SUN 
extremely well in the open air, and produce fruit in 
great plenty. When the plants have grown three or 
four years in pots, and are become ftrong, fome of 
them may be turned out of the pots, and planted in 
the full ground, againft a wall to the fouth afpect, to 
which their branches lliould be trained in the fame 
manner as is pradlifed with fruit-trees, in which fitu- 
ation they will bear the cold of our ordinary winters 
very well ; but in very fevere froft, it will be proper 
to cover the branches either with mats, Straw, or other 
light covering to protect them. 
The gum of this tree is ufed in medicine, which is 
obtained by making incifions in the tree. It is brought 
from Turkey, but is fo adulterated by mixing faw- 
duft or other fluff with it, that it is very difficult to 
meet with any that is pure. It has a moft pleafant 
fragrant odour 5 it is called Styrax calamita, becaufe 
it was tranfported in hollow canes. 
There is another fort of Storax, which is called Styrax 
liquicla, which is a thick tenacious fubftance like tur- 
pentine, of a reddifh brown colour. It has been much 
difputed among the writers on the Materia Medica, 
what this is, fome believing it to be the gum or refin 
of a tree, and others thought it to be a fictitious 
thing ; but Mr. Petiver fays, in the Philofophical 
Tranfadtions, N° 313, it is a kind of bird-lime made 
of the bark of a tree, by boiling it in fak water. The 
tree grows on the ifland of Cobrofs, at the upper end 
of the Red Sea, near Cadefh, which is within three 
days journey of Sues. It is called Rofa mallas, and 
by the Turks Cotta mija. 
Of late years there has been another fpecies of Storax 
imported from North America, which is colledted 
from the liquid Amber-tree; this has been titled liquid 
Storax by fome, but is very different from that which 
is brought from Turkey, and is clear, inclining to 
yellow ; it is brought fometimes liquid, and at others 
it is dried in the fun to a concrete refin before it is 
tranfported. 
S U B E R. See Quercus. 
SUBTERRANEOUS is that which is under or 
within the furface, bowels, or caverns of the earth, 
or the hollow places of the earth, that are under 
ground. 
SUCCORY. See Cichorium. 
SUCCULENT PLANTS are fuch whofe leaves 
are thick, and abound with juice. 
SULPHUREOUS is of a brimftone colour. 
SUMACH. See Rhus. 
SUMMITS, or apices, are thofe bodies which con- 
tain the prolific powder, analagous to the male fperm 
in animals ; thele generally hang upon the ftamina or 
threads, which furround the ovary in flowers. 
The SUN has ufually been reckoned among the num- 
ber of planets, but he ought rather to be numbered 
among the fixed ftars. 
According to the Copernican hypothefis, which is 
now generally received, and which has even demon- 
ftration on its fide, the fun is the center of the plane- 
tary and cometary fyftem, round which all the planets 
and comets, and our earth among the reft, revolve in 
different periods, according to their different diftances 
from the Sun. 
But the Sun, though thus eafed of that prodigious mo- 
tion whereby the antients imagined him to revolve 
daily round our earth, yet he is not a perfectly quief- 
cent body. 
From the phenomena of his maculte or fpots, it evi- 
dently appears, that he has a rotation round his axis, 
like that of the earth, whereby the natural day is mea- 
fured, only flower. 
Some of thefe fpots have made their firft appearance 
near the edge or margin of the Sun, and have been 
feen fome time after on the oppofite edge ; whence, 
after a ftay of about fourteen days, they have re-ap- 
peared in their firft place, and taken the fame courfe 
over again, finifliing their entire circuit in twenty-fe- 
ven days time, which is hence deduced to be the pe- 
riod of the Sun’s rotation round his axis. 
This motion of the fpots is from weft toeaft, whence 
SUN 
it is concluded, that of the Sun, to which the other 
is owing, is from eaft to weft. 
Dr. Hook thinks it reafonable to conclude, That the 
fuperficies of the Sun is covered with air, or atmo- 
fphere, or fome other fluid body, and that its atmo- 
fphere, though poffibly eighty times thicker than .that 
about our earth ; yet, in companion of the vaft dia- 
meter of the Sun’s body, becomes wholly invifible to 
us, though afiifted by the beft telefcopes. 
He fuppofes it alio to look as bright as the body of the 
Sun itielf, arid that it is really the ffiell of this atmo- 
fphere, and not the very body of the Sun that fhines 
and from hence he fays. That all the phenomena of 
the maculae and faeculae of the Sun will be folved, 
and that they are only clouds or fmokes in this at- 
mofphere. 
He concludes. That the Sun itfelf within this atmo- 
fphere is a folid and opacous body, from thefe reafons : 
1. The conftancy of its rotation. 
2. The fixednefs of its axis. 
3. The power of its gravitation or attraction towards 
its center. 
He concludes, That thefe prove its folidity and opa- 
city from the difappearing of the folar fpots in the 
limb, and their not returning backwards, as they would 
feem to do, if the body were tranfparent, as the at- 
mofphere is, or the flame of a candle, or the radia- 
tion of hazy light about the nucleus of a comet, 
through which, as well as through its beard, the 
fmall fixed ftars may be feen. 
He thinks the fuperficial parts of the Sun to confift of 
bodies fimilar to our nitre and fulphur, and that thefe 
are let on fire, and confequently, that the phyfical 
caufe of its light is the aftual burning or fire of its fu- 
perficial falts. 
Nor can there be any objedtion of tnoment brought 
againft this hypothefis, from the danger of the Sun’s 
fire being burnt quite out in fo many thoufand years 
it hath been in being, for (fays he) fuppofing it to 
have grown fome minutes lefs, fince it began to give 
light, none can contradidt it by any obfervations we 
have upon record. 
For, fuppofing we had aftrohornical obfervations of 
4000 years ftanding, as we have none of above 2000 
of that kind, and allowing that the Sun’s diameter had 
then been obferved to be as many minutes as it is now, 
yet it could not thence be concluded, that the Sun did 
not lofe a mile in diameter every year, and confe- 
quently be now 4000 miles lefs in diameter than it 
then was. 
For fince his diameter is near 87 times greater than 
that of the earth, which latter he fuppofes 8000 miles, 
then the Sun’s muft be 696,000 miles. Now 4000 
is but the 174th part of the diameter, and confe- 
quently would have diminifhed it but one eighth of 
a minute, which is a much lefs quantity than the an- 
tients pretended to obferve to. 
But fuppofing they could have obferved even to fe- 
conds, yet that could not have contradifted it, becaufe 
it is poffible the Sun may have approached as much 
nearer us as that diminution amounts to, and for which, 
he faith, he could fhew a reafon. 
Sir Ifaac Newton alfo, in his optics, gives good rea- 
fon to fuppofe the Sun and fixed ftars to be great 
earths, vehemently hot, whofe heat is conferved by 
the greatnefs of their bodies, and the mutual adrion 
and re-a£tion between them and the light which they 
emit ; and whofe parts are kept from fuming away, 
not only by their fixity, but alfo by the vaft weight 
and denfity of the atmofpheres incumbent on them, and 
every way ftrongly compreffing them, and condenftng 
the vapours and exhalations which arife from them. 
The light feems to be emitted from the Sun and fixed 
ftars (which probably are Suns to other fyftems,) much 
after the manner as iron, when heated to fuch a 
degree, as to be juft going into fufion by the vibrating 
motion of its parts, emits with force and violence co- 
pious ftreams of liquid fire all around. Great bodies 
muft preferve their heat longeft, and that, perhaps, 
in the proportion of their diameters. 
12 Y Sir 
