o
Centunculus, ia the Linnsean fyfitm of botany: This makt-s a. diftincl- genus of plants, the characters of which arc thefe: thecttp is a wide perianthium, divided into Lur oval and pointed fegments, and remaining after the flower is fallen ; thefe alio are larger than the fegments of the flower. The flower is compofed of a fingle petal, in form of aroundifhtube, with a rim divided into four fegments of an oval figure : the ftamina are four fila- ments nearly of the length of the flower: the antherx are fimplc: the germen of the piftil is roundifh, and fituated in the tube of the flower; the fttle is flender, of the length of the flower, and remains when the petal is fallen; the ftiwma is iimple : the fruit is a globoib capfule, containing only one cell, which fplits open horizontally : the feeds arc final], nu- merous and roundifh. LitmaiGen. Plant, p. 4,7.
CENTURIAL inferiptions, a denomination given by fome to thofe inicriptions inferred in the face of Severus's wall, which make mention of the centuries and cohorts by whom fuch parts of the wall are fuppofed to have been erected. In which fenfe, cmturial ir.fcriptians ftand con trad iftinguifhed from le- gionary. Horjl, .Britan. Rom. 1. 1. c. 8. p. 127.
CENTURIATA comitia, in antiquity. Thofe aflemblies of the Romans, wherein the people gave their votes b\t centuries. Fab. Thef. p. 532. Calv. Lex. Jur. p. 173. 'See Comi-
TIA.
CENTURIATOR, an appellation given to certain learned Germans of the city of Magdeburg, who in the early days of the reformation compofed a body of church hiftorv, divided into centuries of years. Sagktar. In trod. Hift. Ecclef. c. 13. §. 2, feq Sec Century.
Baronius is faid to have written his Annals byway of oppofi- tion to the centuriators of Magdeburg. Sagitt. lib. tit. c. 14. §. I. feq.
CENTURY {Cycl.)— The marquifs of Worcefter has pub-' iifhed a century of inventions ; Dr Hook has given a decimate of inventions, as part of a century, of which he aifirmed him- felf matter. 'Tis remarkable, that both in the century of the former, and the decimate of the latter, we find the prin- ciple on which Savary's fire engine is founded. Vid. Waller. Life of Hook, p. 21. prefixed to his pofthum. Work. Among the Romans, the denomination century, ccnturia, was given to the horfemen or equites belonging to each tribe, which at nrft were only 100 ; but the fame name, antuiia wuitwi, was retained when the number was afterwards doubled, and even tripled 2 : juft as it was with the word tribe, which at firft denoted a third part of the people ; but was ftill retained, after the people were divided into fix parts b . — [ a Lii>. 1. 1. c, 36. b Far, de Ling. Lat. 1. 4. Mem. Acad. Infer. T. 2. p. lor, feq.]
Century is alfo a denomination given to the lefler clafles or orders, into which the Roman people were divided by Servius Tullius, for the conveniency of giving their fuflrages. Liv. I. 1. c 43. Fab. Thef. p. 532.
Century, in chronology. Cave gives particular denomina- tions to the feveral centuries of the church, from the perfons, fects, &c. who prevailed therein. The firft century is called theApoltolic age ; the fecond, the Gnoftic; the third, the No- vatian ; the fourth, the Arian ; the fifth, the Neftorian ; the fixth, the Eutychian; the feventh, Monotheletic ; the eighth, the Iconoclaltic j the ninth, the Photian ; the tenth, theOb- fcure; the eleventh, the Hildebrandine j the twelfth, the Waldenfian ; the thirteenth, the Scholaftic ; the fourteenth, the Wicklefian j the fifteenth, the Synodal ; the ftxteenth, the Reformed age. Vid. Cave Chartophyl. Ecclef, ejufd. Hift. Liter.
Centuries of Magdeburg. This work is highly extolled byMountague, Cafaubon, Hornbeck, and other protectants, both as to the matter, method, learning and impartiality : on which account, ibme will have it the molt excellent work the church of late ages has produced. Sturmius cenfures the ftile, as not fufficiently hiftorical : others remark other failings and overfights: many Romanifts damn the whole, asan infamous eompofition of lies ; particularly Baronius, who calls the cen- turiators a thoufand rafcals, flaves, &c. See Centuriator. The centuries were publiflied at Bafil in many volumes, from the year 1561 to 1574 ; they have been fmce collected, re- vifed, and publiflied together in 1624, by Lud. Lucius, pro- feflbr at Bafil, in three volumes folio ; who is cenfured by fome, and applauded by others, for omitting the prefaces, de- dications, &c. to the feveral centuries. M oiler, in an exprefs diflertation on the Magdeburg centuries, charges them with other corruptions, and alterations of the text j from which, however, they are generally acquitted.
CENTUSSIS, a Roman coin, containing an hundred afTes. Vid. BevtrinSynt. de Ponder, p. 39. Macrob. Saturn. 1. 3. c. 17. Fab.The(. p. 532. SecAs, Cyd.
CEOAN, in zoology, the name of a bird, common in the Spa- nish Weft-Indies, and defcribed by Nieremberg, who alio calls it avis nivea. It is a little larger than our largeft thrufb, and very remarkable for the facility with which it learns to imitate the human fpeech. Its breaft, belly and moulders are vellow- ifli ; near the tail it has fome grey feathers intermixed ; the tips of its wings and tail are alfo grey underneath, but its whole upper part is of abrownifh black : its beak is ("mall and yellowifij, and its feet are yellow: the uppsr part of its throat
SuPPL. VojL. I.
