E P I 
dire&ly (not alternately) below the petals, caducous, 
(with a (ingle braCle at the bafe of two of them, J.) 
Corolla: petals four, ovate, obtufe, concave, expanding; 
neCtaries four, cup-form, (dipper-form, J. ) with obtufe 
bottoms, of the fize of the petals, and leaning on them, 
affixed by the edge of the mouth to the receptacle. Sta¬ 
mina: filaments four, fubulate, preffing on the flyle; 
antherre oblong, ereCt, two-celled, two-valved, gaping 
front the bafe towards the tip, with a free dilfepiment. 
Piftillum: germ oblong; flyle fhorter than the germ, 
length of the (tamens; (tigma fintple. Pericarpium : dlique 
oblong, acuminate, one-celled, two-valved. Seeds: very 
many, oblong.— EJfential CharaElcr. NeCtaries four, cup- 
form, leaning on the petals ; corolla four-petalled ; calyx 
very caducous ; fruit a filique. 
Epimedium alpinum, or alpine barrenwort, a fingle 
fpecies. This plant has a creeping root, from which 
arife many ftiff fmooth (talks about nine inches high. It 
is a native of the Alps and Apennines; flowering in 
April and May, and longer in fhady places; alfo in Japan. 
Mr. Miller affirms that he received fome plants of it, 
which were found growing naturally in a wood in the 
north of England: but he was probably mifinformed. 
“ This rare and flrange plant, (fays Gerarde,) was fent 
to me from the French king’s herbarift, Robinus, dwel¬ 
ling in Paris, at the fign of the Black Plead, in the flreet 
called Du Bout du Monde. I planted it in my garden, but 
it was dried away with the extreme heat of the fun, which 
happened in the year 1590, fince which time it bringeth 
feed to perfection.” Johnfon (Ger. emac.) adds, that it 
grew in the garden of his friend, Mr. John Milion, in 
Old.flreet, and fome other gardens about town. 
Propagation and Culture. It may be increafed by the 
roots, and fucceeds beft in the (hade, where it mu ft every 
year be reduced, otherwife it will fpread its roots, fo as 
to interfere with the neighbouring plants. It deferves 
a place in gardens, though not fhowy, for its beauty and 
Angularity. 
EPIME'NIA,/l A law term : gifts, expences. 
EPIMEN'IDES, an epic poet of Crete, contemporary 
with Solon. His father’s name was Agiafarchus. He is 
reckoned one of the feven wife men, by thofe who ex¬ 
clude Periander from the number. While he was tend¬ 
ing his flocks, he entered into a cave, where he fell 
afleep. His deep continued for fifty-feven years, accord¬ 
ing to legendary tradition, and when he awoke, he found 
every objeCt fo confiderably altered, that he fcarcely knew 
where he was. His brother apprized him of the length 
of his fleep to his great aflonifliment. It is fuppofed that 
he lived 289 years. After death he was revered as a god, 
and greatly honoured by the Athenians, whom he had. 
delivered from a plague, and to whom he had given many 
good and ufeful counfels. He is faid to be the firft who 
built temples in the Grecian communities. Strabo. 
EPIME'THEUS, in fabulous hiflory, a fon of Japetus 
and Clyinene, one of the Oceanides, who inconfideratelv 
married Pandora, by whom he had Pyrrha, the wife of 
Deucalion. He had the curiofity to open the box which 
Pandora had brought with her, and from thence iffued a 
train of evils, which from that moment have never ceafcd 
to affliCl the human race. Hope was the only one which 
remained at the bottom of the box, not having fufficient 
time to efcape, and it is fhe alone which comforts men 
under misfortunes. Epimetheus was changed into a 
monkey by the gods, and lent into the ifland cf Pithe- 
cufa. H</iod. 
EPIM'YLIS, f. [from £7n, and Gr. the knee.] 
The oatella, or knee-pan. 
EP'INAL, a city of France, and capital of the depart¬ 
ment of the Vofges, on the Mofelle ; formerly belonging 
to the duchy of Lorrain, and taken by the troops of 
Louis XIV. under the command of marefchal Crequi, 
and foon after difmuntled: forty-eight polls and three 
quarters eaft-fonth-eaft of Paris. Lat. 4-’. 10. N. Ion. 24. 
