U R C 



U R C 



Ures Selvia, a town of Italy, in the interior of Pi- 

 cenum, on this fifle of the Apennines. Ptolemy. 



Urbs Vetus, Orvietfe, a town of Italy, in Etruria, on 

 the river Clanis. 



URCAS, in Geography, rocks near the coaft of Brazil. 

 S. lat. 4° 50'. W. long. 35° 44'. 



URCEO, Antonio, (Codrus Urceus, Lat.), in Bio- 

 graphy, an eminent fcholar, was born iu 1446, at Rubiera, 

 in the territory of Reggio, in Lombardy ; and having been 

 educated at Bologna, and under the famous Guarini at Fer- 

 rara, he became, in his 23d year, a teacher of the claffics 

 at Forli. At Forli he had for one o: his pupils the fon of 

 Pino, lord of that place, who having once politely recom- 

 mended himfelf to Urceo, the latter jocofely rephed, 

 " Good God ! how well things go with us ! Jupiter re- 

 conamends himfelf to Codrus ;" referring to the name of a 

 poet in Juvenal, whofe poverty was proverbial. From this 

 circumftance he obtained the appellation of Codrus. The 

 lofs of fome written paper, and of an opera entitled 

 " Pallor," by fire, roufed his paflion to fuch a degree, 

 that he vented his rage by uttering the mod horrid blaf- 

 phemies, and hurrying into a wood near the city, where he 

 remained a whole day without food. Upon his return the 

 gates were (hut, and he was obliged to pafs the night upon a 

 dunghill. In the morning he repaired to the houle of a car- 

 penter, and remained there in a ftate of melancholy for fix 

 months ; but he afterwards refumed his occupations till the 

 death of Pino. Upon this event difturbances occurred in 

 the city, which occafioned him, after a refidence of 13 years, 

 to remove to Bologna, where he taught grammar and elo- 

 quence with great applaufe. His difregard of religion, 

 however, and the freedom with which he exprefied his 

 doubts concerning a future flate, rendered it neceffary for 

 him to engage the proteftion of the moll reputable citizens. 

 Notwithilanding the fcepticifm and irreligion of his life, he 

 had recourfe, at his death, to the facraments of the church, 

 which he received with tokens of deep contrition. He died 

 in the year 1500, much regretted by his difciples, who 

 carried his remains to the place of interment. His diftin- 

 guifhed reputation, as one of the moft learned Greek and 

 L.atin fcholars in his time, has been teftilied by his con- 

 temporaries, and particularly by Angelo Poliziano and 

 Aldo Manuzio. His works, confiding of Latin letters, 

 orations, and poems, and of a fupplement to the " Aulu- 

 laria" of Plautus, were publilhed at Bologna in 1502, and 

 have been often reprinted ; but they are thought inadequate 

 to the reputation which he had acquired during his life. 

 Moreri. Bayle. Gen. Biog. 



URCEOLARIA, in Botany, a genus of the tribe of 

 LiCHENEs, (fee that article,) eftablifhed and named by 

 Acharius, from urceolus, a little pitcher, in allufion to the 

 form of the fliields, funk, like little depreifed cups, deep 

 into the fubftance of the cruft. — Achar. Prodr. 30. Meth. 

 141. " Lichenogr. 74. t. 6. f. 8, 9. 11." Syn. 137. 

 Sm. Prodr. FI. Grsec. Sibth. v. 2. 305. — Clafs and order, 

 Cryptogamia Alga. Nat. Ord. Algs, Lichenes. 



Eff. Ch. Receptacles fliield-like, concave, coloured, 

 fniooth, funk in the cruft ; their furrounding margin ele- 

 vated, feflile, of the colour and fubftance of the cruft. 



Acharius remarks, in his Methodus above cited, that the 

 prelent genus is, as it were, intermediate between his Lecidca 

 and Parmdia, being diftinguiflied from both by the uni- 

 formly concave, as well as funk, ftiields, which moreover 

 arc moft frequently furnifticd with a proper, as well as ac- 

 C(?frory, margin. The former indeed, never prefent in Par- 

 mdia, is not very evident in Urceolaria, being fmall, and of 

 the fame colour as the diik : the latter, never obfervable in 



Lecidta, is in Urciolaria an annular elevation of the fub* 

 llance of the cruft, overtopping the margin of the fhield. 



