T E R 



in width. They make tlicir hooked jaivs to meet at the firft 

 llrokc, nor will they quit their hold, but fuflcr themfelves to 

 be pulled away leg by leg, and piece after piece, without the 

 leail attempt to elcape. If, however they are left to them- 

 felv.s undillurbed, they will in lefs than half an hour retire 

 into the neft, as if they conceived their caftle to be fecure. 

 Before they all get in, the labourers will be feen in moUon, 

 haftecing to bring materials for repairing the breach. 1 his 

 they do without mutual obftruc^ion, though their number be 

 immenfe, and the work is foon finiftied. While the labourers 

 are thus employed, the foldiers take no part with them. On 

 a renewed attack, the labourers run with celerity into the 

 numerous pipes and galleries with which the building is per- 

 forated ; and the foldiers ru(h out as numerous and as vin- 

 dictive as before. One circumftance more deferves to be 

 mentioned ; and that is the loyalty and fidelity difplayed by 

 the labourers and foldiers in their attendance on the royal 

 chamber. This chamber is a large neft, is capacious enough 

 to hold many hundreds of the attendants, befides the royal 

 pair, and it is always found full. Thefe faiihful fubjeds 

 never abandon their charge in the laft diftrefs, but rather die 

 in their defence than defert them. If in an attack upon the 

 hill, you ftop fliort of the royal chamber, and cut down 

 about half of the building, and leave open fome thoufands of 

 galleries and chambers, they will all be fhut up with their 

 fteets of clay before the next morning. If even the whole 

 is pulled down, and the different buildings are thrown to- 

 gether in a heap of confufed ruins, provided the king and 

 queen are not deftroyed or taken away, every interftice 

 between the ruins, at which either cold or wet can poflibly 

 enter, will be fo covered, as to exclude both ; and if the in- 

 fefts are left undillurbed, in about a year they will raife the 

 building to ne.irly its priftine fize and grandeur. 



There is another fpecies, called the inarching termites, 

 ■which is much lai-ger, and feems to be lefs frequent thai} the 

 other. For an account of thofe, and many other curious 

 particulars, we mull refer to Philof. Tranf vol. Ixxi. part i. 

 art. II. p. 139 — 192. 



TERMIGON, in Geography, a town of France, in the 

 department of Mont Blanc, on the Arc ; 12 miles E.N.E. 

 of St. Andre. 



TERMINALIA, m Antiquity, feafts celebrated by the 

 Romans, in honour of the god Terminus. 



Varro is of opinion, that this feaft took its name from its 

 being at the term or end of the year ; but Feftus is of a 

 different fentiment, and derives it from the name of the deity 

 in whofc honour it was held. 



In reality, the Terminalia, or feafts of land-marks, were 

 held in honour of Jupiter, coniidered in the capacity of con- 

 fcrvalor of land-marks or bounds. Dionyfius Halicai-nafleus 

 tells us, that it was Numa Pompilius who firft confecrated 

 land-marks to Jupiter ; and adds, that the fame prince ap- 

 pointed an anniverfary day, on which the country-people, 

 aflembhng together on the bounds of the lands, fliould offer 

 facrifices in honour of the tutelary gods thereof. 



The Terminalia were held on the feventh, or, as Struvius 

 will have it, on the tenth of the calends of March. No 

 animal is to be facrificed herein, it being deemed unlawful to 

 ftain the land-marks with blood : they only offered facriiices 

 of the firft fruits of the earth ; and this in the open air, and 

 on the fpot where the land-marks were. 



Terminalia, in Botany, from the terminal mode of 

 growth and foliation in feveral of the fpecies, the ftem being 

 a ftriking example of what Linnsus latterly called deter- 

 minate ramofus, and the leaves being crowded at the ends 



o' the branches, which are fwelled in that part Linn. 



Mant. 21. Schreb, Gen. 728. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 4. 967. 



T E R 



Mart. Mill. Dift. v. '4. Ait. Hort. Kew. v. 5:. 441. 

 Jacq. Coll. V. I. 130. Juff. 76. Lamarck Illuftr. t. 848. 

 ( Pamea ; Aubl. Guian. 946. Tanibouca ; ibid. 448 ? Ba- 

 d.-imia ; Gajrtn. t. 97. Myrobalanus ; Gsertn. ibid. Lam. 

