C Y A
CYC
middle of the flower are fmall, and divided info a number of equal fegments ; but thofe placed nearer the edges are much larger and more confpicuous, and arc, as it were, bilabiated : both kinds,howcver,are placed on the embryos, and ailarecon- tained togetheriu ageneral cup, which is fcaly, and not prickly. The embryos afterwards become feeds winged with down. The fpecies of cyanus enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe. i. The broad-leaved perennial mountain cyanus. 2. The white flowered broad-leaved mountain cya- nus. 3. The cyanus with longer and narrower leaves. 4. The Alpine cyanus-, with pennated heads. 5. The mountain cyanus, with leafy {talks, and oblong heads. 6. The great fweet-fcented Turkifh or oriental cyanus, 7. The great fweet-fmelling Turkifh or oriental cyanus, with white flowers. 8. The great oriental fweet cyanus, with flefh coloured flow- ers. 9. The great oriental fwcet cyanus, with yellow flowers. 10. The exotic cyanus, called amberboi, or emberbou 11. The oriental great cyanus, with red fiftulous flowers. 12. The great oriental cyanus, with fiftulous yellow flowers. 13. The great oriental cyanus, with fiftulous white flowers. 14. The low white- flowered cyanus, with hierachium leaves. 1 5. The purple flowered hierachium leaved low cyanus. 16. The hie- rachium leaved low cyanus, with purplilli olive flowers. 17. The Spanifh cyanus, with pale blue flowers. 18. The long- leaved tree cyanus. 19. The common corn cyanus, with - blue flowers. 20. The common corn-field cyanus, with white flowers. 21. The flefh-coloured flowered cyanus. 22. The purple-flowered cyanus. 23. The bright red-flowered cyanus. 24. The corn-field cyanus, with a flower blue in the middle, and white at the edges. 25. The cyanus with flowers flefh- coloured in the middle, and white at the edges, lb. The cyanus with flowers purple in the middle, and white at the edges. 27. The cyanus with flowers of a violet blue in the middle, and white at the edges. 28. The cyanus with flowers pure white in the middle, and flefh-coloured at the edges. 29. The cyanus with flowers purple in the middle, and blue at the edges. 30. The cyanus with pale violet-coloured flow- ers. 3r. The cyanus with whitifh blue flowers. 32. The garden cyanus, with blackifh purple flowers. 33. The garden cyanus, with double blue flowers. 34. The garden cyanus, "with double purple flowers. 35. The garden cyanus, with double flowers, purple in the middle. Taurn. Inft. p. 445, 446.
The common wild blue bottle of our corn-fields, is efieemed a cardiac and alexipharmic. Conferves and fyrups are pre- pared from it in fome places, and ferve very properly for the making other more efficacious medicines of the fame inten- tion into form. Schroder and fome others, have greatly ex- tolled the diftilled water of the flowers in inflammations, and many other diforders of the eyes j but this feems a lefs war- ranted matter. The flowers of the large garden kind, are faid to be particularly good in diforders of the womb, and the leaves of either in infufion in dropfies. There are feveral fpecies of this plant, commonly cultivated in gardens, for the beauty of their flowers. They are al- moft all annuals, perifhing as foon as they have ripened their feed. In order to have them flower early, their feeds fhould be fown in July, or the beginning of Auguft, and when the plants have once got ftrength, they mould be tranfplanted into warm borders, and will endure the cold very well, and will flower very early the next fummer. Cyanus, in the natural hiftory of the antients, is ufed to ex- prefs two different fubftances. The one the lapis lazuli, the other the lapis annenus, a fubftance ufed by the painters in its native ftate, and very improperly called a ftone, being a mere earth, and being truly to copper, what yellow ochre is to iron.
The antients having called thefe two fubftances by the fame name, has been the occafion of a great many errors, and great mifunderftanding of their works, even among one ano- ther, after the fucceflion of only a few ages, much more among their commentators in thefe later times. We are apt to think, we go very far back in our refearches, when we go back to Pliny, in fearch of the things in ufe among the antients ; but this is by no means fufficient, fince it will ap- pear to any one who will read, and compare Pliny with the older authors, that while he has taken his accounts of things from thofe who wrote before him, he has often miftaken, and mifunderftood them ; and in particular, that his hiftories of foflils, are in a great meafure, taken from the writings of Theophraftus, and are often very carelefs, and very bad tran- flations of him, Pliny having frequently notorioufly mifun- derftood him. Of this, the hiftory he has given us of the fubftance now under confideration, is an evident inftance ; for he has plainly confounded the two fubftances, called by the common name cyanus, and has told us thofe things of the cyanus gem, or lapis lazuli, which Theophraftus, from whom he tranflated it, fays of the paint.
