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SEC 



SEBUE, in Geography, a town of AbyfTinia ; 90 miltJ 

 S. of Mina. 



SEBUNTA, in Ancient Geography, a town fituated in 

 the interior of Arabia Petrasa. Ptolemy. 



SEBURAI, Sebur.ei, a name which the Jews give to 

 fuch of their rabbins or doftors, as lived and taught fome 

 time after the finiihing of the Talmud. 



The word is derived from "l^Qjyaifr, I think : whence 

 a^^'i^t fibura, opinion, fentiment : and thence '{^"120' 

 feburi, or feiurai, opinionati-ve. 



The reafon of this appellation, fay the rabbins, is, that 

 the Talmud being finifhed, publifiied and received in all 

 the fchools and fynagogues, thefe doftors had nothing to 

 do but to difpute for, and againit, the Talmud, and its de- 

 cifion?. Others fay, it was bccaufe their fentiments were 

 not received aa laws or decifions, as thofe of the Mifchnic 

 and Gemaric doctors were ; but were held as mere opinions. 

 Others, as the author of Schalfclieleth Ilakkabala, or chain 

 of tradition, tell us, that the perfecution the Jews under- 

 went in thofe times, not allowing them to teach quietly in 

 their academies, they only propofed their opinion in the com- 

 pofition of the Mifchna. The firil and chief of the Seburai 

 was R. Jofi, who began to teach in the year 787 of the era of 

 contrafts ; which, according to R. David Gautz, falls on 

 the year of the world 4236, and who, according to R. 

 Abraham, was thirty-eight years prefident of the Jewifli 

 academy. 



The era of contradls is the fame with that of the Seleii- 

 cida, the 787th year of which falls on the year of Chrilt 476, 

 which, of confequence, is the era of the origin of the 

 Seburai, whofe reigns did not hold long : Buxtorf fays, 

 not above Cxty years ; R. Abraham, and others, fay not 

 fifty. The lall of them was R. Simona. They were fuc- 

 ceeded by the Gaons or Geonim. 



SEBURG, in Geogmphy, a town of France, in the de- 

 partment of the North ; ^ miles E. of Valenciennes. 

 SEBZ. See Kesh. 



SEBZVAR, a town of Perfia, in the province of Kho- 

 rafan ; it was taken, in 1381, by Timur Bee, but upon its 

 revolting and being again reduced, he caufed 2000 of the in- 

 habitants to be piled in a heap, with mortar and bricks, and 

 thus buried alive ; 180 miles N.W. of Herat. N. lat. 36" 

 11'. E. long. 56' 12'. 



SECA, La, a town of Spain, in the province of Leon ; 

 24 miles S.W. of Valladolid. 



SECACUL, in the Materia Medica of the Ancients, a 

 name given by Avicenna, Serapion, and others, to a root 

 which was hke ginger, and was brought from the Eall In- 

 dies, and ufed as a provocative to venery. 



The interpreters of their w^orks have rendered this word 

 iringa, and hence fome have fuppofed that our eryngium, or 

 eryngo, was the root meant by it : but this does not appear 

 to be the cafe on a Itrift enquiry, and there is fome reafon 

 to believe that the famous root, at this time called ^vB/J'n^, 

 was wh.it they meant. 



SECALE, in Botany, a name in Pliny, which fome ety- 

 mologies, among whom is De I'heis, derive from the Celtic 

 fegal. This, he fays, comes from fega, a fickle in the fame 

 language, and thence feges, the Latin appellation of all grain 

 that is cut with a fimilar implement. Thofe who have looked 

 no further for an etymology than the Latin feco, to cut or 

 mow, have come to the fame conclufion. Rye. — Linn. 

 Gen. 39. Sclireb. 53. Willd. Sp. PI. v. i. 471. Mart. 

 Mill. Dift. v. 4. Ait. Hort. Kew. v. i. 178. Juff. 32. 

 Lamarck Illuilr. t. 49. G«rtn. t. 81. — Ciafs and order, 

 Triandria Digynia. Nat. Ord. Gramina. 



Gen. Ch. Cal. Common receptacle toothed, elongated 

 4 



into a fpike. Glume containing two flowers, and confiding 

 of two oppofite, dillant, erett, oblong, pointed valves, 

 Imaller than the corolla. Florets fcflile. Cor. of two valves ; 

 the outermoft hardell, tumid, pointed, comprelled, fringed 

 at the keel, and ending in a long awn ; the inner flat, lan- 

 ceola,te. Neftary of two lanceolate, fharpiPa, fringed fcales, 

 tumid on one fide at the bafe. Stam. Fih-nents three, 

 capillary, hanging out of the ftower ; anthers oblong, forked. 

