T R A 



T R A 



iftorical paffage of the Old Teftament ; in the other two, 



he diftrefs arifes from the zeal and attachment of the prin- 

 cipal perfonages to the Chrillian faith : and in all the three, 

 the authors have, with much propriety, availed themfelves 

 of the majefty which may be derived from religious ideas." 



The Englifh received the firil plan of their drama from 

 the French, among whom it had its iirft rife towards the 

 end of the reign of Charles V. under the title of the chant- 

 royal ; which confifted of pieces in verfe, compofed in 

 honour of the Virgin, or fome of the faints, and fung on 

 the ftage : they were called by the title chant-royal, be- 

 caufe the fubjeft was given by the king of the year, or 

 the perfon who had borne away the prize the year pre- 

 ceding. 



The humour of thefe pieces took wonderfully among the 

 people, infomuch, that in a little time there were formed 

 feveral focieties, who began to vie with each other in them : 

 and one of thefe, to engage the town from the reft, began 

 to intermix various incidents or epifodes, which they dif- 

 tributed into ads and fcenes, and had as many different per- 

 fons as were necefiary for the reprefentation. 



Their firll effay was in the Bourg St. Maur, and their 

 fubjeft the paflion of our Saviour. The prevot of Paris 

 prohibiting their continuing of it, they made application to 

 court ; and to render it the more favourable to them, erefted 

 themfelves into a friary, or fraternity, under the title of 

 " Brothers of the PalTion ;" which title has given fome 

 occafion to fufpeft them to have been an order of religious. 



The king, on, feeing and approving fome of their pieces, 

 granted them letters of ellabliihment in 1402, upon which 

 they built a theatre, and for an age and a half afted none 

 but grave pieces, which they called moralities ; till the 

 people growing weary of them, they began to intermix 

 tarces or interludes taken from profane fubjefts. This 

 mixture of farce and religion difpleafing many, they were 

 re-eftabli(hed by an arret of parliament in 1548, on con- 

 dition of their afting none but profane, yet lawful and de- 

 cent fubjefts, without intermeddling with any of the myf- 

 teries of religion ; and thus were the Brothers of the Faf- 

 iion defpoiled of their rehgious charafter ; upon which they 

 mounted the ilage no more in perfon, but brought up a 

 new fet of comedians, who afted under their direction. 



Thus was the drama eftabhflied, and on this foundation 

 arrived in England. In procefs of time, as it was improved, 

 it became divided into two branches, agreeable to the prac- 

 tice of the ancients, and the nature of things, viz. into 

 tragedy and comedy properly fo called ; and this lalt again 

 was fubdivided into pure comedy and farce. Se<; each 

 under its proper head. Comedy, &:c. 



Tragedy, Hilaro. See Yi\\^[iV.o-tragizdia. 



TRAGEIN, in Geography, a town of Auftria ; 10 miles 

 E.N.E. of Steyregg. 



TRAGELAPHUS, in Zoology. See Cervus and 

 Ovis. 



TRAGEN, in Geography, a town of Africa, in Fezzan ; 

 25 miles E. of Mourzouk. 



TRAGIA, in Botany, received its name from Plumier, 

 in memory of Hieronymus Tragus, or Jerome Bock, a 

 famous old German botanift, who was both a divine and a 

 phyfician, and difcovered a number of rare plants in Ger- 

 many, which Haller enumerates, Bibl. Bot. v. i. 266. He 

 is chiefly known to us by the Latin edition of his herbal, 

 pubhflied in quarto by David Kyberin 1552, with a learned 

 hillorical preface, by his illuftrions friend Conrad Gefncr. 

 •Some of the cuts, often coloured, give a ludicrous exhibi- 

 tion of the medical qualities of the plants, or of fome par- 

 ticulars in their hiilory. Tragus died in 1554, aged 56. 



Adanfon always called him Le Bouc, as if we were to fay 

 in Englifh Mr. He-goat ; and would not retain the Linnaean 

 name of the prefent genus, preferring that ufed in the 

 Hortus Malabaricus, Schorigenam, fpelling it, by a fatality 

 incident in orthography to many of his countrymen, Schori- 

 geram, which blunder he feems to have copied from Lin- 



nasus. Nobody has attended to this erudite alteration. 



