S E R 



S E R 



Footftalks wingecl. — Native of the Weft Indies. Commu- 

 nicated by fir J. Banks, from Miller's herbarium. This 

 has much of the habit of .S. caracafana, but the winged 

 footjlalks, and obtufe leaflets, diitinguifh it elTentially. We 

 do not find any tendrils under the Jiowers, a.^ Schumacher 

 defcribes them, nor are the leaflets, aa Willdeiiow fays, quite 

 entire. 



6. S. mexkana. Willd. n. 6. (PauUinia mexicana ; 

 Linn. Sp. PI. 525, excluding Plumicr's and Hernandez 

 fynonyms. " Scliumach. t. 11. f. 3.") — Leaves twice ter- 

 rate ; leaflets obovate, entire, all emarginate. Footftalks 

 winged. Clufters aggregate. — Native of Mexico. Akin 

 to the laft, but the entire leaflets, and compound injlo- 

 refcence diftinguifti it. The clujters, each of which is fimple, 

 are ranged alternately, in one Xzx'g'i panicle. Willdenow fays 

 Schumacher's figure is taken from the fpecimen in the Lin- 

 nxan herbarium. With this Linnxus at one time con- 

 founded the true PauUinia citraflavica, to which the figure of 

 Hernandez better anfwers. The Linnaean fpecimen wants 

 fruit, and yet its habit, colour, and leading characters, are 

 fo near the Seriana we have juft been dcfcribing, that there 

 can fcarcely be a doubt of its belonging to this genus. 



7. S. angujlifolia. Willd. n. 7. (S. fcandens, ennea- 

 phylla et racemofa ; Plum. Gen. 34. Ic. t. 113. f. i.) — 

 Leaves twice ternate ; leaflets linear-lanceolate, acute, en- 

 tire. Footftalks winged. — Native of South America. 



Nothing can be lels like the laft, with which Linnsus 

 confounds this narrow-leaved fpccies, whole cluflers moreover 

 are folitary. We know it only from Plumicr's figure. 



8. S. lupulina. Willd. n. 8. " Schumach. t. IZ. f. 5." 

 — " Wings of the capfules half-oval. Leaves twice ter- 

 nate, crenate, rufty beneath ; the terminal leaflets nearly 

 rhomboid ; the lateral ones ovate. Footftalks flightly 

 winged." — Native of South America. Chillers alnioft 

 fimple, the length of the leaves, and accompanied^ by two 

 tendrils. Schumacher. 



9. S. lucicla. Soland. MSS. Willd. n. 9. " Scliu- 

 mach. as above, p. 128." — Wings of the ciplules half- 

 oval. Leaves twice ternate ; leaflets ovate, acute, ferrated. 

 Footftalks fcarcely winged. — Native of Santa Cruz. The 

 upper furface of the lea-ves is highly poliftied, and ftrongly 

 veined. Chiflers in fome meafure compound, accompanied 

 by two fpiral tendrils. Communicated by fir J. Banks, to 

 the younger Linnxus. 



10. S. tritcrnata. Willd. n. 10. (S. fcandens, poly- 

 phylla et racemofa; Plum. Gen. 34. Ic. t. 112. Paul- 

 linia triternata ; Linn. Mant. 236. Jacq. Obf. fafc. 3. 11. 

 t. 62. f. II ? Amer. no. t. 180. f. 32 ? P. polyphylla ; 

 Jacq. Obf. ibid. t. 61. f. 10.) — Leaves thrice ternate; 

 leaflets ovate, obtufe, wavy. Footftalks winged. Clufters 

 aggregate. — Native of South America, or the Weft Indies. 

 The chiflers are not accompanied by tendrils, but form a fort 

 oi panicle, as in S. mexicana. See Paullinia, n. 8. 



There leem to be more fpccies, ot which incomplete fpe- 

 cimens or defcriptions exift, but with which we are not lutli- 

 ciently acquainted to reduce them to order. Nor is the 

 genus, in every cafe, to be afcertained, for want of the 

 fruit, fo effential in diftinguifhing Seriana and Paullinia. 



SERIANE, Skicii, or Efrich, in Ancient Gcnnraphy, 

 a town of Afia, in Syria, fituated in the mountains S.E. of 

 Chalcis, about the 35th degree of latitude. It appears by 

 its ruins £0 have been formerly a large town. 



SERIATE, in Geography, a town of Italy, in the de- 

 partment of the Serio ; 3 miles E.S.E. of Bergamo. 



