S E R 



cording to Herodotus, the inhabitants of which took the 

 part of the G'-eeks agaiiift Xerxes. Some authors, how- 

 ever, place Scr.phus in the ra,ik of the Sporades. It is 

 fitnatod vrt fl of Pares, and fouth of Cythnus. It prefents 

 the appearaiice of a rock, but is inhabited. The Romans 

 fent hi li' r certain criminals. 



SER iPPO, a town of Hifpania, in Boctica. Pliny. 



SERI SOMTOU, in Gfography, a dillncl of Thibet, 

 iituated between E. long. 95° and 9^°, and between J!^. lat. 

 30°a:!d 31". 



SERISSA, in Botany, a genus of Juflieu's, and by that 

 author correAly feparated from Lyclum. Loureiro calls it 

 Dyfoda, from Svanh:, Jli/^ing, becaufe of its remarkably 

 fetid fmell.—Jufr. Gen. 209. Willd. Sp. PI. v. i. 1061. 

 Ait. Hort. Kew. v. i. 376. Lamarck llluftr. t. 151. 

 (Dyfoda; Loureir. Cochinch. 14J. Buchozia ; L'Herit. 

 Monogr.) — Clafs and order, Pentandria Monogynta. Nat. 

 Ord. Rubiace£, Juff. 



Gen. Ch. Cal. Perianth fuperior, divided into five, 

 awl-fhaped, ereft fegments. Cor. of one petal, funnel- 

 fhaped ; tube fhort ; limb broad, reflexed, five-cleft ; feg- 

 ments trifid, acute. Stam. Filaments five, very fiiort, be- 

 low the mouth of the tube ; anthers oblong, incumbent. 

 Pyi. Germen inferior, roundifh ; ityle thread-fhapcd, the 

 length of the corolla ; ftigma oblong, villous, cloven, re- 

 flexed. Perk. Berry roundifh, fmall, of one cell. Seeds 

 numerous, (according to L'Heritier and Brown only two,) 

 ovate, fmall. 



Eff. Ch. Corolla funnel-fhaped, fringed at the mouth. 

 Segments of the limb moftly three-lobed. Berry i.^ferior, 

 with two feeds. 



I. S. fcetlda. Japanefe Seriila. Willd. n. I. Ait. 

 Hort. Kew. V. I. 376. (Lycium japonicum ; Curt. Mag. 

 t. 361.) — Native of China and Japan, flowering through- 

 out the fummer. — Stem fhrubby, much divided, about two 

 feet high, ereft. Branches afcending. Leaves feflile, ob- 

 long, ovate, entire, flat, fmall, cluftered together. Flowers 

 folitary or cluftered, generally terminal, white. 



This elegant little flirub produces numerous white 

 flowers, which have tlie appearance of thofe of Jafmine, 

 but are without fcent, as indeed is the whole plant, until it 

 be fqueezed or bruifed, when it emits a highly difgullmg 

 imell. A variety with double flowers is not uncommon in 

 the gardens about London. 



SERIUM, in Ancient Geography, a town of European 

 •Sarmatia, in the vicinity of the Boryithenes. Ptolemy. 



SERKA, in Geography^ a town of Nubia ; 200 miles S. 

 of Sennaar. 



SERKEISK, a town of Ruffia, in the government of 

 Kaluga; 44 miles W.S.W. of Kaluga. N. lat. 54° 16'. 

 E long. 34" 34'- 



SERKES. See Tserkesh. 



SERKIS, a town of ACatic Turkey, in Caramania ; 50 

 miles W. of Cogni. 