 Illuftr. t. 849.) — Clafs and order, Polygamia Monoecia, 

 Linn. Rather Dccandria Monogynia. 



Gen. Ch. Col. Perianth fuperior, of one leaf, internally 

 coloured, in five ovate, acute, equal fegments. Cor. Petals 

 none. Neftary pitcher-fhapcd, compofed of five fmall hairy 

 lobes, in the bottom of the calyx. Stam. Filaments ten, 

 awl-ftiaped, flightly fpreading, longer than the calyx, in- 

 ferted into its lower part ; anthers roundifh, eredl. Pijt- 

 Germen inferior, ovate-oblong ; ftyle thread-ftiaped, erecl, 

 the length of the ftamens ; ftigma fimple. Peric. Drupa 

 oval, fomewhat compreffed, acute. Seed. Nut oval-oblong, 

 angular, fmooth, with an oblong folitary kernel. 



Numerous flowers, above the others, and later, are en- 

 tirely male. 



Eff. Ch. Calyx in five fegments, internally coloured. 

 Petals none. Nedlary five-cleft, hairy. Drupa inferior. 



1. T. Catappa. Broad downy-leaved Terminalia. Linn. 

 Mant. 128. WiUd. n. I. Ait. n. i. Jacq. Coll. v. i. 

 130. Ic. Rar. t. 197. (Adamaram; Rheede Hort. 

 Malab. v. 4. 5. t. 3, 4.) — Leaves obovate, obtufe, very 

 flightly toothed, deftitute of glands at the bafe ; finely 

 downy beneath. — Native of the Eaft Indies, in Java and in 

 woods on the coaft of Malabar, where the foil is fandy. 

 Meffrs. Lee and Kennedy are faid to have introduced this 

 tree into the Englifti ftoves in 1778, but it has not yet blof- 

 fomed, nor, confidering its natural and lofty growth, is that 

 event to be expefted. The branches grow in a whorled 

 manner ; their extremities, clothed with rufty down, bearing 

 each a clofe tuft of large broad leaves, a foot long, on fliort 

 downy ftalks. Each leaf is tipped with a fmall point, and 

 is abrupt or fomewhat heart-fliaped, though much coiitradl- 

 ed, at the bafe. Clujlers numerous, axillary, llalkcd, cylin- 

 drical, denfe, many-flowered. Floivers greenifti-yellow, 

 half the fize of a currant-bloffom, moft of them males. 

 Fruit o\-d\, compreffed, larger than that of the almond-tree, 

 reddifli, with a cylindrical kernel, which taftes like a filberd, 

 but is more tender and foluble. Its oil is faid never to tuni 

 rancid. The wood is hard and durable, and the tree is much 

 planted about houfes, for the fake of its ftiade. 



2. T. moluccana. Molucca Terminalia. Lamarck Dirt. 

 V. 1. 349. Willd. n. 2. Ait. n. 2. (T. glabrata ; Forft. 

 Prodr. 74. PI. Efcul. 52. Spreng. Antiq. Bot. 102. t. 2. 

 Catappa; Rumph. Amboin. v. i. 174. t. 68.) — Leaves 

 obovate, obtufe, entire, deftitute of glands at the bafe ; 

 fmooth on both fides. — Native of the Molucca and Society 

 ifles. Introduced into the Enghfti ftoves by the earl of 

 Powis, in 1 804. This is faid to be of a more humble fta- 

 ture than the foregoing, and the leaves are fmaller, fmooth 

 at the back, though \\\t\x Jootjlalks are covered with denfe 

 rufty down. The fpecific name of glabrata ought to have 

 been retained in preference to moluccana. This is confidered 

 as a facred tree in Otaheite, though ufed in building boats as 

 well as houfes. 



3. T. fubcordata. Heart-leaved Terminalia. WiUd. 



n. 3 " Leaves obovate, obtufe, fomewhat wavy ; fmooth 



on both fides, heart -ftiaped at the bafe, without glands." — 

 Gathered by Humboldt and Bonpland, in South America. 

 Willdenovv, who had examined one of their dried fpecimens, 

 fays " this fpecies is very like the laft, but the bafe of the 

 leaves is heart-fliaped, and their margin very flightly and un- 

 equally waved ; the footjlalks fomewhat downy. It differs 

 from T. Catappa, in having the leaves fomewhat wavy, very 



fmooth 



