HER 



HER 



moors, waters, marshes, furzes, and 

 heath. Incorporeal hereditaments are 

 not the object df sensation, are creatures 

 of the mind, and exist only in contempla- 

 tion. They are principally of ten sorts, 

 viz. advowsons, tithes, commons, ways, 

 offices, dignities, franchises, presents, 

 and rents. 



HERIOT, in law, signifies a tribute 

 given to the lord for his better prepara- 

 tion towards war. And by the laws of 

 Canute, it appears, that at the death of 

 the great men of this nation, so many 

 horses and arms were to be paid for, as 

 they were in their respective life-times 

 obliged to keep for the King's service. A 

 heriot was first paid in arms and horses ; 

 it is now by some custom sometimes the 

 best live beast which the tenant dies pos- 

 sessed of, sometimes the best inanimate 

 goods, under which a jewel or piece of 

 plate may be included. Some are due by 

 custom, some by tenure, and by reserva- 

 tion on deeds executed within time of 

 memory; those due by custom are the 

 most frequent. 



For an heriot service, or for an heriot 

 reserved by way of tenure, the lord may 

 either seize or distrain. 



HERISSON, in fortification, a beam 

 armed with a great number of iron spikes, 

 with their points outwards, and support- 

 ed by a pivot, on which it turns. 



HERITIERA, in botany, so named in 

 honour of Charles Louis L'Heritier, a 

 genus of the Monoecia Monodelphia class 

 and order. Essential character : calyx 

 five toothed ; corolla none ; male anthers 

 ten, without filaments ; female germs 

 five ; drupes with one subglobular seed. 

 There is but one species, viz. H. littoralis, 

 looking-glass plant, a native of the East 

 Indies. 



HERMANNIA, in botany. This name 

 was given in honour of the celebrated 

 Paul Hermann, a genus of the Monadel- 

 phia Pentandria class and order. Natural 

 order of Columniferae. Tiliaceae, Jussieu. 

 Essential character : styles five ; capsule 

 five-celled ; petals semitubular at the 

 base, oblique. There are twenty-one spe- 

 cies. The hermannias are shrubs from 

 two to seven feet in height. Natives of 

 the Cape of Good Hope. 



HERMAPHRODITE, a term formerly 

 applied exclusively to signify a human 

 creature possessed of both sexes. The 

 term is now applied to other animals, and 

 to plants. It is now well known there is 

 no such thing as an hermaphrodite in the 

 human species. In most species of ani- 

 s, the production of hermaphrodites 



appears to be the effect of causes little 

 understood. In the black cattle it seems 

 to be an established principle of their 

 propagation. It is a well known fact, and, 

 as far as has yet been discovered, appears 

 to be universal, that when a cow brings 

 forth two calves, one of them a bull, and 

 the other a cow to appearance, the cow 

 is unfit for propagation, but the bull-calf 

 becomes a very proper buH.* They are 

 known not to breed; they do not shew 

 the least inclination for the bull, nor does 

 the bull ever take the least notice of them. 

 Among the country people in England, 

 this kind of calf is called a free-martin ; 

 and this singularity is just as well known 

 among the farmers as either cow or bull. 

 When they are preserved, it is for the 

 purposes of an ox or spayed heifer; vis. 

 to yoke with the oxen, or fatten for the 

 table. They are much larger than either 

 the bull or cow, and the horns grow 

 longer and bigger, being very similar to 

 those of an ox. The bellow of a free- 

 martin is also similar to that of an ox, 

 and the meat is similar to that of the ox 

 or spayed heifer, viz. much finer in the 

 fibre than either the bull or cow, and 

 they are more susceptible of growing fat 

 with good food. 



Among the reptile tribe, indeed, such 

 as worms, snails, leeches, &c. hermaphro- 

 dites are very frequent. In the memoirs of 

 the French Academy, we have an account 

 of this very extraordinary kind of her- 

 maphrodites, which not only have both 

 sexes, but do the office of both at the 

 same time. Such are earth-worms, round- 

 tailed worms found in the intestines of 

 men and horses, land-snails, and those of 

 fresh waters, and all the sorts of leeches. 

 The method of coupling practised in this 

 class of hermaphrodites may be illustrat- 

 ed in the instance of earth-worms. These 

 little creatures creep two by two, out of 

 their holes of the earth, where they dis- 

 pose their bodies in such a manner, as 

 that the head of the one is turned to the 

 tail of the other. Being thus stretched 

 lengthwise, a little conical button, or pa- 

 pilla, is thrust forth by each, and receiv- 

 ed into an aperture of the other, these 

 animals being male in one part of the bo- 

 dy and female in another. 



Among the insects of the soft or bone- 

 less kind, there are great numbers in- 

 'deed, which are so far from being herma- 

 phrodites, that they are of no sex at all. 

 Of this kind are all the caterpillars, mag- 

 gots, and worms, hatched from the eggs of 

 flies of all kinds. But the reason of thin 

 is plain ; these are not animals in a per- 



