T R I 



The reader will obferve that T. cirratum, Fl. Brit. n. 6, 

 is omitted in tlie Compendium, ed. 2, proving merely a large 

 variety of Dicranum polyphyllttm, Fl. Brit. 1225. Engl. Bot. 

 t. 1 2 17. 



Some fpecies referred to Trichojlomum by Hedwig, on ac- 

 count of the approximation of their teeth, we confider as 

 Ciimmin, hecaviie they have only fixteen teeth, not thirty-two. 

 An inftance occurs in G. bomnmaUa, Fl. Brit. 11 94. Engl. 

 Bot. t. 1900, fo like heteromalhi, which immediately precedes 

 it in thefe works, that they can hardly be diftinguilhed but 

 by the above minute charafter. We acknowledge indeed 

 that the dwarf fpecies of Trichojlomum, in general, have 

 almoft entirely the habit of Grimmiit. But the difference 

 between the numbers fixteen and thirty-two, in their teeth, 

 appears, by the analogy of other genera, a moft certain and 

 natural generic dillinftion. See Grimmia. 



TRICHOURI, in Natural Ni/lory, a term ukd by fome 

 authors to exprefs fuch flies as have one or more hairs 

 growing out at their tails : thefe are called ?Mo fdicaudie. 



TRICHRUS, the name of a ilone defcribed by the an- 

 cients, and faid to yield three colours : in their common way 

 of preparing bodies of this kind for medicinal ufe ( which 

 was by rubbing them down on a porphyry, or other hard 

 ftone with water), this firll coloured the water black, then 

 red, and laftly white. It feems to have been a kind of hx- 

 matites, or blood-ftone. 



TRICKANDORE, in Geography, a town of Hindoo- 

 ftan, in the province of Tinevelly ; 30 miles E.S.E. of Pa- 

 lamcotta. 



TRICKUT, one of the Nicobar idands. N. lat. 8^ 3'. 

 E. long. 94° 10'. 



TRICLARIA, in Mythology, an epithet given to 

 Diana, in Achaia ; and Paufanias tells us (In Corint.) that 

 Menalippus and Cometho gratified their lull in the temple of 

 Diana Triclaria. This profanation, as it is faid, was fol- 

 lowed with a general barrennefs, infomuch that the earth pro- 

 duced no fruit, and with an epidemical dillemper, which 

 fwept away numbers of people. The Achaians, having 

 confulted the oracle of Apollo, were anfwered by the 

 prieftefs, that the impiety of Menalippus and Cometho was 

 the caufe of all their calamities, and that the only way to 

 appeafe the goddefs was to facrifice to her every year a boy 

 and a young virgin. 



TRICLINIUM, in Antiquity, the name given by the 

 Romans to the room in which they eat ; and alfo to the beds 

 upon which they rechned at meat, fo called, becaufe it was 

 contrived to accommodate three perfons. 



TRICOCC-(E, in Botany, one of the natural orders 

 among the Fragmenta of Linnaeus, where it ranks as the 

 thirty-eighth, between the Columnifer.t, and Siliquos.'e, 

 (fee thofe articles,) though without having fcarcely any 

 affinity of characters or quahties with either. The name is 

 derived from rpsif, three, and xoxxo-, a grain, or feed, and 

 alludes to the form of the feed-veflel, apparently compofed 

 of three combined lobes, each of which comprehends a 

 fingle-feeded cell. (See Dicoccus. ) We are not however to 

 underftand that every fuch fced-veffel belongs to this order. 

 Thea is one exception among feveral ; while, on the other 

 hand, fome genera which do belong to it may have only two 

 lobes to their fruit ; witnefs Mercurialis ; while Phtkenelia 

 has four, and Hura a much greater number. The valves 

 are generally powerfully elaftic, ferving by that means to 

 icatter the feeds widely, as foon as they are fully ripe. 



