5 M 1 



S M I 



Plumier's hones, t. 82 auJ 84, which cannot be referred to 

 any of the before-mentioned. The latter, indeed, is thus 

 adopted by Willdenow. 



S. macrophylhi. Large-leaved Smilax. Willd. n. 39. — 

 (China altera, non aculeata, foliis amplioribus ; Plum. Ic. 

 73. t. 84.) — Stem round, without prickles. — Leaves ovate, 

 obtufe, fomewhat lieart-lhaped, feven-ribbed. Tendrils from 

 the middle of the Ihort footllalks. — Native of the Well 

 Indies. The leaves nearly agree in fize and fliape, as well 

 as ihe foot/lalis, with Pajjijlora data. The umbels are ax- 

 illary, folitary, on ftalks twice the length of the /ooJ/?<7/^. 



Smilax, in Gardening, contains plants of the (hrubby, 

 climbing, evergreen kinds, of which the fpecies cultivated 

 are, the rough fmilax (S. afpera)j the tall fmilax (S. ex- 

 celfa) ; the medicinal fmilax, or farfaparilla (S. farfapa- 

 rilla) ; the bay-leaved fmilax (S. laurifolia) ; the black 

 bryony-kaved fmilax (S. tamnoides) ; the herbaceous fmi- 

 lax (S.herbacea) ; the Chinefe fmilax (S. china) ; and the 

 baftard Chinefe fmilax (S. pfeudo-china.) 



In the firft fort there is a variety which has the leaves 

 eared at the bafe. 



Method of Culture. — The fix firil hardy forts may be in- 

 creafed by flipping the roots, layers, and feed. In the firft 

 mode, the ftalks arifing from the roots lliould be flipped with 

 roots to each in the autumn, and be planted out either in 

 nurfery-rows for a year or two, or, which is better, where 

 they are to grow. In the layer method, the ftalks fhould 

 be laid down in the common manner in autumn, and when 

 well rooted, in the autumn following be taken off and planted 

 out as above. The feed fhould be obtained from abroad, 

 and be fown in pots filled with fine mould in the fpring, 

 being plunged in a hot-bed to forward their coming up ; 

 when the plants have attained fome growth they fliould be 

 planted out and managed as the others. 



The two laft tender forts may be increafed by layers 

 of the young (hoots, and dividing the roots, which fhould 

 be laid down, or planted out in the fpring feafon, in order 

 to have the culture of other woody greenhoufe plants of 

 the fame nature. The layers will be ready to take off in the 

 fpring following. 



The firft forts are proper for fliady fituations, borders, ^c. 

 and the latter afford variety in the gieenhoufe coUeftions, 

 among others of fimilar growths. 

 SMILE', in Surgery, a lancet. 



SMINTHEAN, Smintheus, trfti.Sftf, in Antiquity, an 

 epithet given to Apollo ; from the Greek o-juivS®-, a rat. 

 There are two different accounts of the origin of this ap- 

 pellation ; the firft is, that, in the city of Chryfa in Myfia, 

 was a prieft of Apollo, called Crinis, with whom that god 

 being offended, fent a herd of rats to fpoil all his lands ; but 

 Crinis appeafing the deity, he came in perfon to his affiil- 

 ance, took up liis lodgings with Crinis's thepherd, told him 

 who he was, and deftroyed all the rats with his arrows ; in 

 memory of which Crinis built a temple to hr, deliverer, under 

 the name of Apollo Smintheus. 



Strabo (1. 13.) fays, that in Chryfa was to be feen a 

 flatue of Apollo by the hand of Scopas, the celebrated fta- 

 tuary of Paros, with the figure of a rat near his feet ; and 

 Heraclides of Pontus afferts, that the rats about that temple 

 were facred. 



Clemens Alexandrinus, in his exhortation to the Greeks, 

 gives us a d fferent llory. The Cretans, fays he, intending 

 to fend out a colony, confulted the oracle of Apollo as to 

 the place : the aiifwer was, that they I'hould fix their co- 

 lony where thofe born of the earth fhould oppofe them. 

