one species : viz, S. globulifera, a native of 
Surinam. 
SYMPHYTUM, in botany, comfi-ey, a 
genus of the Pentandria Monogynia class 
and order. Natural order of Asperifolise. 
Borragincae, Jussieu. Essential character; 
corolla tubular, ventricose ; throat closed by 
lanceolate ray*. There are three species. 
We shall notice the S. ofRcinale, common 
comfrey : this plant has a perennial fleshy 
root, externally black ; stem two or three 
feet high, upright, leafy, winged, branched 
at the top, clothed with short bristly hairs, 
which point downward; leaves waved, 
pointed, veiny, rough ; the radical leaves on 
foot-stalks, broader than the rest ; clusters 
of flowers, in pairs, on a common footstalk, 
with an odd flower between them ; corolia 
yellowish white, sometimes purple; the rays 
downy at each edge. It is a native of Eu- 
rope and Siberia ; it is frequent in watery 
places, on the banks of rivers and ditches ; 
flowering from the end of May toSeptember. 
SYMPLOCOS, in botany, a genus of the 
Polyadelphia Polyandria class and order. 
Natural order of Guaiacanae, Jussieu. Es- 
sential character : calyx live-cleft ; corolla 
five-petalled, erect at the base ; stamens in 
four rows, growing to the tube of the corol- 
la ; fruit five-celled. There are four species. 
SYNDIC, in government and commerce, 
an officer in divers countries entrusted with 
the affairs of a city, or other community, 
who calls meetings, makes representations 
and solicitations to the ministry, magistracy, 
&c. according to the exigency of the case. 
The syndic is appointed to answer and ac- 
count, f6r the conduct of the body, he 
makes and receives proposals for the advan- 
tage thereof, controuls and corrects the 
failings of particular persons of the body, or 
at least procures their correction at a public 
meeting. In effect, the syndic is at the same 
time both the agent and censor of the com- 
munity. 
SYNECDOCHE, in rhetoric, a kind of 
figure or rather trope, frequent among ora- 
tors and poets. There are three kinds of 
synecdoches; by the first, a part is taken 
for the whole, as the point for the sword, 
the roof for the house, the sails for the ship, 
&c. By the second, the whole is used for a’ 
part. By the third, the matter whereof 
the thing is made is used for the thing itself; 
as steel for sword, silver for money, &c. 
To which may be added another kind, when 
the species is used for the geous, or the 
genus for the,species» 
VOL. VI. 
SYNGENESIA, in botany, the name 
of the nineteenth class in Linnmns’s system, 
consisting of plants in which the anthers, or 
male organs of generation, are united into a 
cylinder, the filaments on which they are 
supported being separate and distinct : this 
class contains the numerous tribe of com- 
pound flowers. The orders of this class 
arise from the differ ent mo-^es ef intercom- 
munication of the florets, or lesser partial 
flowers contained within the common calyx. 
This intercommunication admits of the tour 
following cases. 1. When the florets are 
all hermaphrodite. 2. When they are her- 
maphrodites and females. 3. When there 
are hermaphrodites and florets of no sex : 
and, 4. When they are males and females. 
SYNGNATHUS, the pipe-fish, a genus 
of fishes of the order Cartilaginei. Generic 
character : sriont nearly cylindrical ; moutli 
terminal, without teeth or tongue, and fur- 
nished with a lid; body lengthened, jointed, 
and mailed with many sided scales ; no ven- 
tral fins. These fishes frequent the coasts 
of the sea, and subsist upon worms and in- 
sects, and the ova of fishes. There are 
eight species of which we shall notice the 
following. 
S. acus, or the great pipe-fish, sometimes 
attains the length even of three feet, but is 
generally only fourteen inches long, ex- 
tremely slender, and tapering towards the 
extremity. Its ova are found lying in 
spring in a longitudinal channel at the bot- 
tom of the abdomen, and the young are 
produced from this groove completely form- 
ed. It is found in the seas of Europe. 
The S. hippocampus, or sea-horse pipe- 
fish, inhabits the shores of the European 
and Indian seas, and is about ten inches 
long. When the head is bent dow'nwards, 
it has a very considerable resemblance to 
that of a horse. 
S. foliatns, or the foliated pipe-fish, is the 
most singular species of the genus, and this 
singularity consists chiefly in its possessing 
appendages, situated on very strong and 
rough spines, on the back, tail, and abdo- 
men, of the shape of leaves, and which 
might easily be supposed by a cursory ob- 
server the real leaves of some of tlie foci 
tribe. In the one presented to Sir Joseph 
Banks, and engraved in Shaw’s Zoology, 
there are fourteen of these curious processes. 
This animal presents one of the most extra- 
ordinary objects exhibited by nature in the 
immense variety of her living productions. 
See Pisces, Plate VI. fig. 3. 
' Z 