Twenty fpecies are defined in the Synopfis of Acharius, 

 whofe fynonyms appear, in fome inftances, not corredlly 

 applied ; but we are well aware of the great ambiguity at- 

 tending the plants in queftion, and Ihall propofe our doubts 

 with caution. Few of thefe fpecies are known in England, 

 moft of them being either of Swifs or Lapland origin; 

 They frequently grow on hard ftones, that are occafionally 

 inundated, or on naked expofed rocks ; fometimes on the 

 bark of trees. They are, for the moft part, of fmall di- 

 menfions, and of rather inconfpicuous appearance. We 

 feleft the moft remarkable. 



U. Acharii. Acharian Urceolaria. Ach. Syn. n. i. 

 Meth. 150. (Lichen Acharii; Ach. Prodr. 33. with a 

 figure in the title-page. Engl. Bot. t. 1087. L. lacuftris ; 

 With. V. 4. 21. t. 31. f. 4. ) — Cruft limited, fmooth, a 

 little cracked, pale brick-coloured. Shields red ; acceffory 



border tumid Found on large ftones, of the hardeft kinds, 



that border alpine lakes or rivulets, in Sweden, Wales, &c. 

 and are inundated in winter. Mr. Griffith firft noticed thi* 

 fpecies in Britain, and the name lacujlrii, under which it 

 appeared in Dr. Withering's work, is fo very excellent, 

 that nothing but the claims of our illuftrious friend Acharius 

 could induce us to refign it. The crujl looks like an ochra- 

 ceous fediment from the water, but is hard and firm, infe- 

 parable from the rock, fmooth and even, .is if partly 

 polifhed, or rubbed down, 'becoming cracked with age. 

 Its colour is a pale yello-- ')h-brown, rarely a dirty white- 

 Shidds fmall, varioufly featured, of the diameter of a fmal! 

 pin's head, concave, funk, of a deeper redder hue than the 

 cruft, furrounded at firft by a pale elevated border from the 

 cruft, which fubfequently disappears, probably from the 

 fmoothing aftion of the water. Dr. Acharius gives, as a 

 variety of this, the Liranora cyrtafpis of his Lichenographia, 

 p. 397, for which he quotes Lichen pundatus, Engl. Bot. 

 t. 450. We cannot conceive the latter to be an Urceolaria, 

 or to be even allied to the fpecies before us. It feems a 

 Parmdia, whofe cruft is white or greenifti, not reddifh, nor 

 is the di(k of the ftiields concave, nor bordered. Though 

 greenifh, or brown when young, that part is finally black. 

 We do not mean to infift on the fynonym of Fl. Dan. 

 t. 468. /. 2. 



U. diamarta. Red and black Urceolaria. Ach. Syr.- 

 n. 2. Meth. 151. (" Lichen diamartus ; Wahlenb. Lapp. 

 414.") — " Cruft fomewhat limited, cracked, rather warty, 

 of an ochrey-red. Diflc of the ftiields rather convex, black ; 

 acceffory margin elevated, finally zigzag." — On rocks near 

 the ftiore of the gulf of Bothnia. Dr. Acharius declares 

 this to be a widely different fpecies from Endocarpon Jinopi- 

 cum, with which, he fays, " it feems to be confounded in 

 Engl. Bot." At p. 1776 of that work we have, indeed, 

 mentioned a fuggeftion of Mr. Turner's, that thefe two 

 plants may probably prove one and the fame. But we pre- 

 fume there is no error or confufion in the figure and defcrip- 

 tion annexed of our Lichen fmopicus, which we found to 

 agree with Mr. Wahlenberg's original fpecimen of his Endo- 

 carpon fo called. Of the Urceolaria in queftion, we have 

 never feen a fpecimen, unlefs it be Lichen Oederi of Dickfon, 

 as hinted by Acharius in his Methodus, 152 ; but this is 

 not given as a fynonym in the Synopjis. 



U. gibbofa. Tumid Urceolaria. Ach. Syn. n. 7. Meth. 

 144, excluding the fyn. of Bellardi and Villars. (U. fim- 

 briata; Ach. Meth. 145. Lichen fibrofus ; Engl. Bou 

 t. 1732.) — Cruft covered with papillary warts, fmoothift), 

 of a light fmoky brown ; the edge more or lefs fibrous. 

 Shields in the fummit of each wart, eoncave, blackifli ; ac- 

 ceffory 



