U S T 



U S T 



valves, fo that the capfule eafily feparates into two lobes. 

 Seeds imbricated in two rows, upon a large, deciduous, con- 

 vex, longitudinal receptacle in cacii cell, numerous, ovate, 

 peltate, depretTed, fmall, obtule, each encompaiTed with a 

 large, nearly orbicular, cellular, reticulated wnng. 



EfT. Ch. Calyx four-cleft ; the outer fegment very large. 

 Corolla falver-fhaped, four-cleft. Capfule of two cells, with 

 iiiflexed partitions. Seeds imbricated, winged. 



Obf. We have adopted Dr. Afzelius's more accurate 

 defcription of this curious and very diftinft genus, compared 

 with dried fpecimens. That of Willdenow is in many re- 

 fpedls very incorreft ; nor can all his millak.es be well ac- 

 counted for. He took the receptacle for a folitaryy^f^/. 



I. U. volubilis. Twining Uftcria. Afzel. as above, 

 five. (U. guineanfis ; Willd. n. i. Monodynamis Ifcrti; 

 Gmel. 6yft. Nat. Linn. v. 2. 10.) — Native of the Guinea 

 coaft, efpecially of the hills of Sierra Leone, and of Bananas 

 and Plantain idands, in dry itony places, where Dr. Afzelius 

 found it in great abundance, flowering from September to 

 December, and bearing ripe capfules from February to 

 May. The negroes know this plant by the name of 

 Makbot, or Makhot-T'bot. Willdenow received it from 

 Mr. Ifert, fee Isertia ; but the firft fpecimens ever 

 brought to Europe by any botanift, were thofe of Mr. 

 Smeathman, many years before. The Jlem is fhrubby, with 

 long, flender, round, fmoothifli, oppofite, twining branches, 

 fupporting themfelves on any thing that Hands in their 

 way ; their bark, when firft tafted, fweetifh, afterwards 

 bitter. Leaves (talked, oppofite, croffing each other in 

 pairs, elliptical, entire, fmooth, from two to four inches 

 long, bluntifh, with one rib, and many tranfverfe veins. 

 Fooijlalks two or three lines long, connefted by a very fhort, 

 annular, intrafoliaccous Jlipula. Panicles terminal and axil- 

 lary, large, compound, corymbofe, forked, finely downy or 

 hoary, as well as the calyx, and the tube of the white, or 

 partly violet, corolla. Capfule one inch and a quarter long, 

 much refembhng that of a Cinchona, to which genus this 

 plant is naturally allied, though fo diftinft in its flower. 

 Dr. Afzelius confirms this affinity, by informing us that 

 the natives of Guinea fometimes cure fevers with an infufion 

 of the leaves and young branches. 



UsTERiA is alfo the name of a genus in Cavanilles' 

 Icones, V. 2. 15. t. 116, now called Mai;randia ; fee that 

 article. 



USTIA, in Geography, a town of European Turkey, in 

 Moldavia, on the Dnicfter ; 88 miles E. of Jafiy. 



USTJAK, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in Natolia ; 20 

 miles N. of Kiutaja. 



USTIANO, a town of Italy, in the department of 

 the Mincio, on the Oglio ; 26 miles W. of Mantua. 



USTICA, an ifland in the vicuiity of Sicily, with a town 

 of the fame name. It wac oppofite to Pacopus, and appears 

 as one of the Lipari iflands. This ifland was for centuries 

 uninhabited, except by fome wild goats, till, in the year 

 1765, a citadel was built here, furniflied with a garrifon : at 

 the fame time a colony was fcnt, which flouriflies, though 

 the ifland is without fprings, and only fupplied with frefli 

 water by rain kept in cifterns ; 25 miles from tlie coaft of 

 Sicily. N. lat. 38° 44'. E. long. 13° 36'. 

 USTILAGO, in Botany. See Ukf.do. 

 USTION, UJlio, formed from urere, to burn, in Pharmacy, 

 the preparing of certain fubftances, by burning them. 



