851 
E P H 
mines wf fait. It was taken by the malcontents in 1682, 
and retaken by general Schultz in 16S5: twenty miles 
north of Cafchau. 
EPERLE'QJJE, a town of France, in the department 
of the Straits of Calais, and chief place of a canton, in 
the diftrift of St. Omer: two leagues north-weft of St. 
Omer, 
EPERNAY', a town of France, and principal place of 
a diftrift, in the department of the Marne, celebrated for 
its wine, and manufactures of cloth. It was taken by 
Henry IV. in the year 1592, when the marefchal de Biron 
was killed while the king leaned on his fhoulder: four 
leagues and a half fouth of Rheims, and five and a half 
weft of Chalons-fur-Marne. 
EPERNON', a town of France, in the department of 
the Eure and Loire, and chief place of a canton, in the 
diflriCt of Chartres : four leagues north-eaft of Chartres. 
EPER'VA,/! in botany. See Dimorpha. 
EPE'US, a Ion of Endymion, brother to Paeon, who 
reigned in a part of Peloponnefus. His fuhjefts were 
called from him Epei. Paufanias.■ —A fon of Panopeus, 
who was the fabricator of the famous wooden horfe which 
proved the ruin of Troy. Virgil. 
E'PHA,y [ns-M, Heb.] A meafure among the Hebrews, 
containing dry, 3 pecks, 3 pints, 12 folid inches, and 4 
decimal parts; and in liquid things, 4 gallons, 4 pints, 
and 15 folid inches, wine meafure. But Taylor, in his 
Hebrew concordance, fays, it contains 7 gallons, 2 quarts, 
and half a pint,' wine meafure.—The epha and the bath 
fliall be of one meafure ; that the bath may contain the 
tenth part of an homer, and the epha the tenth part of an 
homer. Ezekiel. 
E'PHAH, a country mentioned by the prophet Ifaiah, 
as famous for its dromedaries. Ifaiah lx. 6. 
EPHEB^E'UM, f. [from £7n, and 3£u, Gr. the groin.] 
The hair upon the pubes. 
EPH'EBI,/". [from tQnQia., Gr. a (tripling.] 
Among the Athenians, a defignation given to their young 
men when they arrived at eighteen years of age, at which 
time they had their names entered in a public regifter. 
EPH'EDRA,y [from e < pefyy.ca, Gr. to fit upon.] The 
protuberant part of the buttocks upon which we fit. 
EPH'EDRA,y. [from etti, by, and vfeg, Gr. water; ex- 
preflive of the place of growth. Linn. According to this 
derivation, it fhould be epkydra. The true derivation 
muft be from £^)£^ct, infejio . ] In botany, a genus of the 
clafs dioecia, order monadelphia, natural order ot coni- 
ferae. The generic characters are—I. Male. Calyx : 
ament compounded of one-flowered fcales, few, roundift), 
concave, length of the perianthium ; perianthium proper 
one-leafed, half tw’o-cleft, roundifh, inflated, fmall, com- 
preffed; divifions obtufe. Corolla : none. Stamina : fila¬ 
ments feven, coalefcing into a tubulate pillar, divided at 
the tip, longer than the calyx ; antherae roundifh, turned 
outwards, of which four are inferior, the other three fu- 
perior. II. Female. Calyx: perianthium five-fold, one 
placed on another, with alternate divifions, in an ovate 
figure; each one-leafed, fomewhat ovate, two-parted ; the 
exterior ones fmaller. Corolla: none. Piftillum: germs 
two, ovate, fize of the'laft perianthium, on which they 
are placed; ftyles fimple, filiform, fhort; ftigmas Ample. 
Pericarpium: none; calycine fcales all thickened, fuccu- 
lent, conftituting a divided berry. Seeds: two, ovate- 
fharp, on one fide convex, on the other flat, compreiled 
by the calyx covering them on every fide.— EJfential Cha. 
raEler. Male. Calyx of the ament two-cleft; corolla 
rone ; ftamina feven ; antherae four inferior, three fupe- 
rior. Female. Calyx two-parted, five-fold; corolla none ; 
piftillum two; feeds two, covered with a berried calyx. 
Species. j. Ephedra diftachya, great fhrubby horfe-tail, 
or fea-grape: peduncles oppolite, aments in pairs. 2. 
Ephedra monoftachya, or fmall ihrubby horfe-tail: pe¬ 
duncles feveral, aments folitary. 
