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old Latin writers to the carob tree, fliqua dulcis. The 

 Latins borrowed this name from the Greek xyhglycon, 

 luXofAi-Kor, the fweet, or fweet-fruited tree. 



Ifidore mifpels the word Ji/ilicon, and making it onXjfih- 

 eon, fuppofes it to be a barbarous way of fpelhng the word 

 filiqua: but the evident derivation of the genuine word from 

 the Greek, (hews his error both as to the word itfelf, and 

 the origin of it. 



SILIN, or Abu Ait, in Geography, a town of Egypt ; 

 12 miles S.S.E. of Siut. 



SILINDIUM, in Jucknt Geography, a fmall town of 

 Afia Minor, in the Troade, near mount Ida. 



SI-LING, in Geography, a town of China, of the third 

 rank, in Quang-ii ; 20 miles S. of Si-long. 



SILINO, a fmall idand among the Philippines, near 

 the north coaft of Mindanao. N. lat. 9° 2'. E. long. 

 121° 40'. 



SILINUS, in Ancient Geography, a river of the Pelo- 

 ponnefus, in the Elide, which watered the territory of the 

 Scillunte, according to Paufanias. 



SILIPICA, in Geography, a town of South America, 

 in the province of Cordova ; 20 miles S. of St. Jago del 

 Eftero. 



SILIQUA, xsf^.r.ov, among the ancients, the third part 

 of an obolus, or, what comes to the fame, the fixth part of 

 a fcruple. 



SiLlQUA Nabathsa. See Nabath.sa Stliqua. 



SiLiQUA, in Botany, a Pod, is a fort of Pericarp. 

 (See that article.) The Siliqua is a folitary feed-vefiel, of 

 an elongated form, and dry fubftance, confiiling of two 

 parallel valves, feparated by a parallel linear partition, or 

 receptacle, along each of whole edges the feeds are ranged 

 in alternate order. Examples are found in the Cruciform 

 plants, conftituting the Linnaean clafs Tetradynamia, fuch 

 as Cheiranthus, the Stock or Wall-flower ; as alfo in Cheli- 

 don'ium, the Celandine ; and Bignonla echinata, Gxrtn. t. 52. 

 f. I. This kind of feed-velTel differs from a Lec;ume, (fee 

 that article,) in having the feeds inferted along each of its 

 margins. 



Siliqua. See Carob. 



SILIQUA STRUM, the appellation of the Judas-tree 

 in Tournefort and preceding authors, alluding to its partial 

 refemblance to the fruit of the Carob, which was called 

 Siliqua, the Pod, by way of eminence. See Ceratonia 

 and Cercis. 



SiLiQUASTRUM, in Natural Hilary, the name given by 

 Mr. Lhuyd, and others, to the bony palates of fifties, when 

 found folTile. See Ichthyperia. 



SILIQUATICUM, among the Romans, a cuftom or 

 toll paid for merchandize. This the Greeks called cera- 

 tifmus. 



SILIQUOSA, in Botany, the fecond order of the Lin- 

 nsan 15th clafs, Tetradynamia ; which order is charaftcrized 

 by the oblong form of the feed-vellel. See Siliqua and 



SiLICULA. 



SILIQUOSjE, the 39th natur.1l order, among ihefrag- 

 mtnta of Linnaeus, exaftly analogous to the Cruciferv-e of 

 JufGeu. See that article, as well as, hereafter, Tetrady- 

 namia, 



SI LIS, in Ancient Geography, a river of Italy, in 

 Venetia, which had its fource in mountains called Tauri- 

 fani. 



SILISTENI, in Geography, a town of Moldavia; 10 

 miles S.W. of Huff. 



SILISTRIA. SeeDEisTRA. 



SILIVRIA, or KiLLEEVER, a large and populous 

 town on the fea of Marmora, once well fortified, and ilill 

 J3 



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in part furrounded by a ftrong wall. Some of its mofqae* 

 and minarets are very handfome buildings. The lower part 

 of the town is waftied by the fea. Its bay is capable of ac- 

 commodating a confiderable number of veffels, and is fo 

 well fheltered by the high land on each fide of it, that fhips 

 may, in any weather, ride in fafety. 



SILIUS Italicus, Caius, in Biography, an Italian 

 poet, was born about the year 15 ot the Chriftian era. 

 He has been fuppofed to have been a native of Itahca in 

 Spain ; but his not being claimed as a fellow countryman by 

 Martial, who has bellowed upon him the higheft praiies, 

 renders the fuppofilion improbable. It is certain that he 

 lived chiefly in Italy, in which he poflelfed fcveral eftates. 

 The knowledge of him come down to thefe times is derived 

 from a letter of Pliny the Younger to Caninius Rufus, an- 

 nouncing his death. From this it appears that he incurred 

 fome reproach in the reign of Nero, as having been forward 

 in accufations, and that he was conful at the time of the 

 tyrant's death ; that he made a difcreet and humane ufc of 

 the friendftiip of Vitellius ; and that having acquired much 

 honour, from his conduft in the proconfulate of Afia, he 

 thenceforth withdrew from public offices, and maintained 

 the rank of the principal perfons of the city without power, 

 and without envy. It appears, likewife, that he pafled his 

 time chiefly in literary converfations, and in compoCng 

 verfes, which he fometimes recited in public. He had great 

 tafte for elegance, and purchafed a number of villas, which, 

 after enjoying for a time, he deferted for new ones. He 

 collefted a number of ftatues, books, and butts, to fome of 

 the latter of which he paid a kind of rehgious veneration. 

 This was particularly the cafe with rcfpeft to that of Virgil, 

 whofe birth-day he kept with much more ceremony than his 

 own, and whofe tomb was included in one of his villas. 

 He is faid alfo to have poffeffed a villa that had been Ci- 

 cero's. In his latter years he retired altogether to his feat 

 in Campania, wliich he did not quit upon any account ; and 

 the general tide of his profperity did not ceafe to flow, ex- 

 cept in the inllance of the death of the younger of his two 

 fons, which was in fome degree compenfated by the confular 

 dignity of the elder. In his 75th year he was attacked with 

 an incurable ulcer, and he is faid to have put an end to his 

 life, by abftaining from food. 



The work of Silius, which has come down to the prefent 

 time, is an epic poem on the fecond Punic war. In this he 

 fcarcely deviates from Livy, in the narration of tranfaftions ; 

 but occafionally introduces a machinery, copied from Virgil, 

 of whofe Ityle and manner he is an imitator. Pliny fays, 

 that " he writes with more diligence than genius." The 

 bed editions of this work are thofe of Drakenborch, 1717 ; 

 and of Lefebvre de Villebrune, 4 vols. i2mo. 1782. , 



SILK, Sericum, a very foft, fine, bright, delicate 

 thread ; the work of an infeA, called lombyx, or the filk- 

 vvorm. 



The ancients were but little acquainted with the ufe and 

 manufafture of filk ; they took it for the work of a fort of 

 fpider, or beetle, who fpun it out of its entrails, and wound 

 it with its feet about the little branches of trees. This in- 

 fedl they called fer, from Seres, a people in Scythia, whom 

 we now call the Chinefe, who, as they thought, bred it ; 

 whence the filk itfelf they called fericum. But this fer of 

 theirs has very little affinity with our filk-worm, bombyx : 

 the former living five years ; but the latter dying annually, 

 enveloped in a yellowifh bag or ball, which, wound out 

 into little threads, makes what we call filk. 



It was in the ifle of Cos that the art of manufafturing it 

 was firft invented ; and Pamphila, daughter of Platis, is 

 honoured as the inventrefs. The difcovery was not long 



nnknown 



