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Rudb. Elyf. V. 2. 204. Orchides Etruriae ; Petiv. Ga- 

 zoph. t. 128. f. 1 — 3? Telticuli fpecies tertia ; Matth. 

 Valgr. V. 2. 233. f. I. Dalech. Hill. 1551-) — Lateral 

 fegmeiits of the lip ereft ; middle one ovate, imootli Na- 

 tive of open mountainous fituations in the fouth of Europe. 

 Dr. Sibthorp gathered it in Zantc, as well as in Greece, 

 and we readily affent to the opinion of a learned German 

 writer, in the Allgemeine Literatur-z.eitung, for June 

 1807, n. 133. 1060, that this plant, and not Iris tukrofa, 

 is probably the true Aoy^'''^" °'^ Diofcorides. The root cou- 

 fills of two ftalked, roundirti knobs, like others of this 

 tribe, but rather fmaller. Stem a foot high, clothed in the 

 lower part with lanceolate, (heathing, fmooth lea-ves. Spike 

 of from two to eight Jlowers, with a large, concave, pur- 

 plilh-grey bralfea to each. Calyx ribbed, of the fame colour 

 as the brafteas, and pointed hke them, three quarters of an 

 inch long. Lip twice that length ; its dilk whitifli, with a 

 dark red, oblong, undivided elevation at the bale, and two 

 rounded, ereft, lateral lobes, of the fame colour ; the 

 central lobe dependent, ovate, pointed, undulated, purplifh, 

 veiny, fmooth. Haller juftly refers both the above fy- 

 nonyms of Rudbeck to this fpecies. 



2. S. cordigera. Heart-lipped Serapias. Linn. Sp. PI. 

 1345. Willd. n. 2. Ait. n. 2. Sm. Fl. Grasc. Sibth. 

 t. 932, unpublilhed. Andr.. Repof. t. 475^. (Orchis 

 montana italica, flore ferrugineo, lingua oblonga ; Rudb. 

 Elyf. v. 2. 203. f. 18. O. Etrurioe, lingua ferruginea pi- 

 lofa ; Petiv. Gazoph. t. 128. f. 4.) — Lateral fegmcnts of 

 the lip erecl ; middle one heart-lhaped, hairy. — More fre- 

 quent than the foregoing in the fouth of Europe, and north 

 of Africa, in the fame kind of iituations. We gathered it 

 in July 1787, in paitures at St. Orfefe, near Genoa. The 

 whole plant, efpecially the bulbs and Jloiuers, are larger than 

 in 5. Lingua, and the whole fpike is of a more dingy hue. 

 The colour, however, of the different parts is variable in 

 both. The broad hairy Up of corSgera, with a divided 

 glandular elevation at its bafe, is fufficiently charafteriftic. 

 We truft we are right in the citation of Rudbeck, and that 

 he mifquotes Matthiolus. 



Willdcnow's S. oxyglottis, founded folely on Petiver's 

 t. 128. f. 5 & 6, appears to us too uncertain to be adopted, 

 though we doubt not that fome diftinft fpecie? of this 

 order, and perhaps of this genus, are (till latent in Italy. 



Sf.rapias, in the Materia Medica, the officinal name of 

 the dried root, called falep. 



SERAPION, of Alexandria, in Biography, lived about 

 the year 280 before Chrilt, or in the 125th Olympiad, and 

 i:, affirmed by Celfus to have been the founder of the em- 

 piric fed of phyficians, and accufed by Galen of vaunting 

 himfelf, and of maltreating the charafter of Hippocrates. 

 (See Empiric.) He was probably a contemporary of 

 Philinus, to whom alfo the origin of the fame fedt has been 

 attributed. See Celfus, Prxf. 



Serapion, JoiiN, or JoH.v, the Son of Serapion, an 

 Arabian phyfician, lived between the time of Mefue and 

 Rhazes, and was probably the firft writer on phyfic in the 

 Arabic language ; for it appears that Mefue, like his pre- 

 decelibr Aaron, or Ahrun, wrote in the Syriac tongue. 

 Haly Abbas, when giving an account of the works of his 

 countrymen, defcribes the writings of Serapion, as con- 

 taining only an account of the cure'of difeafes, without any 

 precepts concerning the prefervation of health, or relating 

 to furgery ; and he makes many critical obfervations, which. 