This genus is allied to Equifetum, as well in its habit 
and fheathed joints, as in its ftaminiferous column $ it is 
E P H 
perhaps (till more nearly allied to gnetum, or falicornia. 
1 hefe plants vary extremely. Some, in the fouth of 
Europe, are only a hand in height, whilft others are 
three feet high. Linnaeus fufpefted that the Siberian 
plant might not be fpecifically different from this-; and 
Pallas is decidedly of that opinion : he fufpefts that Lin¬ 
naeus had received only imperfeft fpecimens from Siberia, 
and was led by them to make a fecond fpecies. Pallas 
thus defcribes it: It is a flirub, varying wonderfully ac¬ 
cording to its ftation, fometimes a foot or eighteen inches 
high, fometimes only a finger’s height, or even lower; 
proftrate or afcending. Trunk fibrous-woody, often 
thicker than a finger, with fome branches fpreading on 
the ground, and others, which are fhort and woody, riling, 
and fnbdivided copioufly into rufh-like branchlets. Thefe 
are jointed, not at all fucculent, fufficiently tenacious, 
glaucous-green, a little fubdivided, fometimes more than 
a fpan in length, and ftraight, fometimes curled in a 
fpiral, particularly in dry lituations. The joints do not 
readily (eparate; the internodes are often an inch and half 
in length, very finely ftreaked, cylindric, terminated at 
the top by two membranaceous, pubefcent, emarginate, 
fcales. The plants are never hermaphrodite, but fre¬ 
quently barren, efpecially in a dry foil. The male plant 
is ufually taller, with the aments of the upper joints com¬ 
monly in pairs, oppofite, on a peduncle ilfuing from one 
of the fcales. It is found in mod of the fouthern parts 
of the vaft Ruffian dominions; is common from the Volga 
to the Lena, and fouthward to Perfia and India. The 
berries ripen in July and Auguft ; they are fweetifh, mu- 
cofe, and leave it little heat in the throat: they are eaten 
by the Ruffian peafants, and by the wandering hordes of 
all Great Tartary; the Calmucs and other Tartars alfo 
life them medicinally, in catarrhs, rheumatifms, &c. 
The European plant was cultivated here before 1570, by 
Matthias de 1 ’Obel, and flowers in June and July. The 
Siberian was introduced about 1772, by Meffrs. Kennedy 
and Lee, and flowers from September to November. 
Thefe may be propagated by offsets, which the plants 
fend forth in great plenty; for the roots creep under 
ground, and fend forth fuckers, which may be taken off 
to tranfplant in the fpring. They love a pretty moijt 
ftrong foil, and will endure the cold of our ordinary win¬ 
ters very well in the open air. Some of thefe plants were 
formerly preferved in pots, and were hotifed in winter, 
but by later experience they are found to thrive better 
in the full ground. 
EPHE'LIS, f. [Gr.] A fpot or freckle which pro¬ 
ceeds from a fun-burn. 
EPHE'MERA, f. [from yy.tga, Gr. a day.] In medi¬ 
cine, a diary fever, or a fever of one day’s continuance 
only. In this cafe, fuch a heat as attends an excefs of 
wine, a pulfe fomewhat full and quick, but foft and re¬ 
gular, a flight head-ach, a naufea, and reftleffnefs, are 
the fymptoms, and which terminate without any fenlible 
evacuation. If it continue unto the third day, it is not 
a diary fever; and if the conftitution is very irritable, an 
lieftic is to be apprehended. 
EPHE'MERA, f. [from etti, and jj/xEga, a day. ] The 
Day-Fly ; in entomology, a genus belonging to the or¬ 
der of neuroptera. The generic characters are : mouth 
without mandibles; feelers four, very fhort, filiform; 
antennae fhort, 'and filiform ; above the eyes are two or 
three Itemmata ; wings ereft, the lower ones Ihorteft; 
tail furnifhed fome with two, fome with three, briftles. 
This is what the Britilh anglers call the May fly, frorsi 
their chiefly abounding towards the middle or end of that 
month, falling on the waters, where the fifh eagerly de¬ 
vour them ; and on the river fide, when the angler col- 
lefts them. Thefe flies, who take their name from the 
fhortnefs of their life, are diftinguifhed into twenty-one 
fpecies. Some live feveral days, others do not take flight 
till the fetting of the fun, and live not to fee the riling 
of that luminary. Of this kind is the Ephoron leukon, or 
white fly, lately difcovered and defcribed by Dr.William- 
foru 