The ancients made ufc of burnt horns, nails, feathers, and 

 other parts of animals, for divers remedies ; and the moderns 

 ftill ufe IS uftum, wliich is burnt copper, or copper that has 

 uadergone t!ie uftion, with fulphur. 

 Vol. XXXVII. 



The uftion of minerals is a more imperfcft kind of cal- 

 cination. It is a degree beyond torrefudtion. 



USTIUG, or Veliki, in Geography, a town of Ruflia, and 

 capital of a province, in the government of Vologda, fituated 

 on the Dwina, at the conflux of the Suchona and the Jug, 

 the fee of an archbilhop. It contains ten or twelve churches, 

 built of ftone, with fome others, which, with the houfes, are 

 of wood. The merchants are numerous, and great quan- 

 tities of gram are fent to difTcrcnt parts. The city is chiefly 

 on the left fide of the Dwina ; 1002 miles from Peterf- 

 burg. In order to charafterife the weather of the northern 

 region of Ruflia, we obferve, that Uftiug lies ji6 miles 

 from the neareft fliore of the Frozen ocean, and 15^'' more 

 to the N. than St. Peterfljurg : and that the mean heat and 

 cold here is above Reaumur's freezing point in the month of 

 April until September ; below the freezing point in the 

 month of October until March. The mercury in the fame 

 thermometer, in the month of June alone, falls never below 

 o, and only in January never rifes above o. The cold in- 

 creafed at times fo late as in the middle of April to 30°, and 

 the quickfilver may, fometimes fo early as November, and 

 again in the firft days of March, be hammered. In every 

 winter are 1 20 days, in which the cold is more than 5° ; 

 and of thefe, 65 days in which it exceeds 10° ; yet the 

 fummer has more hot than the winter has cold days. The 

 thermometer ftood, upon a[i average of feveral years, the 

 whole day above o, on 152 days, and below o, on 150; 

 and confequently there were 63 days on which it ftood al- 

 ternately above and below o. The rivers are navigable 

 about the loth of May ; at the end of that month the fum- 

 mer corn is fown, and about the middle of June the fields are 

 manured for winter fowing : the harveft is commonly in 

 Augiift. The trees ftied their leaves fometimes fo early as 

 the loth of Auguit, but ufually about the 20th. On the 

 4th of November, 1786, the quickfilver froze in the open 

 air, during a cold of 30^° of Reaumur's thermometer ; the 

 I ft of December, at 40°, it fell the fame day to 51°, and the 

 7th of December was down to 60°. The quickfilver then 

 froze to a folid mafs, fo as to bear beating with a hammer, 

 in a warm room, feveral times before any pieces flew off 

 from it. See the Obfervations of Mr. Fries, in Crell's 

 Annals, 1787, p. 2, cited in Tooke's Ruflia, vol. i. N. 

 lat. 60° 50'. E. long. 45"^ 40'. 



UsTiuG, a province of Ruflia, and by far the moft con- 

 fiderable part of the government of Vologda, being 400 

 miles in length, and 240 in breadth. 



USTIUZNA, a town of RulFia, in the government of 

 Novgorod, on the river Mologa ; 144 miles E. of 

 Novgorod. 



USTRINA, among tlie Romans, the place where they 

 burnt tlie bodies of tiie dead. It was commonly in the 

 Campus Martins, or fome other place in the fuburbs, and 

 fometimes in the city for perfons of quality ; and for 

 the common people on the Efquiline mount. See BustI'm. 



USTVIANSKOI, in Geography, an oftrog of Rulfia, in 

 the government of Irkutflt, on the Yana. N. lat. 70° 30'. 

 E. long. 1 31° 38'. 



USTULAtlON, UJlulatio, a word ufcd by phar- 

 maceutic writers to exprefs the roafting or torrefying of 

 humid or moift fubftances over a gentle lire, fo as to render 

 them fit for {M)wdering. The fame word is alfo ufcd by 

 fome for what we call burning of wine. 



USTUM, /Es. See JEs UJlum. 



USTURANTZKOI, in Geography, a fortrefsof Rulfia, 

 in the government of Irkutfl<, on the borders of China ; 76 

 miles S. of Selcnginfk. 



4 E USUBIS, 



