T R I 



T K I 



in their lower half. — Native of the Cape, and one of the 

 firft of its tnbe cultivated in the gardens of Europe, where 

 it has always been a great favourite, flowering in fpring. 

 The brilliant orange-colour of its corolla, contrafted with 

 the membranous tranfpai'ency of the lower half of its feg- 

 ments, all clofe together, has a very ftriking appearance. 

 We have fome doubts whether Miller's t. 239. f. 2. be 

 not rather taken from the foregoing fpecits, which in the 

 fhape and difpofition of its fegments that figure moft 

 refembles. 



14. T. deujla. Tall Copper-coloured Tritonia. Ker in 

 Curt. Mag. t. 622. Ait. n. 11, (Ixiadeufta; Willd. Sp. 

 PI. V. I. 205. Vahl Enum. v. i. 74. I. crocata, nigro 

 maculata ; Andr. Repof. t. 134. I, miniata, nigro macu- 

 lata; Redout. Liliac. t. 89. ) — Limb of the corolla regular, 

 widely fpreading ; its fegments imbricated, obovate, folid 

 throughout; the three outermoft gibbous underr.eath. Tube 

 rather fhorter than the fpatha — Found at the Cape of 

 Good Hope, by Mr. MafTon, who fent it to Kew in i 774. 

 Allied to the two laft, but taller, with flill deeper orange- 

 coXoyxxtAJlotvers, whofe fegments have no marginal tranf- 

 parency. The three outermoft have a fort of hollow, or de- 

 preffion, juft above the bafe, marked with a very dark fpot, 

 and prominent beneath. Jacquin's Ix'ta miniata is taken by 

 Vahl for a variety of the prefent, deflitute of fpots ; but 

 the figure more refembles aux fenejlrata, n. 12, in the (hape 

 and pofition of the fegments of the corolla, though wanting 

 their membranous margin. See the following. 



15. T. miniata. Tall Late-flowering Tritonia. Ker in 

 Curt. Mag. t. 609. Ait. n. 12. (Ixia miniata; Jacq. 

 Hort. Schoenbr. v. i. 10. t. 24?) — Limb of the corolla 

 funnel-fliaped, fomewhat two-lipped, reverfed ; its fegments 

 cbovate, clofe, folid throughout. Tube the length of the 

 i'patha. Found at the Cape of Good Hope, by Mr. 

 MafTon, who fent it to Kew garden in 1795. It flowers in 

 Auguft, and is the talleft. and ftrongelt of this genus, 

 having a branched^^^m, eighteen inches or more in height. 

 Thtjloiuers are fcentlefs, of a rather dull orange-colour ; 

 their three lower fegments, (turned uppermoft by the 

 reverfed pofture of the flower,) marked at the bafe with an 

 oblong yellow fpot, indicating a degree of irregularity in 

 the corolla. This circumftance does not appear in Jacquin's 

 £gure, above quoted, where all the fegments have a fimilar 

 mark. How far fuch charafters are variable in this difB- 

 cult tribe, requires a longer experience, and more intimate 

 praftical acquaintance with it, than we can boaft, to decide 

 with certainty. More has been done by Mr. Ker than any 

 other perfon, to clear up the fubjeft ; but a wider range of 

 praftical obfervations and experiments is ftill wanted, in 

 order to a correft underftaiiding of what makes a permanent 

 fpecies. In the perception of natural genera, this botanift 

 feems to us to difplay great abilities, whether their tech- 

 nical limitations be, as yet, perfefted or not. With refpeft 

 to colour, and even proportion of parts, in the flowers of 

 this family, Jacquin's reputed varieties of Ixia maculata, in 

 the ift; vol. of his Hortus Schoenbrunenfis, are fufticient to 

 drive any botanift to defpair. 



TRITON US, in Mufic, a diffonant interval, compofed 

 of three tones, two major and one minor ; and which is, in 

 praftice, called the (harp 4th. This interval on keyed in- 

 ilruments is equal in nominal femitones to the falfe 5th : 

 the numerical ratios, however, are not equal ; that of the 

 Iritonus being only 32 to 45 ; which is occafioned by the 

 tritcnus having only one tone major inftead of two femitones 

 major, which the falfe 5th contains. See Fifth. 



