E C L 
E C L 
ECLEG'MA, or Ecligma, f . [ r ^ ciypu , Gr. of tv ., 
out, and to lick.] A form of medicine made by 
the incorporation of oils with fyrups, and which is to be 
taken upon a liquorice (lick. Quincy. 
ECLIPSA'REON, f . An inftrument invented by Mr. 
Fergufon, for (hewing the phenomena of eclipfes ; as their 
time, quantity, duration, progrefs, &c. 
ECLIP'SEjyi Fr. Spin, and Port. [ eclijji , Ital. of eclip- 
fis , Lat. sxAeivJ/k, Gr. of e^Aew rw, to fail.] An obfcuration 
of the luminaries of heaven ; the fun is eclipfed by the 
intervention of the moon ; the moon by the interpofition 
of the earth. See the article Astronomy, vol. iL p.395. 
The word originally fignities departure from the place, to 
which Milton alludes: 
Planets, planet-ftruck, real cclipfe 
Then fuffer’d. Paradife Lojl. 
Darknefs ; obfcuration.—All the poflerity of our fi ll pa¬ 
rents fuifered a perpetual cclipfe of (piritual life. Raleigh. 
—Experience we have of the vanity of human glory, in 
our fcatterings and eclipfes. King Charles. 
To ECLIP'SE, v. a. To darken a luminary.—Let the 
eclipfed moon her throne relign. Sandys. 
Now if the earth were flat, the dark’ned moon 
Would feem to all eclips’d as well as one. Creech, 
To extinguifli : to put out: 
Then here I take my leave of thee, fair fon. 
Born to cclipfe thy life this afternoon. Skakefpcare. 
To cloud ; to obfeure.—He defeended from his Father, 
and eclipfed the glory of his divine majefty with a veil of 
flefh. Calamy. 
Let other mufes write his profp’rous fate, 
Of conquer’d nations tell, and kings reflor’d ; 
Bi\t mine (hall ling of his eclips’d efiate, 
Which, like the fun’s, more wonders does afford. Drydcn. 
To difgrace.—She told the king, that her hufband was 
eclipfed in Ireland by the no-countenance his majefty had 
(hewed towards him. Clarendon. 
Another now hath to himfelf engrofs’d 
All pow’r, and us eclips’d. Milton 
ECLIP'TA,yi [from £y.AEi7Tij?, imperfeft, or exAei^i?. 
a deficiency. ] In botany, a genus of the clafs fyngenefia, 
order polygamia fuperflua, natural order compound 
flowers, (corymbifenc, JuJJ.) The generic characters 
are—Calyx: c.ommon many-leaved; leaflets lanceolate, 
nearly equal, in a double feries. Corolla: compound 
rayed; of the ray mod plentiful, female; of the diIk 
hermaphrodite : proper of the hermaphrodite tubular, 
four-cleft, upright, outwardly mealy : in the females very 
narrow, ligulate. Stamina : in the hermaphrodites ; fi¬ 
laments four, very (hort ; anther cylindric. Pi (till 11m : 
in the hermaphrodites; germ oblong; ftyle middling; 
ftigma two-cleft, fpreading. Pericarpium : calyx un¬ 
changed. Seed : in the hermaphrodites oblong, com- 
preffed, notched, obtufe, unarmed. In the females tliree- 
(ided, oblong, notched, obtufe, unarmed. Receptaculum : 
flattifh, chaffy ; chaffs very narrow. This genus is dif- 
CinCl from Verbefina in having four-cleft coroilets, and 
unarmed feeds; and from Cotula in having a chaffy re¬ 
ceptacle. —EJJential GharaRcr. Receptacle, chaffy ; down, 
none; coroliets of the dilk four-cleft. 
Species. 1. Eclipta erecta, or upright eclipta : fievn 
ereCt; leaves deflected at the bale, and feffile. The herb 
is like that of Coreopfis bidens. The leaves are marked 
with three nerves, and are in pairs remote from each 
other. The flowers come out two together alternately 
from the axils. It is tints deferibed by Swartz : Stem 
ereCt, round, a foot high, leafy, almoft Ample, hifpid 
with hoary hairs ; leaves oppolite, tooth-ferrate, wedge- 
(haped, broad-lanceolate, obtufe, triple-nerved, hifpid ; 
flowers white ; feeds angular, thickifh, naked without 
any pappus. Native of the Weft Indies ; and of the 
Eali Indies, Cochin-china, &c. if eclipta erecla of differ¬ 
ent authors be the fame plant, which maybe doubted. 
