth farther con- fideration. Beccbcr's Phyf. Subter.
On unluting the crucible and opening it, the Jafper was found melted into one lump, nearly as hard as oerore ; but milk-white and femiopake, relemblmg in all refpects a na- tural white agate. The cover and the upper parts of the crucible which were unfilled, and which could not be touched by the Jaj'per in fubitance, were tinged with the colours that the Jajper had loft. Thefe had the appearance of the fineft Jajpers, but the colours were fuperficiai only, not penetrat- ing into the fubftance of the matter. The ground was green, as in the natural Jajper, and the variegations red and yel- low, and as beauttiuiiy difpos'd as in the itonc itfelf ; the co- lours were fo evenly laid alfo that they had a fine polifh, and might have pafled for wrought Jajpers of the fame fpe- cies with the melted one, if cunningly let, and not iufrered to be handled. Id. ibid.
Dr. Brown, in his travels thro' Germany, gives an account of a mafs of Jaj'per dug out of a quarry at Saltlburg, and now making a part of the pavement of one of the emperor's courts at his palace at Vienna, which is of nine foot dia- meter.
JASPICAMEO, in natural hiftory, the name of one of the femipellucid gems of the camea kind, very well known a- mong the Italian lapidaries, but very feldom (tzi\ among us. It is feldom found of any confiderable fize, and is compofed of broad zones of a pure and elegant white, and a very deli- cate green, much refembling the matter of lbme of the green jafpers. It is found in the Eaft-Indies, and in fome parts of America. The Italians are very fond of it, and ufe it as the common camea for cutting heads and other figures on, either in relief or creux. Hill's Hift. of Fofl'. p. 501.
JASPONYX, in natural hiftory, the name of a fpecies of onyx, called by Dr. Hill Onyx purijfima cornea zonis l<. ■virentibus, or the pureft horn-coloured onyx with green zones. It is an extremely beautiful ftone. It is ufuallyiound in the fhape of a fmall pebble, compofed of a nucleus of a fhattered or flaw'd cryftal of an irregularly angular figure, round which are alternately difpofed zones of a fine pure cryrtalUnc matter lightly tinged to a horn-colour, and green ones little inferior to the emerald in beauty, being truly com- pofed of the matter of the fineft oriental Jafper ; and fome- times between and among thefe there are hue flender zones of a pure white, which add greatly to the beauty of the ftone. It is found in the Eaft-Indies, and in New Spain ; but in neither of thofe places very frequently. It is greatly efteem- ed among all the European nations, and cut into toys j but its fcarcity has given occafion to our jewellers very fre- quently to put oft' a green-vein'd German agate under its name. Hill's Hift. of FofT. p. 492.
JASSENSE--/k/<7rmor, a name given by the antients to a very beautiful fpecics of marble. It was remarkably hard, ca- pable of a very fine polifh, and was of a beautiful red ap- . proaching to what we call blood-colour, elegantly variegated with veins and clouds of a bluifh white.
JATRALIPTES, JuT^iarl^, in antiquity, in its original fig- nification was ufed for an officer in the Gymnafia, whofe employment was to anoint the Athlefce. The Jatraliptes was alfo called Aliptcs ; both which terms were fometimes alfo ufed to denote the mafters of the exercifc, fuch as the Gymnafies and Ptzdotriba,
Jatraliptes is alfo a term ufed by the antient writers in medicine, to denote fuch phyficians as pretended to cure all difeafes by external unctions. This method of cure was called Jatroliptice, and was firft introduced into practice among the antients by Prodicus, a native of Selymbria, and difciple of iEfculapius.
JATROCHEMIA, a term ufed by fome writers, to exprefs the method of curing difeafes by chemical remedies.
JATROPHA, in botany, the name given by Linnaeus to a genus of plants, firft called by Houftou Jujfievia. The characters are thefe : It produces male and female flowers on the fame plant. In the male flowers, the cup is fo fmall
as
