T A C 



hrgf fire and lofty height, fit for domeftic and naval pur- 

 polVs. (Juan and Ulloa's Voyago, vol. i. ) M. d'Anville, 

 in his map of Quito, has marked the fuppofed loft mnic of 

 Emeralds, about 20 miles to the fonth of the town of Taca- 

 mcs, which is lituatcd in a bay of the Pacific ocean, to 

 which it (jives name; no miles N.W. of Quito. N. lat. 

 o" 52'. W. long. 62*. 



TACAPHORIS, in Jnaent Geography, a town of 

 Africa, in the interior of Marmarica. Ptol. 



TACARIGUA, Bay or Lake, in Geography, is fituated 

 in the government of Caraccas, in America, about one and a 

 half league from the mouth of the river Tuy. Its form is 

 eircular, and its meafure is about feven leagues from the fea, 

 on the N.E. to its deepeft recefs on the S.E. It abounds 

 in all kinds of fca-fi(h, and is remarkable for the groat 

 number of alHgators which are feen in it. 



TACASARTA, in Ancient Geography,:^ town of Egypt, 

 upon the route from Memphis to Pelufium. Anton. Itin. 



TACASUKI, in Geography, a town of .Japan, in the 

 ifland of Niplion ; 12 miles N.W. of Meaco. 



TACATO, a town of .Japan, in the ifland of Niphon ; 

 48 miles S.S.W. of .Jedo. 



TACATUA, Tackus, in /Indent Geography, a town 

 fituated on the coaft of Africa, between Ruficades and 

 Hippone ; E. of the promontory of Tapfos, and W. of that 

 of Hippi. 



TACAU, in Geography, VLlown of .Japan, in the ifland of 

 Niphon ; 90 miles N.W. of Jedo. 



TAG AX I, a fmall ifland of Japan, on the S. coaft of the 

 ifland of Ximo, at the entrance into the gulf of Ximabara. 



TACAZZE', a river of Africa, next to the Nile the 

 largeft in Upper Abyftinia. Its principal branch rifes in 

 Angot, in a plain champaign country, about 200 miles S.E. 

 of Gondar, near a fpot called Souami Midre. It has three 

 fpring-heads, or fources, like the Nile : near it is the fmall 

 village Gourri, fignifying cold. The other branch of the 

 Tacazze rifes in the frontiers of Begemder, near Dabuco, 

 whence, running between Gouliou, Lafta, and Beleflcn, it 

 joins vnth the Angot branch, and becomes the boundary 

 between Tigre and Amhara. This river was called the 

 Siris, or the river of the dog-ftar, whilft the unciviUzed peo- 

 ple, the Cuftiites of the ifland of Meroe, refided upon its 

 banks. It was then called the Tannufli Abay, or the lefler 

 of two rivers that fwelled with tlie tropical rains, which was 

 the name given to it by the peafants from a comparifon of it 

 with the Nile. It was the Taca'zzc in Derkin, or the dwell- 

 ing of the Taka, before it joined the Nile in Baja, and it 

 was the Aftaboras of thofe of the ancients that took the Nile 

 for the Siris. It is now the Atbara, giving its name to that 

 peninfula, which it inclofes on the E. as the Nile does on 

 the W. and which was formerly the ifland of Meroe. 

 Tacazz6 is a pleafant river, fliaded with fine lofty trees, and 

 having its banks covered with tamariflfs and bufties fingu- 

 larly fragrant. Its ftream is very limpid, its water excel- 

 lent, and it abounds with a great variety of fifli : its coverts 

 are alfo full of all forts of game. During the inundation, it 

 carries in its bed nearly one-third of all the water that falls 

 in Abyffinia, rifing to about three fathoms, tearing up rocks 

 and large trees in its courfe, and forcing down their broken 

 fragments fcattered in its ftream, with a noife like thunder 

 echoed from a hundred hills. This river, though in many re- 

 fpefts beautiful, has its difadvantagcs. From the falling of the 

 firft rains in March till November, it is death to fleep in the 

 country adjoining to it, both within and without its banks. 

 The inhabitants retire and live in villages on the top of the 

 neighbouring mountains ; and thefe are all robbers and 

 aflallins, who defcend from their habitations in the heights to 



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lie in wait for, and plunder the travellers who pafs that way. 

 Its abundance of fifh draws together a number of croco- 

 diles : in its adjacent thickets arc vaft multitudes of hons and 

 hyxnas. The ford of this river is fituated in N. lat. 13" 

 42' 45". Bruce's Travels, vol. iii. 



