X A N 



united.— Gathered by Aublet, in tlie foreds of Cayenne, 

 flowering in May, and bearing 'fruit in Auguft. A tree, 

 whofe trunk is 40 or 50 feet high, and two feet and a half 

 in diameter, with a prickly bark. The wood is white, hard, 

 and compaft. Leaflets about five pair, nearly feffile, 

 fmooth ; the largeft fix inches long, and an inch and a half 

 broad. Panicles large and mucli branched, compofed of 

 numerous, fmall, white flowers, having flamens and ptftih in 

 the fame individual. Capfules three, four, or five froni each 

 flower, reddifti, each containing a black, (hining, oily feed. 

 Thefe eapfules have a pungent aromatic flavour, and the 

 Creoles call them negro's pepper. 



12. X. fraxineum. Arti-leaved Yellow-wood, or Com- 

 mon Tooth-ache Tree. Willd. n. 12. Arb. 413. Ait. 

 n. I. Purlh n. I. (X. Clava Herculis (9 ; Linn. Sp. PI. 

 1455. X. ramiflorum ; Michaux Boreal.. Amer. v. 2. 235. 

 Fagara fraxini folio; Duham. Arb. v. i. 229. t. 97.) — 

 Stem prickly. Leaflets ovate, very minutely ferrated ; 

 equal at the bafe. Umbels axillary. — Native of (hady 

 woods, near rivers, from Canada to Virginia and Kentucky, 

 flowering in April and May. A tinSure of the bark and 

 capfules is recommended in rheumatifm and the tooth-ache, 

 whence its Englifh name. Purjh. A Wge deciduous (hrub, 

 whofe branches are armed with fharp, conical, comprelTed, 

 brown prickles, very broad at the bafe. Leaflets four or 

 five pair, with an odd one, an incli and a half long, on (liort 

 partial iialks ; contrafted at each end ; more or lefs dif- 

 tinftly crenate, or bluntly ferrated ; fmooth above ; foft 

 and downy beneath. Their common footflalk is defcribed 

 without prickles ; but in our fpecimens it is always fur- 

 nifhed with fome, and occafionally with very numerous ones. 

 The flowers are fmall, yellowiib-green, in little denfe 

 umbels, \vA. above the fears of laft year's footilalks, accom- 

 panied by a tuft of downy young leaves. The mode of 

 inflorefcence abundantly diftinguifhcs this fpecies from all 

 the reft. It is hardy in our gardens, flowering in March 

 and April, before the leaves appear. The bark is ufed in 

 America, as a powerful fudorific and diuretic, whence its 

 ■ufe, as above-mentioned, in rheumatic diforders. This is 

 the fpecies moil popularly taken for X. Clava Herculis, as 

 appears by the herbarium of Jacquin, purchafed formerly 

 by fir .Jofeph Banks, and even by that of Linnaeus. The 

 two fpecies, neverthelefs, are widely different. 



13. X. tricarpum. Three -grained Yellow-wood. Mi- 

 chaux Boreal. -Amer. v. 2. 23J. Purfh n. 2. Ait. n. 4. 

 — Stem prickly. Leaflets ftalked, oblong-oval, pointed, 

 very fmooth, finely ferrated ; oblique at the bafe : common 

 footftalk prickly. Capfules three, fcflile. — In the woods of 

 Carolina and Florida, flowering in July. Michaux, Purfli. 

 Introduced into the Englifh gardens in 1806, by Mr. 

 John Lyon. A hardy ftirub. Alton. 



14. X. heterophyllum. Various-leaved Yellow-wood. 

 (Macqueria Commerfoni ; Juff. 374, under Xanthoxylum.) 

