S T A 



S T A 



a\ci.Ti', fiatmn, than that popular one mentioned in the laft 

 article, may be drawn from the athletx Hopping and red- 

 ing when at the end of thi<; courle : whence the name 

 might be applied to the fame diltance mealured in any other 



place. 



STADIUS, John, in Biography, a German allronomer, 

 was born in 1527. and iluditd at the univerfity of Louvain, 

 where he applied himfelf with fo much dilisence to mathe- 

 matical purfnits, that he was very foon qualified to become a 

 profefTor ; he refided fome time at Liege, and was allowed a 

 falary by the bifhop, for whom he annually calculated an 

 ephemeris, adapted to the meridian of Antwerp, begiiming 

 from the year 1554- The ephemerides of Stadius were 

 much ufed by the celebrated Dutch mathematician Stevin, 

 though they were afterwards proved to be in many refpefts 

 inaccurate. From Louvain, Stadius went to Savoy, with a 

 commiflion as mathematician to the king of Spain, and he 

 removed thence to Bruges, in Flanders, where he conipofed 

 his " Falli Romanorum," which were publifhed by Hubert 

 Goltzius, whofe daughter was married to his Ton ; after this 

 he was invited to France as profellbr royal of mathematics, 

 and lived there in high refpeft and honour till he became 

 enthufialtically attached to judicial aftrology, and on the faith 

 of that pretended art he began to predift future events. 

 He died in the year IJ79, in the fifty-fecond year of his 

 age. He is author of fome aftrological treatifes, and tranf- 

 lated a work of Hermes Trifmegillus, entitled " Jatro-ma- 

 thematicae, ad Amonem jEgyptium conlcripta." 



STADL, in Geography, a town of the duchy of Stiria ; 

 8 miles N.E. of Gratz. 



STADLIN, or Stadlau, a town of Silefia, in the prin- 

 cipality of Bredau, on the Stober ; 27 miles E. of Breflau. 



STADLKIRK, a town of Auftria ; 4 miles N. of 

 Steyr. 



STADMANIA, in Botany, fo named by Lamarck, in 

 commemoration of a botanical traveller, M. Stadman, to 

 whom he was obliged for the knowledge of the plant. — La- 

 marck lUullr. t. 312. Poiret in Lam. Dift. v. 7. 376. — 

 Clafs and order, OStandr'ia Momgynia. Nat. Ord. Saplndi, 

 Jud'. 



Gen. Ch. Cal. Perianth inferior, minute, of one leaf, 

 with five fhort, oval, rather pointed, teeth. Cor. none. 

 Stam. Filaments eight, thread-fhaped, ereft, rather longer 

 than the calyx ; anthers terminal, roundifh. Pjjl. Germen 

 fuperior, oblong ; (lyle very Ihort ; ftigma triangular. Perk. 

 Berry dry, globofe, generally attended by the rudiments of 

 another abortive one. fei/ folitary, globofe, large. 



EfT. Ch. Calyx with five teeth. Corolla none. Stigma 

 nearly fellile. Berry dry, with one feed. 



I. S. oppofilifolia.- — Native of the ifland of Mauritius, 

 where the Frencli call it Bois de fer, or Iron-wood, from 

 the hardnefs of the wood, which is employed for many ufe- 

 ful purpofes. The half-ripe berries, prelerved in a moilt 

 form with fngar, are faid to be tolerably good. — The tree 

 is large and handfome, with a tall ereft trunk, and fpread- 

 ing, oppofito, round branches, of 3 greyifh hue, downy when 

 young. Poiret defcribes the lea-ves as fimple, oppofite, 

 ftalked, elliptic-lanceolate, coriaceous, perfeftly entire, 

 obtufe, (lightly contradled at their bafe, fmooth ; Ihining 

 above; paler and brownifh beneath; their length three or 

 four inches, breadtli an mch, or inch and half. Footjlalks 

 three lines long. Fhiuers about the ep.ds of the branches, 

 in long, llalked clujlers, with (hort, thick, often aggregate, 

 partial ilalks, having a fmall tuberculated permanent braSea 

 at the bafe of each. — Such is Poiret's account ; but La- 

 marck's plate evidently reprefents the leaves as alternate, 

 pinnate, of from three to fix pair of oppofite leaflets ; the 



chillers o{ Jlotvers being axillary. Such we believe to ht 

 the true nature of the plant. We have fpecimens brought 

 by Commerfon from the ifles of Mauritius and Bourbon, and 

 marked Bois dea Gaulelles, a name which does not occur in 

 Juflieu, which, if not the fame fpecies, have every appearance 

 of belonging to thi? genus. In thefe the leaves are alternate, 

 abruptly pinnate, their common footjlalks flightly winged. 