SERLIO, Sebastiano, in Biography, an eminent ar- 

 chiteft, was a native of Bologna, who flourifhed in the 

 early part of the fixteenth century at Venice, in the charac- 

 ter of an architeft. He afterwards travelled through Italy, 

 and refided a confiderable time at Rom.e, where he fludied 

 the fine arts, and made many drawings of edifices, ancient 

 and modern, and he is faid to have been the firft who exa- 

 mined, with the eye of a man of fcience, the remains of 

 ancient architefture. The knowledge which he acquired 

 was given to the public in a complete treatife of architec- 

 ture, of which he planned feveral books, and the firit that 

 appeared was the fourth in order, comprehending the gene- 

 ral rules of architefture, which he printed at Venice in 



SER 



1537, dedicated to Hercules II. duke of Ferrara. The 

 other fix books appeared fucceflively at different intervals, 

 and the different editions made of them prove their popu- 

 larity. Serho, in 1 54 1, was invited to France by Francis I. 

 and was by that fovereign employed in the erections at Fon- 

 tainebleau, where he thenceforth refided, and where he died, 

 at an advanced age, in 1578. Though as an author he was 

 much attached to the principles of Vitruvius in his defigns 

 as an artift, he very much neglefted them. His fchool of 

 St. Roch, and palace Grimani at Venice, are built in a 

 grand and magnificent ftyle. Gen. Biog. 



SERMAISE, in Geography, a town of France, in the 

 department of the Marne ; 19 miles S. of Menehould. 



SERMAISES, a town of France, in the department 

 of the Loiret ; 7 miles N. of Pithiviers. 



SERMAKI, a town of Sweden, in the province of 

 Tavaitland ; 170 miles N. of Tavalthus. 



SERMANICOMAGUS, in Ancient Geography, a town 

 of Gaul, which, according to the tables of Peutinger, was 

 fituated in Aquitania iecunda. It was on the right of the 

 Charente, at feme diilance N. of Iculifna, according to M. 

 d'Anville ; it is the prefent Chermes. 



SERMATIA, in Geigraphy, a town of Hindooflan, in 

 the fubah of Agra ; 25 miles N.E; of Kerowly. 



SERMATTA, an ifland in the Eall Indian fea, about 

 22 miles long, and fix broad. S. lat. 8^ 9'. E. long. 129° 13'. 



SERMESOK, an illand near the W. coaft of Greenland. 

 N. lat. 6i''5o'. W. long. 47° 45'. 



SERMIA, a river which rifes near Montegio, in the 

 ftate of Genoa, and after pafling by Serravalle, Tortona, 

 &c. runs into the Tanaro. 



SERMIN, a town of Iftria ; 2 miles N.E. of Capo 

 d'Iftria. 



SERMIONE, a town and caftle of Italy, in the Ve- 

 ronefe, on a neck of land running into lake Gorda, the 

 harbour of which may be iliut by means of chains, defended 

 by a caftle. This was the native place of the poet Catullus ; 

 16 miles W. of Verona. 



SERMOCINATION, Sermocinatio, m Rhetoric, de- 

 notes difcourfe in general, whether held by a perfon alone, 

 or in company, and is the fame with what is otherwife called 

 dialogifm. 



SERMOLOGUS, Sermologue, an ecclefiaftical book 

 compofed of fermons, or homilies of popes, and other per- 

 fons of eminence and fanftity, formerly read at the fealls 

 of the Confeffors, the Purification, All Saints, and on every 

 day from Chriftmas to the oftave of the Epiphany. See 

 Homily. 



SERMON, a difcourfe delivered in public, for the pur- 

 pofe of religious inltruftion and improvement : or a per- 

 fuafive oration. 



As to the choice of fubjefts for a fermon, they fhould be 

 fuch as ill the judgment of the preacher feem to be the mofl 

 ufeful, and the beit accommodated to the circumftances of 

 his audience. The unmeaning applaufe which the ignorant 

 give to what is above their capacity, common fenfe and 

 common probity muit teach every man to defpife. Uleful- 

 nefs and true eloquence are infeparable, nor can any man be 

 juftly deemed a good preacher, who is not an ufeful one. 

 In a fermon, confidered as a peculiar fpecies of compofition, 

 the firft objeft of attention is its unity ; by which we mean, 

 that there (hould be fome one main point, to which the whole 

 ftrain of a fermon fhould refer. This unity, however, does 

 not require that there fhould be no feparate heads or divifions 

 in the difcourfe, or that one thought fhould again and again 

 be prefented to the hearer in different lights. Separate divi- 

 fions or diftinft heads, provided that they are not too 



numerous 