The plants compofing this natural order have alternate, 

 moftly fimple, leaves, often furnifhed with glands. Their 

 fecreted fluids are milky, and extremely acrid, their milk 

 being a natural emulfion, of a moft virulent refin, or gum- 



2 



T R I 



refin, mixed with a watery liquid. The calyx and corolla 

 have, as Linnsus obferves, always fomething unnfual in 

 their conformation, efpecially about the neffary. The fylc 

 is generally peculiar, being three-cleft, fometimes very 

 deeply, and each branch again divided. Many of the genera 

 have feparated, either monoecious or dioecious, /lowers. 

 The Jlems are either flirubby, fometimes very flertiy ; or her- 

 baceous, with annual or perennial roots. 



Euphorbia is felefted by Linnius to exemplify the order 

 of Tricocct. No genus can be more natural or diftinff, 

 however different the habit, or herbage, of fome of the 

 numerous fpecies from each other. According to the ge- 

 nerally received idea of this genus, its Jlowers are fimple or 

 united, each having a calyx of one concave or inflated leaf, 

 whofe four or five marginal teeth bear as many abrupt, co- 

 loured, neftariferous glands. Thefe latter, in fome inilances, 

 as £. coroUata, affume perfeftly the appearance of petals. 

 Yet Linnaeus was always much puzzled and furprifed 

 at the petals thus originating from the teeth of the calyx, of 

 wliich he could fcarcely find another example. Other pe- 

 culiarities in this remarkable genus could not efcape fo ac- 

 curate an obferver, as the long flalk which elevates the gcr- 

 men out of the flower, and turns it to one fide ; and the pro- 

 greflive nature of the ftamens, as well as their anthers, 

 which come forth in fucceffion. The herbage too is re- 

 markably various, arboreous and fucculent, or herbaceous ; 

 fpinous or unarmed ; the leaves oppofite, or alternate, or 

 deficient. Two fpecies having an irregular calyx, gibbous 

 underneath, were feparated into a diilinA genus by Dille- 

 nius, under the faulty name of Tithymakides, but they are 

 too naturally akin to the reft to juilify fuch a meafure. 



Although the above is the generally received idea of Eu- 

 phorbia, Juffieu, Gen. PL 386, has hinted that the flower is 

 perhaps a compound one, confifling of a central female 

 floret, with many monandrous male ones, dillinguiflied by 

 chaffy fcales, all in one common involucrum. Mr. Brown, 

 in his very inltruftive Remarks on the Botany of Terra 

 Auftralis, publifhed at the end of captain Flinders's Voyage, 

 has confirmed this opinion, by an additional obfervation. He 

 conceives what all authors have taken for a joint in each fila- 

 ment, to be in faft the feparation of the filament from its 

 footftalk ; or in other words the bafe, or receptacle, of the 

 flower, or floret, which is entirely deftitute of a proper pe- 

 rianth and corolla ; the female floret likewife having its foot- 

 ftalk, on whofe dilated, fometimes obfcurely lobed, fummit, 

 the feflTile germen is placed. In fupport of this dodtrine, it 

 is fuggefted that the real filament is, as in other plants, pro- 

 duced fubfequent to the formation of its anther, and of the 

 ftalk below the joint ; their furfaces moreover, in fome ipe- 

 cies, being different in nature. But the moft conclufive cer- 

 tainty is given to Mr. Brown's theory, by tlie dilcovery of 

 a new genus, hitherto unpubliflied, having an involucrum 

 nearly fimilar to Euphorbia, inclofing {eserA fafiiculi of mo- 

 nandrous male flowers, around a folitary female ; while in 

 this there is an obvious perianth, regularly divided into 

 lobes, at the joint of each fuppofed filament, as well as at 

 that by which the germen isconnededwitii its ftalk. 



The above idea of Euphorbia, as a monoecious genus, 

 brings it nearer to the reft of this natural order, wliich have 

 .almoft uuiverfally feparated, cither monoecious or dioecious, 

 flowers. At leaft fuch is the cafe with tlie genera properly 

 belonging to it, and which conftitute Juffieu 's order of £«- 

 phorbiif, or Euphorbiacctc. 



TRICOLLORI, in Ancient Geography, a people of 

 Gallia Narbonnenfis, whofe capital was Alarante ; who os- 

 cupied the territory of Sifteron. 



TRICOLONI, or TIUCOLONS, a town of Arc.idia, 



N.E. 