 Dr. Freind obferves, are fufficient proofs of the genuine 

 exillence of the works afcribed to Serapion, from then- truth 

 and correftnefs. Rhazes alfo quotes them frequently in 

 his " Continent." Serapion muil have lived towards the 



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middle of the ninth century, and not in the reign of Leo 

 Ifaurus, about the year 730, as fome have ftated. One 

 circumltance remarkable in Serapion, Dr. Freind obferves, 

 is, that he often tranfcribes the writings of Alexander 

 Trallian, an author with whom few of the other Arabians 

 appear to be much acquainted. This work of Serapion has 

 been pubhflied, in tranflations, by Gerard of Cremona, 

 under the title of " Prattica, Difta Brcviarum ;" and by 

 Torinus, under that of " Therapeutica Methodus." Sec 

 Freind's Hiftory of Phyfic, and Sprengcl Gefchichte dcr 

 Arzneykunde, ii. 365. 



Some confufion appears to exilt refpcfting another Se- 

 rapion, whom Sprengel calls the younger, and places 1 80 

 years later than the former, and who was probably the 

 author of a work on the materia medica, entitled " De 

 Medicamentis tarn fimplicibus, quam compofitis." This 

 work bears intrinlic evidence of being produced at a much 

 later period, fince authors are quoted who lived much pof- 

 teiior to Rhazes. It is probable that this work, which 

 mult obvioufly liave been compofcd \n the latter part of the 

 eleventh century, (for Avenzoar, who wrote in that cen- 

 tury, is quoted in it,) is the lame with that which is often 

 cited by Conttantinc, the African, under the name of 

 Joannes Damafccnus, a name which fome authors have er- 

 roneoufly given to the elder Serapion, indead if the fubjedl 

 of the prefent article ; and fome to Mefue ; to the latter of 

 whom Freind has (hewn that it could not belong. See 

 Freind and Sprengel, as above quoted. 



SERAPIONIS Partus et Promontorium, in Ancient Geo- 

 graphy, a port and promontory of Ethiopia, between Eflina 

 emporium and Tonice emporium, according to Ptolemy. 



SERAPIS, in Mythology, an Egyptian deity, who was 

 worlhipped under various names and attributes, as the tute- 

 lary god of Egypt in general, and as the patron of feveral 

 of their principal cities. 



Tacitus informs us, that he was worfliipped as a kind of 

 univerfal deity that reprefented Efculapius, Ofiris, Jupiter, 

 and Pluto ; and he was fometimes taken for Jupiter Am- 

 mon, the Sun, and Neptune ; and the honours that were 

 rendered to him at Alexandria were more folemn and extra- 

 ordinary than thofe of any other place. 



Learned writers have differed in opinion as to the time of 

 the introduftion of this deity into Egypt : fome have fup- 

 pofed that he was known and worfhipped in this country 

 long before the time of the Firft Ptolemy, and that he was 

 the fame with their Apis ; Serapis being no other than Apis 

 IV Soji', i. e. Apis in his cojffin. Accordingly, they fay, that 

 while the facred bull, which the Egyptians worlhipped for 

 their great god, was alive, he was called Apis ; and that 

 when he was dead and buried in his coffin, he was called 

 Serapis, that is, Apis in foro, and thus they derive his name 

 by corruption from foroapis : and fome have even imagined 

 that the patriarch Jofeph was worfhipped under this title ; 

 but to this etymology it has been objefted, that as the 

 Ptolemies firft bi-ought the Greek language into Egypt, if 

 Serapis had been an ancient god worfhipped in that country 

 before the Ptolemies reigned there, his name could not have 

 had a Greek etymology. 



According to the learned Mr. Bryant, far fignilied any 

 thing noble ; and Ofiris, the great hufbandman, who had 

 been expofed in an ark, was ftyled far-apis, which fignifies 

 illuflris genitor, the great father of mankind. But, he ob- 

 ferves, that there was likewife the term for, from whence 

 came the C7050; of the Greeks, which fignified a bier or coffin, 

 and alfo a place of interment. Hence the temple where the 

 dead Apis was depofued, had the name of Sor-apis, rendered 

 inaccurately farapis. 



Plutarch, 