TACC A, in Botany, a Malay name, ufed by Rumphius, 

 and adopted by the claflical Forfter, as well as by the 

 younger Linna;us. The word being, though barbarous and 

 unmeaning, cafy of pronunciation, we are induced to ac- 

 quiefce in thefe authorities, and to retain it, along with 

 yfueuba. Pant/anus, and a few other names fo circumftanced. 

 Sir Jofeph Banks and Dr. Solander had called the fame 

 genus, very elegantly and j\idicioufly; Chaitaa, from x"-''!'''* 

 ajlowtng mane, or head of i.nr, m aUufion to the fpreading 

 tuft of long capillary filameiils, apparently a fort of bra<5leas, 

 or abortive ftalks, accompanying tlie flowers. — Forft. Gen. 

 t. 35. Linn. Suppl. 37. Schreb. 229. Wiild. Sp. PI. v. 2. 

 200. Mart. Mill. Dift. v. 4. Brown Prodr. Nov. Holl, 

 V. 1.340. Ait. Hort. Kew. v. 2. 306. Jufl". 56. Lamarck 

 Illuftr. t. 232. Gxrtn. t. 14. — Clafs and order, Hexan- 

 tlria Monogynia. Nat. Ord. Narciffi, Jufl". Akin to Aroidee 

 and Anjlolochitt, Brown. 



Gen. Ch. Cal. Perianth fuperior, of one leaf, in fix very 

 deep, elliptic-oblong, equal, converging, permanent fcg- 

 ments. Cor. none. Stam. Filaments fix, oppofite to the 

 fegments of the calyx, into wliofe bafe they are inferted, and 

 half as long, equal, dilated, flat, oblong, incurved and 

 vaulted at the fummit ; anthers feflile in the hollow of each 

 filament, of two diilinft lobes. P'tjl. Germen inferior, 

 roundifli ; ftyle ftiort, cylindrical, with three furrows ; ftig- 

 mas three, fpreading, dilated, cloven. Peric. Berry ovate, 

 angular, of one cell. Seeds numerous, ovate, ftriated, " in- 

 ferted into three receptacles annexed to the coat of the 

 berry." Brown. 



Efl". Ch. Calyx in fix deep equal fegments. Petals 

 none. Filaments vaulted. Stigmas ftellated. Berry infe- 

 rior, angular, with many feeds. 



I. T. plnnat'ifida. Pinnatifid Tacca, or Otaheite Salep. 

 Linn. Suppl. 251. Forft. Prodr. 36. PI. Efcul. 59, 

 Willd. n. I. Ait. n. i. Loureir. Cochinch. 300. (Tacca; 

 Rumph. Amboin. v. 5. 324 — 328. t. 112 — 114. Chaitsea 

 Tacca ; Banks Ic. Ined. apud Bibl. Linn. Leontice 

 Leontopetaloides ; Linn. Sp. PL 448. " Leontopetaloides ; 

 Amman, in Comm. Petrop. v. 8. 211. t. 13.") — Leaves 

 pinnatifid. — Native of the Eaft Indies, Cochinchina, the 

 tropical part of New Holland, and the Society Iflands ; 

 brought to England by Capt. Bligh, in 1793, but has not 

 yet flowered. Alton. The root is tuberous and perennial. 

 Leaves one or two, radical, on long ftalks, ereft, deeply 

 three-cleft, with deeply and varioufly pinnatifid, acute, 

 entire lobes, a foot long, fmooth, reticulated with veins. 

 Footjlalh hollow, fmooth. Flower-jlalk radical, about a 

 yard high, hollow, ereft, unbranched, terminating in a fimple 

 umbel of feveral drooping, green, fomewhat glaucous, 

 Jloivers, accompanied by an invo/ucrum of about as many 

 upright, partly pinnatifid, green leaves, near two inches 

 long ; with a greater number of much longer thread-ftiaped 

 bodies, fufpefted by Mr. Brown to be abortive flower-ftalks. 

 The terries are black, larger than a goofeberry, but little 

 juicy when ripe. 



Forfter fays the frefli root is intenfely bitter and acrid, 

 though fomewhat milder when cultivated. By being 

 grated, and repeatedly waflied in frefti water, it yields a 

 very white mild powder, like ftarch, which is dried in the 

 fun, and then ferves for food, either in the manner of Salep, 

 or baked in the form of cakes, which are even better tlian 

 thofe made of Sago. The former mode of ufing this powder 



