S E M 



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apartments are taken ofF for the nurfery, the ground fhould 

 be double dug, and lie fallow the following fummer, ma- 

 nuring it with rotten dung, and double-digging it about 

 Midfummer, as before. In autumn it will be ready to be 

 fown afrelh, which (hould be done with feeds of a different 

 nature from thofe by which it was before occupied. The 

 feminary fhould be well fenced and guarded. The feminary 

 which is moft in ufe is for the fupply of the flower-garden, 

 and this is the place where flowers are to be raifed from their 

 feeds, to procure varieties, or, as the florifts exprefs it, new 

 flowers : as alfo for the fowing of all the biennial plants, to 

 fucceed thofe which decay in the flower-garden. 



The feminary fhould always be fitiiated at fome diftance 

 from the houfe, and be walled or paled round, and kept un- 

 der lock and key, to keep out dogs, &c. and to prevent a 

 great deal of damage that is frequently done by thofe who 

 are not acquainted with gardening before they are aware of 

 it. The feveral direftions for the management of the femi- 

 nary are to be feen under the names of the feveral plants in- 

 tended to be raifed in it. 



SEMINATION, in Jgriculture, the aft of fowing 

 grain or other forts of feed. It is of much confequence to 

 have this performed m as equal and regular a manner as pof- 

 fible ; the crops being thereby much better, and more pro- 

 duftive. See Sowing. 



SEMINERVOSUS, in Jnatomy. See Semitendino- 

 sus. 



SEMINIFEROUS Tubes or Duas, the innumerable 

 fine canals compofing the body of the teftis, into which the 

 feminal fluid isfecreted. See Generation. 



SEMINIUM, a term ufed by the writers on fofllls to ex- 

 prefs a fort of firll principle, from which the feveral figured 

 ftones, or, as they are more ufually called, the extraneous 

 foffils, are fuppofed to have their origin. 



The generahty of the learned world, at this time, fup- 

 pofed thefe to be the remains of real fliells, &e. brought 

 from the fea to the places, where they are now found, at the 

 time of the univerfal deluge. See Formed Stones, and 

 Adventtt'wus Fossils. 



But thofe who difl'ent from this fyflem pretend, that thefe 

 fofnie bodies, though they exaftly reprefent fhells, &c. yet 

 never were in the fea at all, but that their minute firil prin- 

 ciples, or, to ufe their own term, their feminia, have been 

 carried from the fea, through fubterranean pafTages, to the 

 places where we now find the complete fhells, &c. into which 

 they have grown. Langius, who has written exprefsly on 

 this lubjeft, though he has candidly coUefted all that has 

 been faid in favour of the diluvian fyffem, by the abettors 

 of it, yet is not convinced by thofe arguments, but rather 

 inclines to the other fide of the queftion, or the rife of fuch 

 foffils from feminia. 



Thefe fofTile fhells are ufually found tliroughout one and 

 the fame fubft;ance, and that the moll different imaginable 

 from the fubftance of the living creatures which they re- 

 prefent ; and often, though found in pairs, and perfeftly 

 clofed on all fides, yet when broken, they are found full of 

 the fubllance of the Hone in which they lie; and tlie armature 

 of feveral kinds of them, particularly of many of the cor- 

 nua ammonis, is fuppofed to plead greatly in favour of this 

 hypothefis ; as it is not of the nature of or at all owing to 

 the fubftance of the matrix in which they lie, or of the 

 matter of which they are formed, and is therefore to arife 

 folely from the nature of the feminium from which they 

 are formed. 



The immenfe number of the fea-fhells, as they are called, 

 thus ff und foffile, is alfo thought to argue much on this fide 

 of the queftion ; as the favourers of this hypothefis fuppofe 



that the fea could not, at any one time, have given up fuch 

 numbers as the earth is flocked with, though there are no 

 limits to the numbers fuppoted to be raifed from feminia ; 

 and the immenfe columns of black marble found in Ireland, 

 and found of fuch regular joints, are brought as a proof of 

 the poflibihty of fuch a formation of foflils as this from fe- 

 minia, which they fuppofe mufl have given origin to thofe 

 pillars. 



SEMINOLES, in Geography, a divifion of the Creek 

 nation of Indians, who inhabit the flat level country on th« 

 rivers Apalachicola and Flint. 



SEMIORBICULARES Oltl.s, Superkr and Inferior, 

 in Anatomy, the names under which Winflow defcribes the 

 orbicularis oris. See Deglutition. 



SEMI-ORDINATES, in Geometry, the halves of the 

 ordinates or applicates. See Ordinate and Conic Sec- 

 tions. 



SEMI-PARABOLA, a curve defined by the equation, 

 a x"'~ ' =^ y" ; as a x' = y^, a x' = ^*. ' ■ 



In femi-parabolasji"' : v'" (:: ax""^' : a a"""' ) ■.-.x"'''^ : I 

 z"""', or the powers of the femi-ordinates are as the powers 

 of the abfciffes, one degree lower ; e. gr. in cubical femi- 

 parabolas, the cubes of the ordinates^' and "y ' are as the 

 fquares of the abfciflcs x'- and z'. See Parabola. 



SEMI-PELAGIANS, in Ecdejiqjlkal Hijlory, a name 

 anciently, and even to this day, given to fuch as retain fome 

 tinfture of Pelagianifm. 



St. Profper, in a letter to St. Auguftine, calls them re- 

 liquias Pelagit. 



Many learned men, principally among the Gauls, who 

 could not come into St. Auguftine's doftrineof grace, &c. 

 were accufed of Semi-pelagianifm ; they were alfo called 

 Majftlians, or priejis of Marfeilks, in regard their opinions had 

 their firft rife in that city. 



CaHian, who had been a deacon of Conflantinople, and 

 was afterwards a priell at MarfeiUes, was the chief of thefe 

 Semi-pelagians. And about the year 430, feveral other per- 

 fons embarked in the undertaking of fixing upon a kind of 

 mean between tlie opinion^! of Pelagius and thofe of Auguf- 

 tine, and formed this new feft. 



The leading principles of the Serai-pelagians were the five 

 following. I. That God did not difpenfe his grace to one 

 more than another in confequence of predeflination, i. e. an 

 eternal and abfolute decree, but was willing to fave all men, 

 if they complied with the terms of his gofpel. 2. That 

 Chriil died for all men. 3. That the grace purchafed by 

 Chrill, and necefiary to falvation, was oflered to all men. 

 4. That man, before he received grace, was capable of faith 

 and iioly defires. 5. That man was born free, and was con- 

 fequently capable of refifling the influences of grace, or of 

 complying with its fuggeftion. The Semi-pelagians were 

 very numerous ; and the doftrine of Caflran, though varioufly 

 explained, was received in the greatell part of the monaftic 

 fchools in Gaul, from whence it fprcad itfelf far and wide 

 through tlie European provinces. As to the Greeks, and 

 other eaftern Cliriflians, they liad embraced the Scpii-pelagiau 

 doArine before Caflian, and ilill adhere firmly to it. In the 

 fixth century, the controverfy between the Semi-pelagians 

 and the difciples of Auguftine, prevailed much, and continued 

 to divide the Weftern churches. Mofheim's Eccl. Hift. 

 vol. i. 



SEMI-PERIOD, in Gramma/-, a mark of diftinftion re- 

 commended by Dr. Ward, but not admitted by other gram- 

 marians. It is greater than the colon, and fuppofed to an- 

 fwer the fame pnrpofe between the colon and period as the 

 femicolon does between the comma and colon. It is ufed to 

 terminate a perfeft fentence, when a new fentence arifing out 



of 



