HIP 
■order of Leguminos® or Papilionace®. 
Essential character : legume compressed, 
several times emarginate along one of the 
sutures, curved. There are five species. 
These are small herbaceous plants, with un- 
equally-pinnate leaves and small stipules ; 
peduncles axillary, and terminating, one or 
many-flowered, in umbels ; corollas mostly 
yellow. Natives of the Sooth of Europe- 
HIPPOMANE, in botany, a genus of 
the Monoecia Monadelphia class and order. 
Natural order Tricocc®, Euphorbia?, Jus- 
sieu. Essential character : male, . ament ; 
perianthum bifid ; corolla none : female, pe- 
riantlmm trifid ; corolla none ; stigma three- 
parted ; drupe or capsule three-grained. 
There are three species ; of which H. man- 
cinelia, manchineel tree, is exceedingly 
large in the West Indies, almost equalling 
the oak in size. The first accounts of this 
tree were very much exaggerated ; it was 
said to be dangerous to sit or lie under it, 
and that the rain which falls from the 
leaves will raise blisters in the skin. Pro- 
fessor Jacquin informs us, that he and his 
companions reposed upwards of three hours 
under a manchineel tree, without receiving 
any injury; and that he experienced rain 
dropping from the leaves to be perfectly 
innocent. It is dangerous to cat of the 
fruit, which resembles crab-apples, it occa- 
sions vomiting, and a burning heat in the 
mouth, throat, and stomach, for many hours 
after. The juice of the buds of the white 
cedar is esteemed an antidote to this poi- 
son, and is generally used with success. It 
is said, that goats, sheep, and macaws feed 
greedily on the fruit. The wood is very 
much esteemed, and is used for ornamental 
purposes. 
HIPPOPHAE, in botany, a genus of the 
Dioecia Tetrandria class and order. Natu- 
ral order of Calyciflor*. Elseagni, Jussieu. 
Essential character : male, calyx two part- 
ed ; corolla none : female, calyx bifid ; co- 
rolla none ; style one ; berry one-seeded. 
There are two species, viz. H. rhamnoides, 
common sea-buckthorn, and H. canadensis, 
Canadian sea-buckthorn. 
HIPPOPOTAMUS, in natural history, a 
genus of Mammalia, of the order Beliu®. 
Generic character : four front-teeth in each 
jaw; the upper ones distant, in pairs; the 
lower ones prominent; the two interme- 
diate ones longest ; tusks solitary ; those of 
the lower jaw very large, long, curved, and 
obliquely truncated ; feet hoofed at the 
margin. This animal appears very natu- 
rally to have attracted the early attention 
pf .mankind, and is supposed, by most cri- 
HIP 
tics acquainted with natural history, to be 
the behemoth so sublimely described in the 
book of Job. The Greek and Roman 
writers have also alluded to it ; but their 
observations upon it are by no means such 
as could have resulted from accurate and 
philosophical observation ; and both Aristo- 
tle and Pliny have fallen, on this subject, 
into the most absurd deviations from truth. 
Indeed it is only recently, that clear and 
just representations of this animal have 
been published, with interesting circum- 
stances relating to its manners and habits, 
collected by persons who had inclination 
and opportunities of particularly examining 
it. Dr. Sparman, and Colonel Gordon, 
and Mr. Mason, are particularly entitled to 
honourable mention on this occasion. The 
largest female which the Colonel ever had 
an opportunity of observing, was eleven 
feet in length, and the largest male nearly 
twelve. It is stated, however, on respec- 
table authority, that they are frequently 
much larger; and Mr. Bruce reports, that 
they are occasionally found even of the 
length of twenty teet. The form of the 
hippopotamus is particularly aukward : its 
head is astonishingly large, and its body ex- 
tremely fat and round ; its legs are very 
short and thick, and its teeth are of vast 
strength and size, one of them is stated to 
weigh no less than three pounds, occasion- 
ally, each of the tusks weighs even six ; the 
whole animal is covered with short hair ; its 
skin is so tough, as in some parts to resist a 
bullet ; and its colour, when dry, is an ob- 
scure brown. It inhabits the warmer lati- 
tudes, and is to be found chiefly in the in- 
terior of Africa, dwelling in the largest ri- 
vers, in which it ranges at the bottom, 
sometimes reaching the surface for the pur- 
pose of respiration. It sometimes quits the, 
rivers for the sea, merely, as is supposed, for 
the sake of expatiating with greater free- 
dom, as it never drinks salt water, and eats 
no fish, and indeed takes no animal food 
whatever. By night it quits the water to 
feed, and devours a vast quantity of grass, 
and the tender branches of trees. Its dis- 
position has nothing in it sanguinary or fe- 
rocious; it never attacks other animals. 
It frequently commits great depredations 
on the plantations of corn or sugar, which 
are within the reach of its nocturnal pro- 
gresses, and by destroying with its vast 
teeth the roots of trees. Its motion on land 
is generally not only highly inelegant, but 
slow ; yet if surprized and pursued, it runs 
with great speed till it reaches the water, 
into which it instantly plunges ; and, though 
