WEN 



his brother Sigifmund, king of Bohemia, put him into con- 

 fiiiement ; from which he contrived to efcape, and again to 

 afTume the royal authority. But as he purfued the fame 

 conduft, his brother Sigifmund, at the requeft of the people, 

 depofed him, and he was declared regent. Wencedaus, 

 after having been confined fucceffively m various prifons, 

 made his el?ape from one of the towers of Vienna, and re- 

 turning to Prague, recovered his ki_ngdom. After a fecond 

 marriale, his extravagance involved him in new difficulties, 

 fo that, in order to his difembarraffment, he was under a ne- 

 ceffity of felhng his imperial rights to John Galeazo, who 

 had feized the fovereignty of Milan, and other cities of 

 Lombardy dependant on the empire. The princes of the 

 empire became indignant, and affembled a diet in 1400, m 

 which they formally depofed him. Profeffing himfelf happy 

 at this event, which would afford him le;fure to pay atten- 

 tion to the government of his kingdom, he held the crown 

 of Bohemia for 19 years longer, more tolerable in his vices, 

 though ftiU unreclaimed from them. The ditturbances ot 

 Bohemia, occafioned by the preaching of John Hufs, oc- 

 curred in his time, and he took pains to compofe them. 

 At length, whilft he was fitting at dinner, he received m- 

 telligence of a fudden tumult at Prague, which occafioned 

 a paroxyfm of rage, that was followed by an apoplexy, 

 which terminated his life in 1419, at the age of 58. Mod. 



Un. Hift. Moreri. • tt , j 



WENDEL,inG^o^rj/)^;', atownof Sweden, in Upland; 



15 miles N. of Upfal. . 



WENDELEN, a town of Sweden, in Harjeadalen ; 

 18 miles S.E. of Langafchants. 



WENDELL, a townfhip of Mafiachufetts ; 90 miles 

 N.W. of Bofton.— Alfo, a townfhip of New Harapfhire, 

 in the county of Chefhire, containing 447 inhabitants ; 30 

 miles N.W. of Concord. 



WENDELSTEIN, a town of Germany, in the prin- 

 cipality of Anfpach ; 8 miles S. of Nuremberg. N. lat. 

 48^ 18'. E. long. 1 1" 4'. — Alfo, a town and ruined citadel 

 of Thuringia ; 6 miles S.W. of Querfurt. 



WENDEN, a town of the duchy of Weflphalia ; 

 4 miles S. of Olpe.— Alfo, a town of Pruffia, in the pro- 

 vince of Bartenland ; 6 miles N. of Raflenburg. 



WENDIA, in Botany, a new umbelhferous genus, thus 

 named by profefTor Hoffmann, in honour of Dr. Wendt, 

 profeffor of Phyfic at Erlang, counfellor to the Eleftor 

 Palatine, and fucceffor to the great Schreber in the diftin- 

 guifhed fituation of Prefident of the Imperial Academy Na- 

 tura Curioforum. He is celebrated for the numerous obierva- 

 tions which he has pubUfhed, refpefting medicinal plants, and 

 for his zeal in the promotion of botanical ftudiesin general. 

 — Hoffm. Gen. Plant. Umbellif. v. i. 136. t. I. B. f. 8, a, 



b Clafs and order, Pentandria Digynia. Nat. Ord. Um- 



bellatie, Linn. Umhelitfert, JufT. 



Gen. Ch. Cal. General involucrum none ; partial of a few 

 Ihort, unequal, lanceolate or linear, deciduous leaves. Pe- 

 rianth of five unequal teeth, two of them, in the radiant flo- 

 rets, twice as large as the reft, ovate, acute. Cor. Unitierfal 

 irregular ; flowers of the radius perfeft, fertile, except a few 

 males which are interfperfed : partial of five petals, with 

 long claws ; the outer ones in the radius very large, the mid- 

 dle one divided almoft half way down into two divaricated, 

 linear-oblong, obtufe, (lightly falcate, equal lobes; lateral 

 ones rather Imaller, unequally cloven, falcate, one lobe three 

 or four times the length of the other ; inner ones much the 

 fmalleft, about equal to the petals of the difk, two-lobed 

 from their incurvation, their point ovato-lanceolate, acute, 

 channelled. 5tam. Filaments five, fimple, equal, fpreading, 



3 



W E JSi 



the length of the fmaller petals longer than the petals in the 

 flowers of the diik ; anthers nearly ovate, two-lobed. Fiji. 