 Pifl. Germen fuperior, turbinate ; liyles two, reflcxed ; ftig- 

 mas cylindrical, feathery. Peric. none, except the perma- 

 nent coroUa, which finally opens, and lets the feed efcape. 

 Seed fohtary, oblong, fomcwhat cylindrical, naked, pointed. 

 Obf. There is fomelimes a third floret, fcarcely perfeft, 

 italkcd, between the other two. It is very difficult to dii- 

 tiiiguifh this genus from Trilicum. 



Efl". Ch. Calyx of two valves, folitary, two-flowered, 

 on a toothed elongated receptacle. 



I. S. cereab. Cultivated Rye. Linn. Sp. PI. 124. 

 Willd. n. I. Ait. n. i. Purlh v. i. 90. Holt Gram. 

 Auilr. V. 2. 35. t. 48. (.becalc; Matth. Valgr. v. i. 364. 

 Camer. Epit. 190. Ger. Em. 6^.) — Glumes of the calyx 

 bordered with minute parallel teeth. — The native country of 

 this, fo generally cultivated, grain, is hardly to be guelied. 

 Mr. Purfli fays it frequently occurs, apparently wild, in 

 North America, flowering in June. For its agricultural 

 hillory, and mode of cultivation, fee Rve. The root is 

 fibrous and annual. Herbage lomewhat glaucous. Stem . 

 jointed, flightly branched at the bottom, fmooth. Leaves 

 linear, rough towards the point. Spite terminal, fohtary, 

 erecf, three or four inches long. Awns eredt, llraight, 

 rough, four or five times the length of the glumes. 



2. S. •vil/ofum. Tufted Rye. Linn. Sp. PI. 124. WiUd. 

 n. 2. Sm. Fl. Grxc. Sibth. v. i. 77. t. 97. (Gramen fpi- 

 catum fccalinum, glumis villofis 111 arillas longifTimas definen- 

 tibns ; Toiirn. Intl. 518. G. fscahnum maximum; Park. 

 Theatr. 1144. G. creticum fpicatum fccalinum, glumis 

 ciliaribus ; 'I'ourn. Cor. 39. Buxb. Cent. 5. 21. t. 41.) — 

 Glumes of the calyx wedge-fliaped, abrupt, fringed with 

 tufts of hairs. — Native of the fouth of Europe, and the 

 Levant. Gathered by Dr. Sibthorp in the fields of Crete 

 and Zante. The root is fibrous and anntial. Stems numerous, 

 eredt, twelve or eighteen inches high, leafy, fmooth ; their 

 lower joints bent. Leaves fpreading, flat, hairy on both 

 fides, with tumid fmooth fheaths. Stipula very fhort, blunt, 

 crenate. Spike about as long as the former, but twice as 

 thick. Calyx bordered with remarkable tufts of fine hairs. 

 This fhould leem to be cultivated in the above-mentioned 

 iflands, but we know nothing of its agricultural merits. 



^. S. orienta/e. Dwarf Oriental Rye. Linn. Sp. PI. 1 24. 

 Willd. n. 3. (Gramen orienlale fecahnum, fpica brevi et 

 lata ; Tourn. Cor. 39.) — Glumes of the calyx ovato-lancco- 

 late, (trongly ribbed, taper-pointed, hairy all over. — Native 

 of the Archipelago, in a landy foil. Root annual, with 

 white downy fibres. S/^'nis about fix inches high, (lender, 

 fmooth, often zigzag. Leaves linear, narrow ; the upper 

 one (hort, with a long, fmooth, inflated flieath. Spiie 

 hardly an inch long, thick and broad, compoled of clolely 

 imbricated, two-ranked fpikelets, whofe glumes are rigid, 

 deeply furrowed, uniformly hairy, each tapering into a fhort, 

 llraight, rough point or awn, not fo long as the glume 

 itfelf. 



4. S. crrf/fum. Tall Cretan Rye. Linn. Sp. PI. 125. 

 Willd. n. 4 ; excluding the fynop.ym of Tournefort, which 

 belongs to Hordeum bulbofum. (See Hordeum.) — " Glumes 

 of the calyx externally fringed." — Native of Crete. We 

 have never feen a fpecimen. Desfontaines aflerts that this 

 is dillinft from Hordeum bullofum of Linnaeus, hisJlriSum, 



which 