 The flowers are in ftiort, denfe, compound, axillary, filky 

 clufters. Calyx and germen very filky. Fruit nearly 

 fmooth, crowned with the permanently?) /i» andjligma. We 

 dare hardly fufpeft fo much inaccuracy of delcnption in 

 the authors cited as to take this for their very identical Stad- 

 mania, but that it belong-s to the fame genus there can 

 fcarcely be any doubt. We find here and there even the ap- 

 pearance of a bud, or abortive leaflet, at the end of the com- 

 mon footjlaik, as reprelented mi re ilrongly by Lamarck, 

 which perhaps led Poiret to take the compound leaf for a 

 branch. 



STADT-AM-HOF, in Geography, a tovrn of Lower 

 Bavaria, on the Danube, oppofite to Ratilbon, and connedied 

 with it by a bridge. It has two convents and an alms-houfe, 

 to the latter of which Lutherans and Roman Catholics are 

 equally admillible ; the objefts of relief, as well as the go- 

 vernors, being half Lutherans and half CathoUcs ; its 

 yearly revenue is faid to amount to 80,000 florins. 



STADTBERG, or Marsberg, a town of the duchy of 

 Weilphalia, on the Dimel ; 20 miles S. of Paderborn. 



STADTHAGEN, a town of Weltphalia, in the county 

 of Schauenburg, endowed in the 13th century with con- 

 fiderable privileges, and furrounded with ditches, ramparts, 

 walls, and towers. From its fufferings during the 30 yeai's' 

 war, it has n,it yet recovered. The palace of the prince of 

 Schauenburg -Lippe is in this town, and the gardens have a 

 mineral fpring ; 8 miles E. of Minden. N. lat. 52'' 18'. 

 E. long. 9° 20'. 



STADTHOLDER, Stadthouldeb, or Stadholder, 

 a governor or lieutenant of a province, in the United Ne- 

 therlands, particularly that of Holland, where the word 

 (now indeed almoll obfolete) has been mod ufed, by rea- 

 ion of the fuperior importance of the government of that 

 province. 



Menage derives the word from ^adt, Jlate ; and houlder, 

 holding, q. d. lieutenant of the dates. Others will have it 

 compounded oi Jlad, ox Jlede, Jlead, or place ; znd houlder, 

 holding ; in regard this officer held the place of the counts, 

 and reprelented them in their abfence. 



The ftadtholder, i. e. the fladtholder of Holland, was 

 the firft member of the republic : he was chief of all the 

 courts of juftice, and might prefide therein when he plealed. 

 All fentcnces, judgments, Sic. were difpatched in his name. 

 When an office became vacant in any of the courts:, the dates 

 propofed three pcrfons to the ftadtholder, who chole one 

 of them. He even pardoned criminals, which is a fovereign 

 prerogative : and he had the choice of fcabines, or chief 

 magi'.trates, in each city ; to which end the council of the 

 city always prefented him two perfons, one of whom he ap- 

 pointed. 



In feveral cities he had the fame right of nominating the 

 burgo-maders and couniellors ; as at Rotterdam, Dort, &c. 

 He had alfo a power to calhicr the magidrate^, and put 

 others in their room, when he found it necefiary for the 

 public gocd, upon giving a reafon for the fame. 



By article VI. of the union of Utrecht, the States con- 

 ftituted him arbiter of all the diff'erences that might arife 

 between the dates of the feveral provinces, or between the 

 cities and the members of the dates of the province. 



To the dignity of Uadtholder was iufeparably annexed, 



that 



