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ry Virtues; they fay it difpelled fear, gave chearfulnefs, and had many other fiich effects ;and defcribe it as being of the co- lour of the chryfolite. But neither this nor its virtues can de- termine what Hone they meant.
FJLAWS, among the modern /Egyptians, villages inhabited by the original natives of the country. Pococ&'s Egypt, p. 177.
FILE (Cycl.) — File, filacium, inlaw proceedings, is u fed for a thread, it-ring, or wire, by which writs and other exhibits in courts and offices are fattened or filed, for the more fafe keep- ing and ready turning to the fame.
A file is a record of the court, and the filing of the procefs of a court makes a record of it. r Lill. Abr. 112.
FiLE-leaders, in the military art, the foremoft men in each file. See File, Cycl.
Half File leaders, are the men of the fourth rank ; the fourth, fifth and fixth ranks being called the rear half files, as the firft, fecond and third are the front half files.
FILICULA, dwarf fern, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : the flowers are not difcovered; the feeds grow in clufters on the backs of the leaves, and the whole plant refembles the larger or common ferns.
The fpecies of filicula enumerated by Tournefort are thefe : 1. The fmall water fern, called dryopteris, ox fern leaved "white maidenhair. 2. The large water -fern, called the dry- opteris, and fern leaved white maidenhair. 3. The obtufe leaved filicula, called the black maidenhair with obtufe pinnu- les. 4. The fharper leaved filicula, called the black maiden- hair with acute pinnules. 5. The larger Scotch filicula, with the appearance of black maidenhair. 6. The mountain fili- cula, with various and finely divided leaves. 7. The polypo- dy rooted Portugal filicula. 8. The fea rock filicula, with round fegments. 9. The Portugal, branched filicula, with leaves like the ceterach. 10. The rock filicula, with thick fet fharp pointed pinnules. II. The capillaceous filicula. 12. The fingered filicula. 13. The cup bearing filicula. 14. The black filicula, with pointed jaggs. 15. The fmallcft beautiful {bom filicula. 16. The ftone horned filicula, called filis fax- atilis corniculata. 17. The fmalleft African filicula, with fine- ly divided pinnules. 18. The great African filicula, divided into fharp fegments. 19. The Virginian filicula, with baf- tard hemlock leaves. 20. The larger filicula, covered with a filvery powder. 21. The American filicula, covered with a gold coloured powder. 22. The American filicula with ob- tufe pinnules. 23. The fmall American filicula, with the ap- pearance of black maidenhair. 24. 1'he Chinefe filicula, with obtufe and ufually bifid pinnules.
FILIPENDULA, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The flower is of the rofaceous kind, being compofed of feveral petals which are arranged in 3 circular form. The flower cup is one leaved, but divided in- to many points ; from this there arifes a pift il, which finally becomes a roundifh fruit compofed of feeds arranged together in the fhapeof a little barrel.
The fpecies of jilipendula enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe : 1. The common Jilipendula, fuppofed by many to be the molon of Pliny. 2. The common Jilipendula, with varie- gated leaves. 3. The (mzWev filipendula. Tournefort Inft. p. 293.
FILIX, fern, in botany, the name ot a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe. The leaves are compofed of other leaves affixed on each fide of their middle rib, and thofc are fubdivided almofr. to their rib, into other pinnulse, or little leaves. The flowers have not been difcovered, and the feeds grow in cluftcrs on the under part of the leaves. To this it is to be added, that there is alio a peculiar face in the ferns, which diftinguiflies them at firft fight from the other plants of this kind.
The fpecies of fern enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe: 1. The great branched fern, with obtufe and not dentated leaves, called the female fern. 2. The great branched or fe- male fern, with undulated leaves. 3. The great branched fern, with very acute, not dentated leaves. 4. The fmaller branched fern, with dentated pinnules. 5. The fmall Pyre- nasan branched fern, with polypody leaves. 6. The indented, not branched fern, commonly called the male fern. 7. The broad leaved dentated, not branched fern. 8. The unbranch- cd, dentated fern, with leaves growing together, into the fi- gure of a birds-neft. 9. The unbranched fern, with very narrow and finely dentated leaves. 10. The fmooth foft fern, refcmbling the common male fern. 11. The finely di- vided fern of mount Ballon. 12. The finely dentated rhie- tic fern, 13. The little marfh unbranched fern, 14. The berry-bearing fern. 15. The fpleenwort leaved unbranched Portugal fern. 16. The great branched African fern, with dentated leaves. 17. The fpleenwort like dentated African fern. 18. The branched African fern, with lonchites leaves. 19. The tree fern, with dentated leaves. 20. The prick- ly tree fern with pinnules ferrated at the ends. 21. The broad leaved prickly tree fern. 22. The low, prickly- tree fern. 23. The climbing fern, with elegantly ferrated pinnules. 24. The great tall lobular fern. 25. The broad band prickly fern, with fmooth and black pinnules. 26. The Suppl. Vol.. I.