SERICA, in Ancient Geography, an oriental country, the 

 pofuron of which was indicated very vaguely by tlic writers ot 

 antiquity, but which has been, it mull be acknowledged, more 

 prccifely afcertained by Ptolemy. Its fituation and hiftory, 



however, have been more accurately delineated by M. d'An- 

 ville, in an interefting memoir entitled " Recherches Geogra- 

 phiques et Hiltoriques fur la Serique des Anciens." M. 

 d'Anville refutes the opinion of thole who apprehended that 

 the Serica defcribed by Ptolemy correfponded to the northern 

 part of China ; and he adopts tiie opinion of M. de Guignes, 

 in his Hiftory of the Huns, that it belonged to the conquefts 

 of the Chinefe towards the weft. M. d'Anville adds, that 

 with the exception of a fmall angular territory at the ex- 

 tremity of the province of Chen-fi, towards the N.W., China 

 formed no part of Serica. In ipeaking of Scythia, on the 

 other fide of the Imaus, Ptolemy mention? a paffage in this 

 mountain, which was the ftation of merchants that traded 

 with the Seres. Contiguous to this ftation, according to 

 Ptolemy, is a country called Cafia, which M. d'Anville 

 fuppoies to be the fame with Cafhgar, called by the Chinefe 

 Kin-tfe. In proof of their identity it may be alleged that 

 the tables of Nafir-Uddin and Ulugh-beigh affign to Cafh- 

 gar 44° of latitude, and that Ptolemy makes the latitude of 

 Cafia 43°, differing only by one degree. Ptolemy men- 

 tions the river Oechardes, which M. d'Anville fuppofes to be 

 Yerghien. Another river near the limits of Serica, men- 

 tioned by Ptolemy, is that called Bautes, which, in its courfe 

 towards the N., is joined by the lateral branch of another 

 river purfuing the fame du-ettion ; and thefe circumitanccs 

 correfpond with thole of the prefent Etziue. The Bautes, 

 as M. d'Anville apprehends, lofes itfelf in certain laguna», 

 at the entrance of tiie defert called by the Tartars Cobi, and 

 by the Chinefe Sha-ono. Duly informed concerning the 

 Bautes of Ptolemy, M. d'Anville was able to fettle the 

 pofition of Sera, the metropolis of Serica. For according 

 to tiie ancient geographers, this town is very near the point 

 where the laft branch of the Bautes feparates from it, and a 

 town is actually found at the ealtern branch of the Etzine, 

 tow.irds its fource. This town muft therefore correfpond 

 to the Sera of Ptolemy, and bear the name of Can-tcheou. 

 It IS the firft confiderable town that occurs at the entrance 

 of the Chinefe province of Chen-fi. This town belongs to a 

 particular country known to tiie Orientals under the name 

 of Tangut. Tangut may therefore probably be the country 

 anciently inhabited by the Seres, of which Sera was the 

 capital. Another decifive proof that Can-tcheou is the 

 Sera metropolis of Ptolemy, is deduced from the circum- 

 ftance that this town, according to the Greek geographer, 

 is 38'^ 35' of latitude, and that" the latitude of Can-tcheou, 

 according to the Jefuit aftronomers, is 39°, the difference 

 being only 25'. Ptolemy places the Eiledones in Serica. 

 But Efledum or Eiledo fignifying a chariot, and fome of 

 the Scythians, called by the Greeks Hamaxobii, or perfons 

 living in chariots, it has been inferred, that the people who 

 bore the name of Eliedone"-, in the Serica of Ptolemy, were 

 merely thole whofe habitation was in chariots, and it is alfo 

 added, that a part of the country of the Seres had borne the 

 name of Eygur, and that the nation who occupied a part of 

 this country 13 called by the Chinefe Kao-tchc, a word which 

 ilgnifics high chariots. 



Serica, according to Ptolemy, is bounded to the W. by 

 Scythia, on the other fide of the Imaus ; to the S. by un- 

 known territories, and by a part of India beyond the Ganges 

 and the Sines ; the other boundaries are unknown. Its 

 principal mountaiin; are the Annibi, which encompafs the 

 Seres to the N. ; the Auxacii, which extend to the Seres by 

 their eaftern parts; the Al'mirxi in the country; the eaflern 

 part of the Cafiian mountains ; mount Thagurus, called alfo 

 Ithagurus ; the mountains Emodi and Sericus. The chief 

 rivers are the Oichardes or Oechardes, which rifes in the 

 Auxacian mountains ; and the Bautes, which fprings from 

 mount Caflius, The north of Serica was inhabited by An- 



thropo' 



