T A K 



TAR 



be the ancient Taphrura or Tapanira ; 24 miles VV. of 

 Thainee. 



TARFVALA, a town of Sweden, in tlie pro\ince of 

 Tavaftland ; 70 miles N.N.E. of Jamiio. 



TARGA, a fea-port town of Fez, near which is an 

 oyi1;er filhery ; 90 miles S.E. of Tangiers, 



Tai>.oa. See TiKGA. 



TARGAR, a name given by fome of the tlieinical 

 writers to oil of juniper. 



TARGET, ajh'uld; thus called from the Latin, tergum, 

 hack, becaufe originally made of leather, wrought out of the 

 back of an ox's hide. 



Target is alfo the name of a mark for the artillery to hre 

 at in their praftice. 



Target, in Geography, a town of France, in the depart- 

 ment of the AUier ; 2 miles S.E. of Montmarault. 



TARGIONI, Tozzetti, Giovanni, in Biography, an 

 eminent Italian phyfician, was born at Florence in 1712, and 

 took his degree of M.D. at Pifa, where he had ftudied and 

 acquired fmgular reputation. Upon his return to Florence, 

 he applied to the iludy of botany under the celebrated 

 Micheli, who, at his death, bequeathed to him his library, 

 herbarium, and MSS., and alfo the fuccefTion to his direftor- 

 fhip of the botanical garden. He was likewife nominated 

 profefTor of botany in the Florentine college by the grand 

 duke ; and admitted to the two academies of the Apatilli 

 and Delia Crufca. In conjunftion with Cocchi, he engaged 

 in making a catalogue of the library of Magliabecchi, which 

 he had bequeathed to the public ; and in recompence of his 

 labour, the grand duke appointed him librarian. His va- 

 rious occupations, in conneftion with his praftice, rendered 

 it neceflary for him to refign the office of direiftor of the bo- 

 tanical garden in 1 749. The mind of Targioni, however, 

 was fo aftive, that not content with his literary and profef- 

 fional employments at home, he made feveral fcientific ex- 

 curfions, the refult of which he publifhed in his " Relazioni 

 d'alcuni Viaggi fatti in divcrfe parte della Tofcana per of- 

 fervar le Produzioni naturali, e gli antichi Monumcnti 

 d'effe," Firenz. t. i. 175 1, 8vo. As a phyfician, he alfo 

 publifhed feveral pieces, and among thefe were " Direftions 

 for the Recovery of drowned Perfons." He alfo promoted 

 inoculation for the fmall-pox ; and direfted his attention 

 to the treatment of epidemics, the draining of marfhes, the 

 prevention of the inundations of the Arno, and the examina- 

 tion of vegetables to be fiibftituted for bread in a time of 

 fcarcity. Having taken leave ot littrary labours by a work 

 on the progrefs of the phyfical faiences in Tufcany, compre- 

 hended in four volumes, he rcftrifted himfelf to medical 

 praftice from the year 1770 to 1780. At length, in Ja- 

 nuary 1782, being in his 71ft year, his life terminated by a 

 gradual decay. Haller. Gen. Biog. 



TARGIONIA, in Botany, was fo named by Micheli, 

 in honour of his friend and fellow-labourer in the natural 

 hiftory of Italy and other parts of the world. Dr. Cyprian 

 Targioni, of Florence, whofe valuable mufeum he highly 

 celebrates. There have been feveral perfons of this name, 

 diftinguifhed at Florence, in medicine and natural hiftory. 

 John Targioni, who took the furname of Tozzetti for an 

 eftate, was profeflbr of botany there, and died in 1782, aged 

 70. He publilhed Travels in Tufcany, as well as feveral 

 other works relating to natural fcience, and purchafed the 

 mufeum and library of Micheli. (See that article.) — 

 Mich. Nov. Gen. 3. t. 3. Linn. Gen. 565. Schreb. 764. 

 Mart. Mill. Did. v. 4. Sprengel in Stockholm Tranf. for 

 1802. 85. t. 4: alfo in Bullet, des Sciences, 27. t. 2. f. 2. 

 JuiT. 8. Lamarck Illuftr. t. 877. — Clafs and order, Cryj)- 

 togamia Hepatic^. Nat. Ord. ^Iga, Linn. Hepatict, Jufl. 



