U R A 



U K A 



cious gulf of Smyrna, as far as Mitylene. The greater 

 part of the fine Smyrna raifins come from Uralla, where 

 feveral cargoes are prepared annually. At the feafon of the 

 racolta, or fruit-harveft, the Smyrna merchants fend their 

 clerks to attend its ingathering, and at that time there is 

 much bufmefs tranfafted in this village. 



URALSK, a town of Rufiia, in the government of Cau- 

 cafus, on the Ural ; ^28 miles N-N.E. of Aftrachaii. N. 

 lat. 5i°lo'. E. long". 51° 54'. 



URAMARCA. a town of Peru, in the diocefe of Gua- 

 manga ; 60 miles E. of Guamanga. 



URAMEU, a town of Brafir; 48 miles N.E. of Para. 

 URAN. See OuRAN. 



VRANA, a town of Iftria; 9 miles E.S.E. of 

 Pedena. — Alfo, a town of European Turkey, in Servia ; 

 25 miles E.S.E. of Priftina — Alfo, a river of Bulgaria, 

 ivhicli runs into the BLck fea at Varna. 



Vrana, or Urnna, a town of Dalmatia, fituatcd on a 

 lake to which it gives ":ame, anciently an important fortrefs 

 belonging to the Templars, and the refidence of the grand 

 prior. This cattle, which at the time of its foundation was 

 named Brana, or Vratia, by way of digr.ity, is now a 

 frightful heap of ruins, reduced to that ttate by the Vene- 

 tians. Some writers have thought that Bandoiia was an- 

 ciently feated there ; but no veftige of Roman antiquity is 

 to be feen about thefe walls, and ruined, uninhabited towers. 

 The khan, or caravanferai, is worthy of obfervation, alth.ough 

 it is now in a ruinous ftate, being abandoned to the barbarity 

 of the Moriacchi, who inhabit the neighbouring lands, and 

 carry off whatever materials fuit them, to be employed in 

 their wretched cottages. The name of Vrana is now tranf- 

 ferred to a wretched village, that ftands about a mile from 

 the ruins of the fortrefa, in the very place where an eminent 

 Turk of the laft age, called Hali Bey, had his gardens ; 

 and the fqualid habitation of the curate of the pariih lately 

 went by the name of Hali Bey's gardens. The lake of 

 Vrana is more famous and better known at Venice than any 

 otiier in Dalmatia, not only on account of its coniiderable 

 extent of 12 miles, but from the projcft formed by a pri- 

 vate perfon, and partly put in execution, to cut a paffage 

 by which the water might be difcharged into the fea ; 15 

 miles E.S.E. of Zara. 



URAN A, a river of South America, which run* into 

 the Caribbean fea ; 9 miles W. of Cumana bay. 



URANDA, a town of Japan, in the ifland of Xicoco ; 

 12 miles S.S.E. of Tofa. 



URANDUK, a town of Bofnia ; 2 miles E. of Seraja. 



URANIA, in j^ncknt Geography, a town of the ifle of 



Cyprus, taken by Demetrius, according to Diodorus 



S;Culu!. 



Ubania, in Botany, a name for which the clafTical 

 Schreber hub well exchanged the barbarous Ravenala of 

 Adanfon and his followers ; fee that article. This latter 

 feems, by Jacquin's account, to be altered from Rjvenne 

 ala, fignifying, as he had fome reaion to believe, the leaf of 

 God, among the inhabitants of Madagafcar. In the apph- 

 cation of Uratita, Schreber had probably in view, not fo 

 much the " heavenly mufe," according to the explanation of 

 De Theis, as the Greek adjeftive ov^xnoc, great, admirable, 

 or fubtime, which fo well anfvvers to the majettic ita- 

 ture and large proportions of this very fine plant. — Sclireb. 

 Gen. 212. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 2.7. Mart. Mill. Dift. 

 v. 4. (Ravenala; Jufl". 62. Lamarck Illuftr. t. 222.) — 

 Clafs and order, Hexandria Monogynia. Nat. Ord. Mufic, 

 Juff. 



Gen. Ch. Cal, Common Shsatbs alternate, each of one 



leaf, ovato-lanceolate, concave, many-flowered ; partial oneB 

 inferior, each of two linear-lanceolate, long, channelled, 

 pointed, ereft, coloured, permanent valves : perianth none. 

