ILL 



ILL 



ter with the croppings. Birds eat the ber- 

 ries. The bark fermented, and afterwards 

 washed from the woody fibres, makes the 

 common bird lime. Forty or fifty varie- 

 ties depending on the variegations of the 

 leaves or thorns, and the colour of the 

 berries all derived from this one species, 

 are raised by the nursery gardeners for 

 sale, and were formerly in great esteem ; 

 but since the old taste of filling gardens 

 with shorn evergreens has been laid 

 aside, they are less regarded ; a few 

 however of the most lively varieties have 

 a good effect in the winter season. 



ILIUM, in anatomy, the third and 

 last of the small intestines. See ANA- 

 TOMY. 



ILLECEBRUM, in botany, a genus of 

 the Pentrandria Monogynia class and or- 

 der. Natural order of Holoracese. Ama- 

 ranthi, Jussieu. Essential character: calyx 

 five-leaved, cartilaginous ; corolla none ; 

 stigma simple ; capsules five valved, one 

 seeded. There are twenty-one species, 

 natives of North and South America and 

 the West India Islands. 



1LLIC1UM, in botany, a genus of the 

 Polyandria Polygynia class and order. 

 Natural order of Coadunatae. Magnolias, 

 Jussieu. Essential character : calyx six- 

 leaved ; petals twenty seven ; capsules se- 

 veral, disposed in a circle ; bivalve, one- 

 seeded. There are two species, viz. I. 

 anisatum, yellow -flowered aniseed tree; 

 and I. floridanum, red-flowered aniseed 

 tree. Both these plants bear a great re- 

 semblance to each other. Thunberg 

 doubts their being distinct species. The 

 whole of the first mentioned plant, 

 especially the fruit, has a pleasant 

 aromatic smell, and a sweetish subacrid 

 taste. In China it is in frequent use for 

 seasoning dishes, especially such as are 

 sweet. In Japan they place bundles and 

 garlands of the aniseed tree in their tem- 

 ples before their idols, and on the tombs 

 of their friends. They also use the pow- 

 dered bark as incense to their idols. A 

 branch put into the decoction of tetraodon 

 hispidum is supposedto increase the viru- 

 lence of the poison. The bark finely 

 powdered is used by the public watchmen 

 to make a chronometer, or instrument for 

 measuring the hours, by slowly spark- 

 ling at certain spaces in a box, in order 

 to direct when the public bells are to 

 sound. 



ILLUMINATING, a kind of miniature 

 painting, anciently much practised for 

 illustrating and adorning books. Besides 

 the writers of books, there were artists, 



whose profession was to ornament and- 

 paint manuscripts, who were called illu- 

 minators ; the writers of books first finish- 

 ed their part, and the illuminators embel- 

 lished them with ornamented letters and 

 paintings. We frequently find blanks 

 left in manuscripts for the illuminators, 

 which were never filled up. Some of the 

 ancient manuscripts are gilt and burnish- 

 ed in a style superior to later times. 

 Their colours were excellent, and their 

 skill in preparing them must have been 

 very great The practice of introduc- 

 ing ornaments, drawings, emblematical 

 figures, and even portraits, into manu- 

 scripts, is of great antiquity. Varro wrote 

 the lives of 700 illustrious Romans, which 

 he enriched with their portraits, as Pliny 

 attests in his " Natural History." Pom- 

 ponius Atticus, the friend of Cicero, was 

 the author of a work on the actions of the 

 great men amongst the Romans, which 

 he ornamented with their portraits, as ap- 

 pears in his life by Cornelius Nepos. But 

 these works have not been transmitted 

 to posterity. There ure, however, many 

 precious documents remaining, which ex- 

 hibit the advancement and decline of the 

 arts in different ages ami countries. 

 These inestimable paintings and illumina- 

 tions display the manners, customs, ha- 

 bits, ecclesiastical, civil and military, 

 weapons, and instruments of war, uten- 

 sils and architecture of the ancients; 

 they are of the greatest use in illustrating 

 many important facts relative to the his- 

 tory of the times in which they were exe- 

 cuted. In these treasures of antiquity are 

 preserved a great number of specimens 

 of Grecian and Roman art, which were 

 executed before the arts and sciences fell 

 into neglect and contempt. The manu- 

 scripts containing these specimens form 

 a valuable part of the riches preserved in 

 the principal libraries of Europe. The 

 Royal, Cottonian, and the Harleian Libra- 

 ries, as also those in the two universities 

 in England, the Vatican at Rome, the Im- 

 perial at Vienna, the Royal at Paris, St. 

 Mark's at Venice, and many others. A 

 very ancient MS. of Genesis, which was in 

 the Cottonian Library ,and almost destroy- 

 ed by afire in 1731, contained 250 curious 

 paintings in water colours. Twenty-one 

 fragments, which escaped the fire, are 

 engraven by the society of antiquarians 

 of London. Without mentioning others, 

 we may observe, that Mr. Strutt. has given 

 the public an opportunity of forming some 

 judgment of the degree of delicacy and 

 9fi with which these illuminations were 



