Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/624

596 J A S J A S The plant known in America as the " Carolina jasmine " (fig. 2) is not a true jasmine (see GELSEMIUM). Other hardy species commonly cultivated in gardens are the low or Italian yellow-flowered jasmine, J. humile, an erect shrub 3 or 4 feet high, with angular brandies, alternate and FIG. 2. Gelsemium, half natural size ; flower, iiat. size, mostly ternate leaves, blossoming from June to September ; the common yellow jasmine, J. fruticans, a hardy deciduous shrub, 10 to 12 feet high, with weak, slender stems requir ing support, and bearing yellow, odourless flowers from spring to autumn ; and J. nudiflorum, which flowers before the leaves appear. (j. en. s.) JASON", grandson of the god Poseidon or of the king Cretheus, is by this descent as by his name ( lao-wv, "lao-os, lao-i wv, &c., can hardly be separated from Ias, Iao-Tt, laoves &c., see Curt., Gr. Gesck., i., note 34) connected with the seafaring lonians and their Poseidon religion. He was the leader of the Argonautic expedition, for the details of which see ARGONAUTS. After he returned from it he lived at Corinth with his wife Medea for many years. At last he put away Medea, in order to marry Glance, daughter of the Corinthian king Creon. The revenge which Medea took on Jason s nsw wife and on her own children by him, is the subject of Euripides s greatest play. The story of Jason is one of the most famous in Greek mythotogy, and has run through a long course of development. Strip ping off the later embellishments of poetic fancy, we find that the main outlines were not completed till the voyages of the Euboean mariners to the Hellespont and the Euxine determined the order of the incidents of the outward voyage. Beneath this outward form we find that the scenes of Jason s life are the places where Ionian mariners exerted most influence the coasts of Thessaly and Boeotia, the ^Egean islands, Corinth, and the Adriatic shores ; moreover, the Minyee, who supplied most of the Argo s crew, are closely connected with the old lonians. The myth therefore was an accompaniment of the religion carried with them by these mariners, and preserves to us the memory of u genuine connexion once existing between these widely separate places. We can analyse the legend still further, determining the religious centre round which this his torical framework has been constructed ; this we shall find to bs one of the commonest naturalistic myths. The sun, the ram with the golden fleece, flies through the air to the land at once of setting and of rising sun ; there lie is sacrificed on the shore in the fire of sunset ; his skin is hung upon the tree of the nightly heaven, and guarded by the envious power, the dragon, till it is captured by the solar hero, by whom the darkness is dispelled and the dragon slain. JASPER, an opaque close-grained variety of quartz, variously tinted, but usually either red or brown, the colour being due in the former case to the presence of peroxide of iron, and in the latter to the same oxide in a hydrated condition. Frequently the colour is not uniform, and if the tints be disposed in stripes or bands the mineral is termed riband jasjjer. A brown jasper occurring in nodules, and exhibiting variations of tint arranged in zones, is termed, from its locality, Egyptian jasper. Although the term jasper is now restricted to such varieties of quartz as present opacity, it is certain from the descriptions of classical writers that their jaspis or uurTris was a stone of considerable translucency. The original jasper appears to have been green, inasmuch as it is often compared with the emerald and other green objects. Probably the jasper of the ancients included stones which we should now class as chalcedony and agate, while our jasper was then known as the achates. The emerald-like jasper appears to have been a green chalcedony, like the plasma and chrysoprase of modern mineralogists. See Rev. C. W. King s Natural History of Precious Stones, 1865. JASSY, JASII, or JASCHI, formerly the capital of the principality of Moldavia, and now the chisf town of a district in Roumania, is situated in the valley of the Bachlui (a tributary of the Pruth), in 47 10 N. lat. and 27 30 E. long., about 200 miles to the north of Bucharest. The surrounding country consists of hill and dale, and the town with its widely scattered houses intermingled with trees occupies two eminences, of which the one has a rapid and the other a very gradual ascent. The exterior aspect of the place is decidedly attractive and imposing ; but the character and condition of the interior is disappointing. A large number of the houses are built of wood, the streets are irregular and dirty, and there is no satisfactory drainage. Since 1873, however, the principal streets have been paved with asphalte, &c. . by W. O. Callender of London, at a cost to the town of 200,000. Jassy is the residence of a prefect, and the see of the archbishop of Moldavia ; and it has a court of the first instance, a court of appeal, a number of synagogues, and about forty-seven Greek churches, including the cathedral and the church of the monastery of St Spiridion, a museum with a public library, a fine hall, and a theatre. Besides the university (which has three faculties law, letters, and philosophy and in 1876 num bered 22 professors and 146 pupils), there are two gymnasia in the town, one academy, several national schools (both girls and boys ), and upwards of twenty private schools. The foundation of St Spiridion (due to the liberality of Gregorius Ghika in 1727, and available for the sick of all countries and creeds) has an income of nearly 50,000 per annum, and maintains hospitals in several towns of Moldavia. The main hospital in Jassy is a large building, and possesses a maternity institution, a midwifery school, and other auxiliaries. A society of physicians and naturalists has existed in Jassy since the early part of the century, and a number of periodicals are pub lished in the town. In the vicinity are Belvedere Castle (the residence formerly of Stourza Citacnie), the mineral springs and convent of Galata, the water-cure establish ment of Rapide, and the great ecclesiastical college of Socola. The industrial activity of Jassy is but slight, a tobacco factory, a flour-mill, a brewery, and two or three small manufactories of aerated water making the total sum in 1878. The trade of the town is mainly in the hands of the Jews, who form a large and increasing proportion of its 90,000 inhabitants. By a branch line to Pascani, Jassy communicates with the Austrian railway system, and by a