FIG 



FIL 



race, or terminating- extremities of any 

 body ; and, considered as a property of 

 body affecting our senses, is defined a 

 quality which may be perceived by two 

 of the outward senses. Thus a table is 

 known to be square by the sight, and by 

 the touch. 



FIGURES, in arithmetic, are certain 

 characters, whereby we denote any num- 

 ber which may be expressed by any com- 

 bination of the nine digits, &c. See 

 DIGIT. 



FIGURE, in botany, a property of na- 

 tural bodies, from which murks and dis- 

 tinctive characters are frequently drawn. 

 Figure is more constant than number ; 

 more variable than proportion and situa- 

 tion. Tiie figure of the flower in the 

 same species is more constant than that 

 of the fruit: hence Linnaeus advises to 

 arrange under the same genus such plants 

 as agree invariably in the flowers, that is, 

 in the calyx, petals, and stamina, although 

 the fruit or seed-vessel should be very 

 different. The seed-vessels of the dif- 

 ferent species of French honey-suckle, 

 wild senna, acacia, Syrian mallow, and 

 sophora, are exceedingly diversified in 

 point of figure. Hence some former bo- 

 tanists, who paid more attention to the 

 parts of the fruit, considered many of 

 these species as distinct genera, and de- 

 nominated them accordingly. The figure 

 of the seed-vessel is a very common spe- 

 cific difference in the Sexual Method. 



FIGURE, in dancing, denotes the seve- 

 ral steps which the dancer makes in or- 

 der and cadence, considered as they mark 

 certain figures on the floor. 



FIGURE, in fortification, the plan of 

 any fortified place, or the interior poly- 

 gon, which, when the sides and angles 

 are equal, is called a regular, and, when 

 unequal, an irregular figure. 



FIGUIIE, in geometry, the superficies 

 included between one or more lines is 

 denominated either rectilinear, curvili- 

 near, or mixed, according as the extremi- 

 ties are bounded by right lines, curve 

 lines, or both. 



FIGURE, in grammar, a deviation from 

 the natural rules of etymology, syntax, or 

 prosody, either for brevity, elegance, or 

 harmony. 



FIGURE, in logic, denotes a certain or- 

 der and disposition of the middle term in 

 any syllogism. 



FIGURE, in painting, and designing, 

 denotes the lines and colours which form 

 the representation of any animal, but 

 more particularly of a human personage. 

 Thus a painting is said to be full of fi- 



gures, when there are abundance of re- 

 presentations of men ; and a landscape is 

 said to be without figures, when there is 

 nothing but trees, plants, mountains, &c._ 



FIGURE, in rhetoric, is a manner of 

 speaking different from the ordinary and 

 plain way, and more emphatical ; express- 

 ing a passion, or containing a beauty. See 

 RHETORIC. 



FIL ACER, or flizer, an officer of the 

 Court of Common Pleas, so called, be- 

 cause he files those writs whereon he 

 makes out process. 



FILAGO, in botany, a genus of the 

 Syngenesia Polygamia Necessaria class 

 and order. Natural order of Composite 

 Nucamentaceac. Corymbyferse, Jussiea. 

 Essential character : calyx imbricate : 

 female, florets among the scales of the 

 calyx ; down none : receptacle naked. 

 There are seven species. 



FILAMENT, in physiology and anato- 

 my, denotes much the same as fibre. See 

 FIBRE. 



FILAMENT, in botany, the lower, slen- 

 der, or thread-shaped part of the stami- 

 na, that serves as a foot-stalk for elevat- 

 ing the anthers, and connecting them with 

 the vegetable. The term is equivalent to 

 the stamen of Tournefort, and other bo- 

 tanists. With Linnaeus, stamen is a ge- 

 ral term, the two parts of which are the 

 filament or thread, and the anthera or 

 summit. From the number of the fila- 

 ments the first thirteen classes in the 

 " Sexual Method" arise. With respect 

 to figure, filaments are either slender, 

 like a hair, as in plantain ; flat, as in star 

 of Bethlehem ; wedge-shaped, as in mea- 

 dow-rue ; twisted like a screw, as in hir- 

 tella; awl-shaped, as in tulip ; notched, 

 as in many of the lip-flowers; or bent 

 backwards, as in superb lily. The fila- 

 ments in spider-wort and flower-of-a-day 

 are beautifully covered with a fine hairy 

 down. As to proportion, the filaments 

 are either very long, as in plantain ; very 

 short, as in arrow-headed grass ; of equal 

 lengths, as in most flowers ; or irregular/ 

 and unequal, as in the lip and cross-shap- 

 ed flowers, which, from this circumstance 

 constitute the classes Didynamia and 

 Tetradynamia, in Linnaeus's Method. The 

 situation of the filaments is generally op- 

 posite to the divisions of the calyx, and 

 alternate with the petals. 



FILAMENTS, vegetable, form a sub- 

 stance of great use in the arts and manufac- 

 tures, furnishing thread, cloth, cordage, 

 See. For these* purposes the filamentous 

 parts of hemp and flax are employed 

 among- us. Different vegetables have 