 Germen oval, comprelTed, ftriated, hairy ; ftyles two, ereft, 

 at length widely fpreading, tapering, their bafe conical, 

 winged with a membranous crifped border running down 

 from each ftyle ; ftigmas capitate, obtufe, at length fome- 

 what globular. Perk. Fruit almoft perfeftly fmooth, obo- 

 vate, nearly orbicular, compreffed, bordered, ftriated and 

 ftriped, entire at the edges. Seeds Vfio, uniform, emarginate, 

 crowned, in the terminal notch, with the conical, winged, 

 feffile bafe of the two deflexed permanent ftyles : dorfal ribs 

 three, flender, flightly elevated, converging at each end ; 

 marginal ones two, parallel : ftripes four, defcending from 

 the top of the feed between the ribs, obtufe, club-fhaped, 

 brownifh, not half the length of the feed : border convex, 

 terminating in a thin, flat, fharp edge, which is channelled 

 externally, emarginate at the bottom. 



Eff. Ch. General involucrum none ; partial obfolete. 

 Flowers radiant. Calyx unequally toothed. Fruit nearly 

 orbicular, compreffed, notched, with three ribs, and four 

 fhort intermediate ftripes ; crowned with the ftyles, whofe 

 bafe is winged. 



Obf. The want of a general involucrum, and the (light- 

 nefs of the partial one, added to the more orbicular form of 

 the feeds, and their fmoothnefs, appear to afford the chief 

 marks of diftinftion b.nween this genus and Heracleum, 

 (fee that article,) from which we fhould be rather unwilling 

 to feparate it, any more than Sphondylium. 



The only fpecies mentioned by the author is, 



I. W. Chorodanum. Long-leaved Wendia. Hoffm. 

 n. I. (Heracleum longifolium ; Marfch. a Bieberft. Taur. 

 Caucaf. V. I. 223, excluding all the fynonyms. ) — Native cf 

 the graffy declivities, furrounding the Caucafian mineral 

 waters of Nartfana, flowering in July. The root is bien- 

 nial. Leajlcts two pair with an odd one. General and par- 

 tial Involucrum fcarcely difcernible. Flo-Jters fnow-white ; 

 thofe of the radius remarkably unequal. Seeds when bruifed 

 agreeably fragrant. The author of the Flora Taurico- 

 Caucafica fays, he thinks this more akin to Heracleum Sphon- 

 dylium, with which Crantz and Lamarck unite it, than to 

 the anguJlifoUum of Jacquin, to which it is referred by Will- 

 denow. The latter, however, proves to be a different 

 plant, and it is probable that Willdenow had no knowledge 

 of Hoffmann's Wendia, any more than Jacquin, Crantz, 

 or Lamarck, all their obfervations referring to the real H. 

 longifolium of Fl. Auftriac. t. 174. — The fpecific name, 

 xri^oSciiov, is an old fynonym of the Sphondylium, or Cow- 

 parfnep. 



WENDING, at Sea, a term for bringing a fliip's head 

 about, and feems only to be a corruption from ivinding. 

 They fay, Hoiu wends thejhip ? 



WENDLANDIA, in Botany, owes its name, though 

 not its diftinftion as a genus to the late profeffor Willde- 

 now, who dedicated it to the author of that diftinAion, Mr. 

 John Chriftopher Wendland, curator of the royal garden at 

 Herrenhaufen, " a inoft acute botanift, and highly merito- 

 rious writer." His name appears in the Sertum Hannovera- 

 num of the very eminent profeffor Schrader, as the deh- 

 neator and engraver of the plates of that work. Thefe dif- 

 play great botanical (kill and attention — Willd. Sp. PI. 

 v. 2. 275. Purfh 252. (" Androphylax ; Wendland 

 Obf. 37.") — Clafs and order, Hexandrta Hexagynia. 

 Nat. Ord. Menifperma, Juff. 



Eff. Ch. Calyx of fix leaves. Petals fix, fucculent. Styles 

 reclining. Capfules fix, of one cell. Seeds folitary. 



I. W. populifolia. Poplar-leaved Wendlandia. Willd. 



n. 1. 