CEP
' is white, with a few black feathers intermixed with it : its na- tural note is ibmewhat like the human laugh. Ray's Ornkhol p. 304.
CKPA, thes»«», in botany, &c. See Onion.
CEPjEA, in botany, a name given by fome authors to the com- mon anagallis aquatica, or water-brook-lime Ger. Emac. Ind. 2.
CEPHALGIA. See Head-ach.
CEPHALALGIA. See Head- ach.
Cephalalgia Hiaco-bamatitica, a name given by fome rhedical writers to that fpecies of head-ach, called by others the clavus hyltericus.
CEPHALOIDES, Ki?«ji} Wl a denomination given by fome writers, who difcover virtues in plants from their fignatures, to thofe winch bear any refemblance to a human head ; fuch arc the poppy, pipny, and the like. Cafl. Renov. p. 156.
CEPHALOMANTIA, K.p.A.p**,*, an antient fpecies of di- vination, or method of foretelling futurity, by a dead man's head or (hull. Praia,: Aledtryom. c. 5. 'Fabric. Bib!. Antiq. c 12. p. 413.
CEPHALONOMANTIA, K#o«p<A l ,, a method of divina- tion, or revealing fecrcts, by means of an afs's head broiled on the coals.
The word is compounded of the Greek utpate, head, and »«.s, als, and fwwW, divination.
After muttering a few prayers, the names of feveral perfons lulpefled of a theft, or the like, were repeated over: he at whofe name the afs's jaws made any motion, or the teeth be- gan to chatter, was held fot convifled. Potter, Archreol. Gnec. 1. 2. c 18. p. 352. CEPHALOPONIA, Kttpe&tnrm*, a denomination eiven by fome to. the .cephalalgia, or head-ach. Caji. RenoV.p. 156. Blanc. ^ Lex Med. p. 145. See Head-ach.
CEPIIALUS, in ichthyology, a name given byAriftofle, /Elian, Appian, and others, to the mugil or mullet, called alfo by fome capito. Thefe words being generally underilood as the names of the chubb, it has occalioned much confufion amon» the later writers, to find them thus applied to a Sfh of an ex- tremely different kind. Gaza has tranflated the cephalus of Anftotle, by the word capito. It is plain, indeed, by' the con- text, and by the general confent of the Greek writers, that he means the mullet by his cipbalm ; but this tranflation has made many think that he was writing on the chubb. Cephalus is alfo a name given by fome naturalifts to the fargus, called alfo gardo, and gardon; a fifh very little, if at all, dif- fering from our roach. Pay's Ichthyogr p. 260. CEPHEUS {Cycl.) is alio known by the names of Ccginus, lafides, Cbegmus, Cam-am, Keipbus, Fir Regius, Dominus Soils, Flanmi- gtr, Incenfus, Soncms, Phicares and CheicUus. Vital. Lex. Math. p. 101. IVolf. Lex. Math. p. 335.
Schiller, in lieu of cepbeus, reprefents St. Stephen; Harfdorff, king Solomon; Weigelius, the arms of Holftein. CEl'lON, k<»i»., in antiquity, the name of a particular air, invented by a difciple of Terpander, and defigned to be played on the cithara. Mem. Acad. Infcript. T. 14. p. 360, feq. See Cithara, Cycl. CEPIONITES, in natural hiftory, a name given by Pliny, and other antient writers, to a fpecies of ftone, feeming to approach to the nature of the jafper. Pliny tells us, that there were many kinds of it, fome more pellucid than others, and fome colourlefs ; others variegated with green, and the other colours of the jafpers and agates : they were all ufed in the ornament- ing houfes ; and the leaft beautiful ferved, when well polifhed, to make fpeculums of. CEP1TES, in natural hiftory, a name ufed by the antients to ex- prefs a gem which gave the reprefentation of the feveral cluf- ters of plants and flowers in the beds of a garden, with naked veins, ^ exprefling the walks between. The common text of Pliny is unintelligible, where he gives the defcription of this ftone ; but Salmafius has refrar'd it from fome old copies, fo as to make it fenfe, and expreflive of this meaning. The ftone was probably no other than a peculiar kind of that ag;,te which the antients called dendrites, and we the mocoa ftones. What gave it a right to this appellation mult have been, that the delineations of trees did not ftand fingle in it, as they ufuall v do in our mocoa ftones, but were arranged in different com- partments with veins of the white matter, of which the varie- gations in that agate are ufually compofed, running irregularly between them. This might all be done in the common courfe of nature in this ftone ; for we well know, that all its de- lineations of trees are only the effect of fo many cracks, and that thefe cracks never go thro' the white or more opake veins of the ftone ; fo that if among a clufter of thefe flaws there run fome of thefe veins, they mult naturally divide them into feveral compartments, and would themfelves, by their various courfe, refemble the winding walks ufually fafhioncd to run between the beds of flower plats. CEPOLAPITES, in natural hiftory, a name given by fome to the ftone properly called cepites, a kind of mocoa agate. See Cf.pites, fupra. CEPPHUS, in zoology, the name of a bird of the larus or <*ull kind; but, except in its feet and beak, very much refemblnj the common duck. It is a moderately large bird, but is Cj thick feathered, that it appears much more fo than it really ■* 6 U '- j t