But the moft confiderable difference between the falfe 5th 

 . r.d the fbarp 4th is, that the latter is a major difcortl, and 



7 



that the parts arc refolvcd by feparation ; and whcrees the 

 other is a minor difcord, ajid refolved by approximation of 

 the two parts. 



The chord of the fliarp 4th is only an inverfion of the 

 chord of the ° to the (harp 7 th of the key, by giving the 

 difcord to the bafe. 



TRITOPATORIA, Tf.WaTo^s.a, in ylntiquily, a fo- 

 lemnity in which it was ufual to pray for children to the 



Sfoi ^evsOaici, or gods of generation, who were fometimes called 



TpiTO^aTO^E?. 



TRITORIUM, in Chemipy, a vefl"el generaUy made of 

 glafs, ufed for the feparation of liquors of different ilenii- 

 ties, as oil and water. Its largeft diameter is in the mtldlc, 

 and it terminates with an aperture at each of the two e .'re- 

 mities. The lower extremity, the aperture of which is ery 

 narrow, is dipped into the mixed liquor, and when it is lufii- 

 ciently filled, the upper orifice is to be flopped cloie, by 

 prefling the thumb upon it, by which means the liquor con- 

 tained will not run out at the lower aperture, when the veiiel 

 is raifed from the mixed hquor. When the fluids of which 

 this liquor confifts have perfedlly feparated according to 

 tlieir refpeftive denfities, by removing the thumb, the heaviev 

 fluid will run out at the lower extremity, and the feparation 

 will be thus efFefted. Macquer's Dift. Chem. 



TRITTAU, in Geography, a town of the duchy of Hol- 

 ftein ; 20 miles E. of Hamburgh. 



TRITTYARCHI, ■:ti^^^,o.^x''^, among the Athenians, 

 were magittrates who had the command or government of the 

 third part of a tribe. See Phylarchus. 



TRITUM Promontoriom, Sehha-Rous, in Ancient 

 Geography, a promontory of Africa, at the weft entrance 

 of the gulf of Numidia ; called by Pomponius Mela Mcta- 

 gonium, 



TRITURATION, Tritura, or Tritus, formed from 

 trilurare, to thrajh, of tero, I 'wear, rub, or grind, in Phar- 

 macy ; grinding; the aft of reducing a fohdbody intoafubtile 

 powder, called alfo levigation, pulverization, &c. 



The trituration of woods, barks, mnierals, and other hard 

 and dry bodies, is performed by the rotatory motion of a 

 peftle in metalline, glafs, agate, or Wedgwood-ware mortars; 

 and in mills, by means of large rollers of hard ftone. 



The fame term is alfo applied to the comminuting, bruif- 

 ing, and dividing of humid matters into little parts. The 

 trituration of moift bodies is performed in marble or ftone 

 mortars, with peftles of wood, glafs, ivory, &c. The word 

 trituration is generally applied to denote the divifion that is 

 made of feveral bodies together, to unite them with each 

 other ; as, e.g. the extinftion of mercury in the operation of 

 ^thiops mineral, and others fimilar. 



Trituration, Boerhaave obferves, has a wonderful force to 

 difTolve fome bodies, and will render them as fluid as if they 

 were fufed by the fire. Thus if you grind the powder of 

 myrrh and fait of tartar together, they will difl"olve each 

 other. By rubbing new and bright fihngs of iron in a mor- 

 tar, with double their weight of clean fulphur, the iron will 

 be difl"olved, fo as by diluting it with water to afford the vitn- 



olum Martis. r ^ c -ii 



Gold long ground in a mortar with fait of tartar, will 

 yield a kind of tinfture ; and rubbed with mercury in a mor- 

 tar of glafs, it entirtly diffolvcs into a purple liquor, and be- 

 comes a moft powerful medicine. 



Dr. Langeiotte has written a curious treatife of the great 

 (ffefts of tritjraticn in chemiftry, and ikfcribcs a pecuhar 



way 



