EUC 
taius a large quantity of resinous gum ; the 
wood is of a brittle quality ; the flowers 
grow in little clusters, or rather umbels, 
about ten in each, and every flower has its 
proper partial foot stalk, a quarter of an 
inch in length, besides the general one ; the 
flowers are yellowish, and of a singular 
structure ; the calyx is hemispherical, per- 
fectly entire on the margin, it afterwards 
becomes the capsule ; the anthers are small 
and red, in the centre is a single style ter- 
minated by a blunt stigma ; the stamens 
are resinous and aromatic; the germ ap- 
pears when cut across to be divided into 
three cells ; each containing the rudiments 
of one or more seeds. 
EUCLEA, in botany, a genus of the 
Dioecia Dodecandria, or Polygamia class 
and order. Essential character: male ca- 
lyx, four or five-toothed; corolla four or 
five-parted ; stamens twelve to fifteen : fe- 
male calyx and corolla |as in the male ; 
germ superior; styles two; berry two cel- 
led. There is but one species, viz. E. race- 
mosa ; round-leaved euclea, a native of the 
Cape of Good Hope. 
EUCLID, of Mega.ra, a celebrated phi- 
losopher and logician ; he was a disciple of 
Socrates, and flourished about 400 years 
before Christ. The Athenians having pro- 
hibited the Meggrians from entering their 
city, on pain of death, this philosopher dis- 
guised himself in women’s clothes to attend 
the lectures of Socrates. After the death 
of Socrates, Plato and other philosophers 
went to Euclid at Megara, to shelter them- 
selves from the tyrants who governed Athens. 
This philosopher admitted but one chief 
good ; which he at different times called 
God, or the Spirit, or Providence. 
Euclid, the celebrated mathematician, 
according to the account of Pappus and 
Proclus, was born at Alexandria, in Egypt, 
where he flourished and taught mathematics, 
with great applause, under the reign of 
Ptolemy Lagos, about 280 years before 
Christ. And here, from his time, till the 
conquest of Alexandria by the Saracens, all 
the eminent mathematicians were either 
born or studied ; and it is to Euclid, and his 
scholars, we are beholden for, Eratosthenes, 
Archimedes, Apollonius, Ptolemy, Theon, 
&c. &c. He reduced into regularity and 
order all the fundamental principles of pure 
mathematics, which had been delivered 
down by Thales, Pythagoras, Eudoxus, and 
other mathematicians before him, and added 
many others of his own discovering : on 
which account it is said he was the first 
EUC 
who reduced arithmetic and geometry into 
the form of a science. He likewise applied 
himself to the study of mixed mathematics, 
particularly to astronomy and optics. 
His works, as we learn from Pappus and 
Proclus, are the Elements, Data, Introduc- 
tion to Harmony, Phenomena, Optics, Ca- 
toprics, a Treatise of the Division of Super- 
ficies, Porisms, Loci ad Superficiem, Falla- 
cies, and four books of Conics. 
The most celebrated of these is the first 
work, the “ Elements of Geometry of 
which there have been numberless editions, 
in all languages ; and a fine edition of all his 
works now extant, was printed in 1703, by 
David Gregory, Savilian Professor of Astro- 
nomy at Oxford. 
The “ Elements,” as commonly publish- 
ed, consist of fifteen books, of which the 
two last, it is suspected, are not Euclid’s, 
but a comment of Hypsicles of Alexandria, 
yho lived 200 years after Euclid. They 
are divided into three parts, viz. The Con- 
templation of Superficies, Numbers, and 
Solids ; the first four books treat of planes 
only ; the fifth of the proportions of mag- 
nitudes in general ; the sixth of the pro- 
portion of plane figures ; the seventh, 
eighth, and ninth give us the fundamental 
properties of numbers ; the tenth contains 
the theory of commensurable and incom- 
mensurable lines and spaces ; the eleventh, 
twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth 
treat of the doctrine of solids. 
There is no doubt but, before Euclid, 
elements of geometry were compiled by 
Hippocrates of Chius, Eudoxus, Leon, anti 
many others, mentioned by Proclus, in the 
beginning of his second book ; for he af- 
firms, that Euclid new ordered many things 
in the Elements of Eudoxus, completed 
many things in those of Theatetus, and be- 
sides strengthened such propositions as be- 
fore were too slightly, or but superficially 
established, with the most firm and con- 
vincing demonstrations. 
History is silent as to the time of Euclid’s 
death, or his age. He is represented ns a 
person of a courteous and agreeable beha- 
viour, and in great esteem and familiarity 
with King Ptolemy ; who once asking him 
whether there was any shorter way of com- 
ing at geometry than by his Elements, Eu- 
clid, as Proclus testifies, made answer, that 
there was no other royal way or path to 
geometry. 
EUCOMIS, in botany, a genus of the 
Hexandria Monogynia class and order. Na- 
tural order of Coronarke. Asphodeli, Jus- 