9. E. Ferro. 
Vol. VI. No. 398. 
E P I 869 
EP'INAY, a town of France: two leagues north of 
Paiis. 
EPINE'PIIELUS, f. the Wall-eye; a new genus of 
fiflies in Bloch’s fyftem, the fpecies of which are included 
under Holocentrus. 
EP'INEU-LE-CHEVREUIL, a tow n of France, in the 
department of the Sarte, and chief place of a canton, in 
the diflriCt of Sille : twelve miles weft of Le Mars 
EPINEU'L, a townof France, in the department of the 
Yonne, and chief place of a canton, in the diftriCt of Ton- 
nere: one mile and a half north of Tonnere. 
EPINI'CION, J. [Gr.] A triumphal fong.—A danc¬ 
ing mafk of fix enters, then the cpinicion is lung by two 
bards. Stage-dircElion in Fuimvs Trees. 
EPINO'I, a town of France, in the department of the 
North : feven miles fouth of Lille. 
EPIPAC'TIS. See Astrantia, Ophrys, Orchis, 
Satyrium, and Serafias. 
EPIPAS'TUM,y. [from etti, upon, and ttoco-o-u, Gr. to 
fprinkle.] A medicine reduced to powder, and fprinkled 
over the body of a patient, or part affected. 
EPIPEDO'METRY, J. [from s* vi upon, •ro-t?? a foot, 
and /xETgor, Gr. a meafure.] The menfuration of figures 
that (land on the fame bafe. 
EP'IPHAN, a town of Ruffia, in the government of 
Tula : forty miles eaft of Tula. 
EPIPHA'NEA, anciently a town of Cilicia, near Iffus, 
now Surpendkar.—Another town of Syria, on the Eu¬ 
phrates. 
EPIPH'ANES, a furname given to the Antiochus’s, 
kings of Syria, fignifying illujlrious. —A furname of one of 
the Ptolemies, the fifth of the houfe of the Lagidte. 
EPIPHA'NIUS, bifhop of Salamis in the ifland of 
Cyprus, in the fourth century, and in the catholic calendar, 
dignified with the title of faint, was born at Bezanduce, a 
village in Paleftine, about the year 320. Many of the 
particulars which are related by different writers con¬ 
cerning his extraction, his education, and the other cir- 
cumftances of his early life, are involved in much obfeu- 
rity, and fome of them are evidently fabulous. From 
the mod credible accounts of him it appears, that when 
he was but very young he went into Egypt, whej;e lie be¬ 
came intimate with fome of the Gnoftics, by whom he 
was almoft perfuaded to embrace their opinions : but he 
foon broke off’ his connection with them, and became a 
difciple of the Egyptian Afcetics. In the twentieth year 
of his age, he returned to his native country, and placed 
himfelf under the difeipline of Hilarion. After remain¬ 
ing for fome time under his inftruCtions, Epiphanius 
founded a monaftery near the village in which he w'as 
born, over which he himfelf prefided during the remain¬ 
der of his life. In 368 he w'as chofen bifhop of Salamis, 
afterwards called Conftantia, the metropolis of the ifland 
of Cyprus, where he acquired a high reputation for piety 
and fanclity of manners, and zealoufly employed himfelf 
in writing defences of the orthodox doClrines againft the 
attacks of contemporary heretics. His zeal, however, 
was more confpicuous in his polemical productions, than 
the accuracy of his judgment, or the folidity of his rea- 
foning; and it was the occafion of his being involved in 
many unpleafant difputes, which embittered a confider- 
able portion of his life. He was unqueftionably a very 
pious and religious character; but his mind was unfor¬ 
tunately tinCtured by a gloomy fuperflition, which led 
him to cor.fider the auftere difeipline of the cloifter to he 
the moft acceptable fervice in the light of heaven. 
Hence he was led to praCtife it in all its rigour, after he 
was advanced to the epifcopal ftation, and to fill the 
countries where his influence extended with monadic in- 
ftitutions. He is faid to have been fo humane and chari¬ 
table, that he expended not only his own private fortune, 
but the greatefl part of the revenues of his church, and 
vaft fums that were entrufted to his difpofal, in relieving 
the poor and unfortunate. Epiphanius was (killed in the 
Hebrew, Syriac, Egyptian, Greek, and Latin, languages, 
10 M whence 