Loureiro fays that in the Cochin-china plant the leaves 
are not nerved, nor properly ferrate, nor feffile ; and that 
the flowers are not in pairs. He adds, that the juice is 
ufed for dying hair both of men and quadrupeds, whence 
the natives call it ink-plant. Cultivated 1690, in the 
royal garden at Hampton-court. It flowers from July to 
September, and is annual; Linnaeus marks it as biennial. 
2. Eclipta pumSata, or dotted-ftalked eclipta : (lent 
eredt, dotted ; leaves flat. Stem round, branching, leafy, 
rugged, a foot and a half high, reddifh with white dots ; 
leaves lanceolate-oblong, acute, ferrate, rugged, oppofite, 
feffile, front two to three inches long ; flowers whitifh, 
having no fmell. The whole'has a green watery lap, 
which turns black in the air, and maybe ufed as ink. 
If it c ould be fixed, it would make a very fine dye. The 
negroes are faid to increafe the blacknefs of their fkin by 
this juice. T his refembles the firft fpecies, but the ftem 
has white dots fcattered over it. Annual, and a native 
of Domingo and Martinico. 
3. Eclipta latifolia, or ovate-leaved eclipta: ftem 
eredt; leaves ovate, petioled. Root annual; ftem two 
feet high, round, hifpid, brachiate, and finally compound. 
Native of the Eaft Indies; it flowers in September and Oc¬ 
tober ; and was introduced in 1777, by fir Jofeph Banks. 
4. Eclipta proftrata, or trailing eclipta : ftem proftrate; 
leaves fomewhat waved and petioled. Native of the 
Eaft Indies, Japan, Cochin-china, and the ifle of Tanna 
in the South Seas. It flowers in Auguft, and was culti¬ 
vated by Mr. Miller in 1759; alfo prior to that in the 
Eltliam garden. It is an annual plant. 
5. Eclipta feflilis, or fefiile-leaved eclipta ; ftem erecl; 
leaves flightly embracing,ovate, toothed ; flowersaxillary, 
feffile, difeoid. Thisisan annual plant, native of Jamaica. 
Propagation and Culture. Thefe plants are propagated, 
by feeds, fown upon a hot-bed in the fpring; when the 
plants are fit to remove, they fliould be tranfplanted into 
a frefh hot-bed to bring them forward : they mull be 
fhaded till tMey have taken new root, and then treated as 
other tender annuals, being careful not to draw them up 
too weak. In June they may be taken up with balls of 
earth, and being planted in pots are to be fet in a ftove, 
where they mull be fhaded and watered, and where they 
mud remain to flower well. 
ECLIP' riG,y. [ ccliptique , Fr. eclittica, It. ecliptica, Sp. 
eclipticus, Lat. e^AeiwIixo?, of ezAeiww, Gr. to leave.] A 
great circle of the fphere, conceived to pafs through the 
middle of the zodiac. See Astronomy, vol.ii. p.374 
and 453. 
ECLIP'TIC, adj. Deferibed by the ecliptic line : 
The earth’s rotation makes the night and day ; 
The fun revolving through th’ ecliptic way, 
Effects the various feafons of the year. Blackmore. 
EC'LOGUE,y". \_egloga, It. ecloga, Sp. and Lat. ey.Xoye, 
Gr. i. e. a choice piece.] A pafloral poem, fo called be- 
caufe Virgil called his paftorals eclogues. Johnfon. —It is 
not fufficient that the fentences be brief, the whole eclogue 
fliould be fo too. Pope. 
ECLO'PES.y. in botany. See Relhania. 
ECLU'SE (L’), a town of France, in the department 
of the North : two leagues fouth of Douay. 
ECLU'SE (Charles de 1 ’, in Latin Clufius), a celebrated 
phyfician and botanift, born at Arras in 1526. He flu died 
at Ghent and Louvain, and afterwards vilited feveral uni- 
verfities in Germany, and fpent three years in that of 
Montpellier, where he took the degree of dotlor. He 
redded in the Low-countries from 1550 to 1563, and then 
entered upon a courfe of travel through various parts of 
Europe, in which he acquired a very extenftve knowledge 
of plants. After his return he was made fuperintendant 
of the imperial botanic garden by Maximilian II. and 
afterwards by Rodolph II. At length, being wearied of 
a court life, he retired for fome years to Frankfort-on- 
thc-Mein, which, in 1593, he quitted toftake the botanical 
chair 