 Cor. Petals three, fuperior, oblong, channelled, ereft, acute, 

 equal. Nedlary of two equal leaves, one of them cloven, 

 (according to Adanfon). Stam. Filaments fix, thread- 

 fhaped ; anthers vertical, ereft, linear, longer than the fila- 

 ments, and about equal to the neftary, inchning at the fum- 

 mit. Pifl. Germen inferior, oblong ; ftyle rather longer 

 than the ftamens ; ftigma in fix converging fegments. Peric. 

 Capfule oblong, abrupt, triangular, of three cells, and 

 three woody valves, connefted at the bafe ; the partitions 

 from the centre of each valve. Seeds numerous, in two 

 rows, roundilh-oblong, each with an umbilicated, flefhy, 

 laciniated, coloured, radiating tunic, fpreading from the 

 fear. 



EfT. Ch. Sheaths general and partial. Perianth none. 

 Petals three. Neftary of two equal leaves, one of them 

 cloven. Capfule inferior, of three cells. Seeds numerous, 

 in two rows, each with a coloured tunic. 



I. U. fpec'iofa. Superb Urania. Willd. n. r. Ait. 

 Epit. 376, ( Ravenala madagafcarienfis ; Sonnerat Voy. 

 aux Ind.Or. v. 2, 223. t. 124 — 126. Jacq. Hort. Schoenbr. 

 V. I. 47. t, 93.) — Native of marfhy gro\nid in the ifland of 

 Madagafcar. Cultivated in the Mauritius, from whence it 

 v/as carried to the imperial garden at Schoenbrun, in 1782, 

 and to the ftoves of Kew, in 18 10. 



This is one of the mott (lately of plants, withrefpeft toils 

 habit, and the proportion of every part, though perhaps in- 

 ferior in ftatnre to many trees. The_/7t;n is ereft, and, ac- 

 cording to Sonnerat, very lofty, though he does not men- 

 tion its precife height, round, marked with numerous fears 

 where the foliage has formerly- been, otherwife naked and 

 fmooth, quite fimple, crowned at the lummit with an ample, 

 radiating, vertical tuft, of very numerous, ttalked, alternate 

 leavef, fpreading in two ranks, like a vail fan, many feet 

 wide. Each leaf is oblong, entire, obtufe at each end, with 

 one rib, and numerous tranfverfe, parallel veins, fmooth, re- 

 fembling the leaves of the Miifa, or Plantain-tree, but larger 

 and thicker. Footfialhs flieathiiig from the bafe about luilf 

 way up. Sonnerat makes their length about two feet, but 

 Jacquin fays ten, adding that each leaf is fix feet long, and 

 two wide. If this be correft, the whole diameter of the 

 fan-like head may be thirty-two feet ! We might have feit 

 a fufpicion that Jacquin's plant, which, in the courfe of fif- 

 teen years' cultivation in the ftove at Schoenbrun, never 

 flowered, nor formed any ftem, might be the Strelttvcia au- 

 gujla of Thunberg, Willdenow, and Alton ; had not the au- 

 thor exprefsly mentioned its having been raifed from feeds 

 taken out of the capfules delineated in his plate, which indu- 

 bitably belong to our Urania, whoie flower flails are axil- 

 lary, fcattered, fhorter than the footftalks, zigzag, very 

 ftout, and finally woody, each bearing fix or eight alternate, 

 two-ranked, rigid, pointed Ibeaths, filled with numerous, 

 ereft, \\\\\u{^floiuers, -xhofe petals are feven or eight inches 

 long. Capfules brown, rugged, three or four inches in 

 length. Seeds the fize of a horfc-bean, black, their tunics 



of a fine blue, and curioufly jagged The inhabitants of 



Madagafcar ufe the leaves as a covering to their houfes. 

 Flacourt, it feems, has defcribed this plant, in his Hiftory of 

 Madagafcar, by the name of Voafoutfi, ( Botany is happy 

 to have efcaped this name,) and" he there relates that the na- 

 tives make an oil- from the tunic of the feeds, and grind the 

 fubftance of the latter into meal, which they eat with milk. 

 After all that we can colleft, the Urama itfelf, if diflinft 

 from Sirelitzia aiigiifta, is fo very nearly allied to Strelilzia m 



genu», 