When Theophraftus, in his hiftory of ftones, has gone thro' the gems and ftone clafs, and is come to the earths, among thefe he names the cyanus paint, or lapis armenu:, having, in another part of the work, treated at large of the cyanus gem ; of the cyanus paint he tells us, that bende the native kind, which was very valuable, and very fcarce, there was a ficti- Suppl. Vol. I,
xttPopatltHt, a fpecies of divination per-
vious one, which ferved very well for many kinds of paint- ing, and which was prepared in Egypt, where one of their kings having been the firft inventor of it, it was recorded to his immortal honour, in the annals of his reign. This was very probable, of a fubftance (o very dear, fo very fcarce, and yet fo much wanted in all fine paintings ; but Pliny has tran- flated this paffage, and unfortunately not minding which of the cyanus he attributes it to, has faid it all of the cyanus gem j a thing never in any great efteem, and which was never worth the counterfeiting," much lefs of fo much confe- quence, that it fhould be recorded in the hiftory of a feries qf kings, which of them happened to find out the way of imitating it. Hilts Theoph. p. 131.
CYATHUS, in antiquity, a liquid meafure among the Ro- mans, being the twelfth part of the fextarius. It only held as much as a man could eafily drink at one draught, and was divided in twelve parts, called unda. See Sextakius 5c Uncia, Cycl.
CYBJEA, in antiquity, a kind of fhip ufed in commerce, of a roundifh form. Pitifc. Lex.Ant in voc.
CYBELICUM marmor, a name given by the antients, to a fpecies of marble, dug in a mountain of that name in Phry- gia. ft was of an extremely bright white, with broad veins of a blueifh black.
CYBOMANTIA, formed by lots.
CYCEON, a name given by the antient poets and phyficians, to a mixture of meal and water, and fometimes of other ingredients. Thefe conftituted the two kinds of cyceon, the coarfer being of the water and meal alone, the richer and more delicate compofed oi wine, honey, flower-water, and chcefe. Homer, in the eleventh iliad, talks of cyceon made with cheefe and the meal of barley, mixed with wine; but without any mention either of honey or water ; and Ovid defcribing the draught of cyceon, given by the old woman of Athens to Ceres, mentions only flower and water. Diofco- rides underftood the word in both thefe fenfes; but extolled it molt in the coarfe and fimple kind : he fays, when prepared with water alone, it refrigerates and nourishes greatly.
CYCLAMEN^ fow bread, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : The flower con- lifts of one leaf, and is globofe, and of a rotated form, and ufually divided into five fegments, which all bend upwards ; from the cup there arifes a piftil, which is fixed in the man- ner of a nail, to the hinder part of the flower, and after- wards becomes a roundifh membranaceous fruit, which con- tains numerous feeds, ufually of a longifh figure, and angu- lar, and fixed to a placenta.
The fpecies of cyclamen enumerated by authors are thefe. 1. The cyclamen, with round leaves, purple on their under fide. 2. The double flowered cyclamen, with round leaves, purple underneath. 3. The cyclamen, with a roundifh leaf, of a pale whitifh green underneath. 4 The round-leaved autumnal cyclamen, with very fweet flefh-coloured flowers and leaves, red underneath. 5. The bright red-flowered Syrian, autumnal cyclamen, with roundifh, mining, crenated leaves. 6. The Syrian autumnal cyclamen, with large mow-white flowers, and roundifh^ lucid,*foft, and crenated leaves, y. The fweet-flowered, fpotted-leaved, fummer cyclamen. 8. The fummer Roman cyclamen, with leaves fcarce at all fpotted, and of a longifh fhape, and with pale purple flowers. 9. The large round-leaved cyclamen, with a pale violet-coloured flower. 1 o. The autumnal cyclamen of mount Libanus. 1 j t The coan cyclamen, or purple- flowered winter cyclamen, with roundifh leaves, purple underneath. 12. The angular-leaved cyclamen, flowering both in fpring and winter, with a large" white flower, and purple bale, called by fome the Perfian cy- clamen. 13. The winter and fpring cyclamen, with an angular leaf, and a large flefh- coloured flower, with a purple bafe. 14. The purple flowered African cyclamen, which flowers the whole year. 15. The great African cyclotron, 16. The fpring cyclamen, with great white flowers, purple at the bafe, and with angular leaves, variegated with three forts of green, called by fome, the cyclamen of Antioch. 17. The autum- nal cyclamen of Antioch, with double purple flowers. 18; The broad-leaved auriculated cyclamen, with bright red flowers.
19. The narroweft leaved, auriculated cyclamen, with white flowers, purple at the bafe, called the Byzantine cyclamen.
20. The royal cyclamen, with long, angular leaves, refem- bling ferpents tongues. 21. The great white flowered cy- clamen, with long angular leaves. 22. The great rooted cyclamen, with leaves red underneath. 23. The common angular leaved fpring cyclamen. 24. The ivy-Icaved cyclamen. 25. The many-flowered, ivy-leaved cyclamen. 26. The cy- cla?nen, with roots of the fize of a chefnut. 27. The little rooted cyclamen. 28. The long rooted cyclamen. 29. The white fpring cyclamen. 30. The red fpring cyclainen. 31. The yellow fpring cyclamen, with heart-fafhioned roots. Tourn. Inft. p. 155.
There are feveral fpecies of this plant cultivated in gardens, for the pretty appearance of its flower : they are propagated by the curious from feed, in the manner of the xipbium. SeeXYPHiUM. But they are four or five years before they come to flower, and for the firft year or two of their 7 R flowering,