 — Young branches prickly ; their leaves with very numerous 

 ferrated leaflets, on prickly common ftalks : old ones un- 

 armed, their leaves of feven entire leaflets, on unarmed 

 common ftalks. Panicles axillary. Capfules folitary. — 

 Gathered in the ifle of Bourbon, by Commerfon, fome of 

 whofe fpecimens are in our poffeflion. Nothing can be 

 more paradoxical than the appearance of this fhrub. We 

 muft rely on its difcoverer for the accuracy of his fpeci- 

 mens, as the two branches, fo very different in appearance, 

 are not connefted together ; though we cannot doubt their 

 generical identity. The young branch is flender, covered 

 with innumerable, (harp, aicending prickles, of various fizes, 

 a .line long at moll. Leaves alternate : common Jootflalk of 



X A N 



each five or fix indies long, round, ftraight, channelled, 

 befet with numerous prickles, like thofe of the branch, but 

 fmaller : leaflets from 40 to 60, or more, oppofite or alter- 

 nate, ovate, bluntifti, fmooth, crenate or bluntly ferrated, 

 one quarter or one-third of an inch in length, of a fine 

 green, paler beneath, marked with pellucid dots ; their 

 mid-ribs bearing one or two prickles at the back. The 

 older or flowering branches are ftout, rugged, unarmed, 

 leafy at their extremities only. Leaves alternate, rather 

 crowded, altogether deftitute of prickles, each confifting of 

 three pair of obovate, bluntly pointed, entire, coriaceous, 

 veiny, fmooth leaflets, with an odd one ; the lowermoll 

 fmalleft : common footflalk channelled, fmooth. Panicles 

 compound, rather fhorter than the leaves ; their ftalks un- 

 armed, comprefTed, and angular. Capfules only one, per- 

 fefted in each flower, brown, the fize of a pepper-corn, 

 rugged, full of pellucid dots lodging a pungent aromatic 

 camphorated oil, and very bitter. Seed black, polifhed, 

 with a bivalve elaftic tunic, or lining of the capfule. 



For X. trifoliatum, Linn., fee Panax Aculeatum. 



XANTHURUS Indicus. in Ichthyology, the name of 

 a fifli called by the Dutch geelflardt. 



It is of the fize and fhape of the bream ; its jaws are 

 armed with ftraight and very fharp teeth, which ftand 

 almofl ftraight out ; its back is yellow, and its tail very 

 ftrongly tinged with that colour ; its belly is of a blueifh- 

 white ; its head brown, and its fins of a fine red. It is 

 caught with hooks among the rocks on the fhores of the 

 Eafl Indies, and is a very wholefome and well-tafted fifli. 

 Ray. 



XANTHUS, in the Natural Hiflory ef the Ancients, the 

 name of an iron-ore of the haematites or blood-ftone kind, 

 and ufually accounted a fpecies of it, and called by others 

 Elatites. 



It was of a pale yellowifh-white, or the colour of the 

 French pale yellow ochre, ufed by our painters ; but like 

 all other ferruginous bodies it became red by burning. 



Theophraftus gives us exprefsly the etymology of the 

 name, obferving that it was called fo from its colour ; the 

 Dorians calling a yellowifh-white lavSo?, xanthus. 



Xanthus, in Ancient Geography, a famous river of Afia 

 Minor, in the Troade. According to Pliny, it had its 

 fource in mount Ida, and difcharged itfelf at the port 

 of the Achaeans into the Hellefpont, after having joined the 

 Simois. — Alfo, a river of Afia Minor, in Lycia, which had 

 its fource in mount Taurus, and watered the towns of 

 Xanthus and Patara, and ran into the Mediterranean, near 

 the laft of thefe places. This river was anciently called 

 Sirbes, according to Strabo, and he fays that the temple of 

 Latona was fituated ten ftadia above its mouth, and fixty 

 ftadia farther was the town of Xanthus. 



Xanthus, or Xanthopolis, a town of Afia Minor, and the 

 largeft in Lycia. It was fituated feventy iladia from the 

 mouth of the river on its bank. Pliny reckons fifteen miles 

 from this town to the mouth of the river. Under Appian, 

 the inhabitants of Xanthus were fuch enthufiafts for hberty, 

 that when it was taken by Brutus they burnt it, and pre- 

 ferred death to fubmiffion to the conqueror. He adds, 

 that the fame circumftance occurred with regard to Har- 

 palus, general of Cyrus the Great, and Alexander the 

 Great. It fubfifted*in the time of Strabo — Alfo, a town 

 of the ifle of Lefbos. 



XANTIPPE, in Biography. See Socrates. 



XANTON, in Geography, a town of France, in the 

 department of the Vendee ; 5 miles E. of Fontenay-le- 

 Comte. 



XANXUS, 