Linn. Gen. 483. Schreb. 627. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 4. 

 322. Mart. Mill. Dift. v. 4. Ait. Hort. Kew. v. 5. 

 255. Purfh 604. Jufl". 390.- Plum. Gen. 14. t. 12. 

 Lainarck Did. v. 7. 722. lUuftr. t. 754. — Clafs and 

 Triandria. Nat. Ord. Tricocce, Linn. 



order, Monoecia 

 Euphorbia-, Jufl". 



Gen. Ch. Male, Cat. Perianth in three deep, ovate, 

 acute, flat, fpreading fegments. Cor. none. Statu. Fila- 

 ments three, the length of the calyx ; anthers roundiflt. 



Obf. Linnseus remarks, that Plumier took this calyx 

 for a funnel-fhaped monopetalous corolla. 



Female, on the fame plant, Cal. Perianth inferior, in 

 live, fometimes fix, deep, ovate, concave, acute, perma- 

 nent fegments. Cor. none. Pijl. Germen fuperior, 

 roundifii, with three furrows ; ftyle one, ereft, longer than 

 the calyx ; ftigma in three fpreading fegments. Peric. 

 Capful? of three globular lobes and three cells, briftly, 

 each cell marked at the bafe externally with a pair of dots. 

 Seeds folitary, globofe. 



Efl". Ch. Male, Calyx in three deep fegments. Corolla 

 none. 



Female, Calyx in five deep fegments. Corolla none. 

 Stigmas three. Capfule three -lobed, of three cells. Seeds 

 folitary. 



Obi. Some fpecies have the ftyle more or lefs deeply 

 fplit into three parts. 



Tragia is an unfightly genus, with the afpeft of a nettle, 

 or a Croton. The flowers are green and inconfpicuous ; 

 the herbage moftly hifpid or hairy ; the ftem either twining, 

 often flirubby and perennial ; or credt, herbaceous, with an 

 annual root. 



Seft. I. Stem climbing. 



I. T. volubilis. Twining Tragia. Linn. Sp. PI. 1390. 

 Willd. n. I. Ait. n. i. " Trew PI. Rar. v. 2- 7. t. 15." 

 Lamarck f. i. (T. alia fcandens, urticas folio ; Pium. 

 Ic. 251. t. 252. f. 2.) — Leaves ovate, fomewhat heart- 

 lliaped, pointed, ftrongly ferrated, rather hairy. Foot- 

 ftalks briftly above. Segments of the female calyx iin- 

 divided. Stem twining. — Native of dry, calcareous fitua- 

 tions in the Weft Indies, blofloming in our ftoves in June 

 and July, provided it be admitted there. Thejlem is round, 

 hairy, leafy, branched, twining from weft to eaft. Leaves 

 alternate, about tvi'O inches long ; paler beneath. Flowers 

 axillary ; the males in long brafteated clujlers ; the females 

 folitary, on a long ftalk at the bafe of each clufter. Cap- 

 fule the fize of a large pea. Browne's fpecimen has the 

 /eaves more foft and downy beneath than in the original one 

 from the Upfal garden. Whether the 13 of Linnaeus, Plum. 

 Ic. t. 252. f. I, be a variety, or a diilindt ipecies, we have 

 no means of determining. 



2. T. cordata. Heart-leaved Tragia. Vahl Symb. 

 v. I. 76. Willd. n. 2. (Jatropha pungens ; Forlk. 

 vEgypt.-Arab. 163.) — " Leaves heart-fliaped, pointed, 

 ferrated ; briftly beneath. Segments of the female calyx 

 pinnatitid, hairy. Stem twining." — Gathered by Forflcall 

 near Yemen, in Arabia Felix, where it is called Horekrek, 

 Meherkaka, or Humejta. Vahl lays the Jlem is ftirubby, 

 twining, and, like the whole plant, briftly. Leaves paler 

 beneath. Spiies terminal. 



3. T. hifpida. Briftly Tragia. Willd. u. 3 — "Leaves 

 P 2 lanceolate, 