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broad jagged .'caved fern, lightly prickly at the jaggs'. *fl 1 he broad leaved branched firn, with black and prickly (talks)
28. The broad leaved tailed fern, with leaves like the lonchitiS:
29. The broad leaved dentated fern, with pointed pinnules. |0. The hemlock leaved branched firn. 31. The dentated
fern, with bifid tops to the pinnules. 32. The greater yew- leaved fern. 33. Thelefier yew-leaved firn. 34. The hairy
fern with oak like pinnules. 35. The fmall hairy firn, with deeply indented pinnules. 36. The great branched hairy firn, With pinnules dented into round creree. 37. The hairy fern, duitcd with yellowifh powder. 38. The branched golden
firn, With round crenae. 39. The dully firn; with very deeply but obtufely dentated pinnules. 40. The prickly creep' mg firn. 41. The prickly tailed firn. 42. The great firn, with broad dentated pinnules. 43. The fmaller Art, with broad dentated pinnules. 44. The fern with leaves at the T-r' ^' " lhe brancncd /"'"• witn roftrated pinnules. 46. The firn with crufted pinnules. 47. The polypody rooted broad dented firn. 48. The firn with pinnules, ftaped like the lonchitis, not dentated, and dufty at the edges. 49. The fmall broad dentated unbranched firn. 50. The forked firn with long, not dentated pinnules. 51. The branched fern, with long, and in part auriculated pinnules. 52. The firn with un- dulated pinnules and fquammofe pedicles. 53. The greater unbranched firn, with round not dentated pinnules. 54. The leffer unbranched fern with round not dentated pinnules. 55. The unbranched fern divided into obtufe pinnules. 56. The great adiantum-like tree firn. 57. The fmall adiantum-like tree firn, and 5S. The fern with oblong pinnules, ferrated at their tops. Tram. Inft. p. 137.
The root of the male-fern is greatly recommended by medical writers, as a cure for the rickets in children. Some alfo give it 111 powder, againft worms ; and it has the fame virtues againft the ftone and gravel, with the reft of the genus of ca- pillary plants, alcribed to it. LemeryDiQ. des Droug. See Fern. FILTER, or Ftltre (Cyel.) — Belide the common fltrc, which is only a piece of fpungy paper, there is ufed on many occa- fions another made of a skain of cotton or other the like mat- ter twilled together ; this is only to be confidered as a com- pound capillary liphon ; for the threads or filaments of which it confifts, lying very near together, make a number of lone and (lender vacuities or interftices, which reprefent fo many capillary fiphons ; thefe attract, raife, and decant off the fluid, in a conhderable quantity, which is proportional to thei> number or to the largenefs of the filtre. After the (lime manner, it is, without doubt, that the humidi- ty of the earth is drawn up into the fubftance of the roots of vegetables, which we know confifts of long and very minute fibres, fo difpofed as to form a great number of tubular inter- ftices ; thefe act in the nature of this fort of f 'Iter, and attract the juices and moifture appointed for the nutriment and in- creafe of the plant. FILTRUM, in natural hiftory, the name of a ftone much in ufe in the eaftcrn parts of the world,and fometimes with us, for the filtrating water intended for drinking. The Japonefe are ex- tremely fond of this ftone, and impute their uninterrupted health, and particularly their being always free from the ftone and gravel, to their drinking the water thus cleared of all its heterogeneous, and mifchievous particles. The people of this and many other places thereabout, have a fettled opinion, that moft difeafes arife from impurities of water, and are Well af-> fured, that thefe impurities are all lodged in the ftone filtre, and left behind by the water in its paflage. The manner of ufing the ftone is this ; they form a fort of mortars with very thick bottoms, out of the Jargeft pieces of it, and the water is poured into thefe, and the ftone being of a very lax and fpungy texture, it foon make its way through, and is received into a veflel placed underneath for that purpofe. Some fay that the ftone itfelf is a kind of marine fun- gus, that it is foft while in the water, and grows to the fides of rocks in fome part of the gulf of Mexico, at the depth of a hundred ells, from whence it is with the utmoft difficulty got up, and that it hardens into a ftone as foon as it comes in- to the air.
This feems a fabulous account, however, only propagated to countenance the high price the ftone bears. Whatever be its origin in Mexico, we are well allured that there are other places where it is to be had on much eaiier terms, than bv fetch- ing it from the deep bottoms of the fea. We are at prefent ac- quainted with two kinds of it: the one black, refembling the common black Hate, with which we cover houfes, and the other grey and of a tophous ftructure. We have alfo ftones which may be applied to this purpofe, in many parts of Eu- rope ; and in all probality, every fpecies of thofe which are porous, and of the tophus kind, will do. The ofteocolla ufed in the fhops as a medicine, will perfect ly well anfwer that purpofe ; and if one of the tubes of this be flopped at the bot- tom and then filled with water, it will be feen immediately making its way thro' it on all fides. The incruftations on vegetable and other fubftances in fprings, are all form'd of a matter very analogous to the ofleocolla, that is, of a coatfe ter- rene fpar. And if a piece of any of thefe be hollowed at the
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top,