 Upon their arrival in the Hellefpont, the rats, in the night- 

 time, gnawed afuuder all the ftrings of their bows : this 



they deemed an accomplifhment of the oracle, and there buih 

 a city called Smiutha. 



SMINTO, Sminthium, in Ancient Geography, a town of 

 Afia Minor, in the Troade, or, as Strabo fays, in the terri- 

 tory of Adramyttium. But its true name was C/6r)ya. (See 

 Sminthean'.) M.d'Anville has placed Sminthium at a fmall 

 dillance S. of Tros, or Trey : according to Homer, this 

 town was in an ifland. It gave name to a neighbouring 

 mountain, called " Sminthium Nemus." Steph. Byz. 



SMIRIS, in Natural Hi/lory. See Emery. 



SMIRSITZ, in Geography, a town of Boliemia, in the 

 circle of Konigingratz ; 6 miles NE. of Konigingratz, 

 N. lat. 50° 14'. E. long. 15° 42'. 



SMITH, Adam, in Biography, a diftinguifhed writer in 

 moral and political philofophy, was born in the year 1723» 

 at Kirkaldy, in Fifefhire, where his father held the comp- 

 trollerfliip of the cuitoms. He received his early education 

 under the care of his mother, then a widow, at the fchool of 

 Kirkaldy, where he was noticed for an extraordinary paflion 

 for reading. At the age of fourteen he was removed to the 

 univerfity of Glafgow, in which he fpent three years, attend- 

 ing, among the other leftures, thofe of the celebrated pro- 

 fellor Hutchefon. In 1 740 he was fent as a penfioner to Ba- 

 liol college, Oxford. Here he fpent feven years, and it is 

 thought that during this period he employed himfelf chiefly 

 in acquiring an exaft knowledge of the languages, ancient 

 and modern, and in cultivating an Englifh ftyle, by the prac- 

 tice of tranflating works of high reputation into his own 

 language. Upon quitting the univerfity he abandoned all 

 thoughts of entering into the EngUfh church, for which 

 purpofe he had been fent thither, and went to Edinburgh, 

 and found a friend and patron in lord Kaimes. In 1751 he 

 was elected profefFor of logic at Glafgow, from which he 

 was removed, in the following year, to that of moral philo- 

 fophy. He now felt that he was in a fituation accommo- 

 dated to his talents and difpofition, and in later life he was 

 accuftomed to fpeak of his refidence and employment at 

 Glafgow as the moft ufeful and happiell portion of his 

 life. His lectures, both logical and moral, were extremely po- 

 pular ; and his mannerof delivering them, if not graceful, was 

 faid to be highly impreffive. In thofe on moral philofophy 

 were contained the rudiments of his two moft celebrated works 

 as an author. Of thefe, the firft is entitled " The Theory 

 of Moral Sentiments," and appeared in the year il^g. The 

 fundamental principle is fympathy, which the author makes 

 the fource of our feelings concerning the propriety or im- 

 propriety of actions, and their good or ill defert. To this 

 work he afterwards fubjoined " A Differtation on the Origin 

 of Languages." Thefe works were extremely well received, 

 and gave him a place among the belt writers of the time. • 

 They alfo made him known to feveral eminent charafters; 

 and it was in confequence of the reputation thus acquired, 

 that he was engaged to accompany the duke of Buccleugh 

 in his travels. He of courfe refigned his office as profefTor, and 

 in the beginning of the year 1764, he fet outfor the continent. 

 He had now an opportunity of comparing the ideas which 

 he had already formed refpecting political economy, with 

 thofe of the ableft men in foreign countries, and alfo with 

 fafts that prefented themfelves to his obfervation in the 

 courfe of his travels. A long refidence in France intro- 

 duced him to the acquaintance of Turgot, Quefnai, Necker, 

 D'Alembert, Helvetius, Marmontel, and others, to whofe 

 particular notice he was recommended by hit countryman 

 David Hume, with whom he had long been in habits of 

 frieiidfhip. He returned to his own country in the autumn 

 of 1 766, and the following ten years he paffed in retirement 

 with his mother at the obfcure town of Kirkaldy. Here he 



was 