Gen. Ch. Cat.? Perianth a continued membrane, finely 



reticulated, enveloping the piftil, at length burfting. Stam.f 

 Anthers numerous, rouJidilh, feffile, fcattercd over the in- 

 fide of the perianth. PiJ/. Germeii oval, nearly feflile, ac- 

 companied at the bafe by the rudiments of others, with 

 abortive lUKs ; (lyle terminal, awl-{liaped, tubular, deci- 

 duous ; iligma concave. Peric. Capfule fefTile, nearly glo- 

 bofe, ot two hemifpherical valves, burfting vertically, and 

 one cell. Seeds very numerous, minute, roundilh, connefted 

 by five threads into a denfe globular mafs. 



Ell. Ch. Capfule globofe, of two concave valves, and 

 one cell. Seeds numerous, combined by fibres into a 

 globe. 



I. T. hypophylla. Dotted Targionia. Linn. Sp. PI. 

 1603. Hudl. 519. Engl. Bot. t. 287. Dickf. Dr. PI. 

 20. (T. minima et vulgaris ; Mich. n. i. Lichen petrxub 

 minimus, fruftu orobi ; Dill. Mufc. 532. t. 78. f. 9. L. 

 alter acaulis LTTo-K^Xoxaaroi ; Column. Ecphr. part I. 333> 

 t. 331.) — Very common in heathy rather moill places, 

 among moffes, on old walls and rocks, in moft parts of 

 Italy. It is faid alfo to have been found in Dcvonfliire, and 

 in Scotland. We have had hving plants from a bank near 

 Nayland in Suffolk, where the Targionia was difcovered by 

 the Rev. Mr. Kirby. The fronds are oblong, inverfcly 

 heart-fhaped, three quarters of an inch in length, growing 

 nearly horizontally, in denfe imbricated patches, attached 

 by copious fine fibrous roots ; their upper furface dark 

 green, marked with a (light longitudinal furrow, and be- 

 fprinkled with pale prominent points ; the under fide black, 

 becoming vifible when, by drought, the margins arc curled 

 in. The parts of the Jlower we have not feen. The fruit 

 ftands at the back of the frond, a little below the end, and 

 looks like the feed of a vetch, being nearly globular, of a 

 very dark brown, almoft black ; feparating when ripe into 

 two hemifpherical valves, enclofing a globular mafs of black 

 powdery feeds, conncfted by fibres. The habit of the plant 

 is exaftiy like that of a Marchantia, (fee that article,) 

 but the generic charafter differs cfTentially, by the fruit 

 alone, from that genus, as well as from Jungermannia, of 

 which latter Hedwig fufpedled it to be a fpecies. We rely 

 on the obfervations of Sprengel for the ftrufture of the 

 flower, though without any fohd conviftion that the anthers 

 are what he defcribes. The female parts of fruftificatiou 

 refemble thofe of true Musf'l, (fee that article,) but the 

 capfule is totally different. This part is called calyx in the 

 JEnglifh Botany, from a fuppofed analogy to Sphttrocarpus, 

 which we now believe to have little foundation. Whether 

 there be any membrane extended from the bafe of the ftyle 

 over the germen, like the calyptra of moffes, does not appear 

 from Sprengel's defcription, but it is highly probable ; 

 though as he exprefsly fays the ftyle itfelf is deciduous, that 

 circumftance would ftill aftbrd a material diftinftion. 



T ARGON, in Geography, a town of France, in the 

 department of the Gironde ; 6 miles N.E. of Cadillac. 



TARGOWISKA, a town of Poland, in Volhynia ; 

 9 miles S. of Lucko. 



TARGUM, in the Sacred Literature, a name which the 

 Jews give to their Chaldee gloffes and paraphrafes on the 

 Scripture. See PAKAniUASK. 



Thefe Chaldee paraphrafes, which were tranflations of 

 the fcriptures of the Old Teftament, from the Hebrew text 

 into the language of the Chaldxans, were called Targums : 

 for the word targum fignifies in Chaldee an iiiterprelation or 

 verfion of one language into another, and may properly be 

 applied to any fuch verfion or trandation ; but it is moft 

 commonly by the Jews appropriated to thefe Chaldee para- 

 phrafes by way of eminence. 



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