S)1C 
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eruginoui earths, partaking chiefly of iron and copper; the 
blue of copper, the green of iron. Browne. 
ER'VINE, a townfhip of the American States, in On- 
tario county. 
ERUNCA'TION,^ A weeding or pulling up of weeds. 
ERUP'TION, y. [ truptio, Lat.J The aft of breaking 
or hurtling forth from any confinement.—Finding them- 
felves pent in by the exterior earth, they preffed with 
violence againft that arch, to make it yield and give way 
to their dilatation and eruption. Burnet. —Biirft; emiffion; 
fomething forcing itfelf out fuddenly.-—In part of Media 
there are eruptions of flames out of plains. Bacon. —Sudden 
cxcurfion of an hoftile kind: 
Thither, if but to pry, thall be perhaps 
Our firfl eruption, thither or elfewhere ; 
For this infernal pit fhall never hold 
Celeflial fpirits in bondage. Milton. 
Violent exclamation.—To his ferretary lie would, in the 
abfence of all other ears and eyes, break out into bitter 
and paflionate eruptions. Wotton. —Efflorence; puftules.— 
Unripe fruits are apt to occaflon foul eruptions on the fkin. 
Arbuthnot. 
ERUP'TIVE, adj. [eruptius, Lat .3 Burfting forth : 
’Tis liftening fear, and dumb amazement all, 
When to the flartled eye the hidden glance 
Appears far fouth eruptive through the cloud. Thomfon. 
ERUPTU'RIENT, adj. Apt to break forth ; ready to 
break forth. Cole. 
ER'VUM,y [of Pliny; from the Greek ogo/ 3 o;, chang¬ 
ing 1 3 into v, as from ( 3 tce, vis, from @uo, vivo, from fioo-y.u, 
ve/cor.'] The Tare, or Lentil; in botany, a genus of 
the clafs diadelphia, order aecandria, natural order of 
papilionaceae or leguminof®. The generic charadlers are— 
Calyx : five-parted, length of the corolla; divifions linear, 
vcuminate, nearly equal. Corolla: papilionaceous; ftand- 
ard flat, {lightly reflex, roundifli, larger; wings obtufe, 
fhorter by half than the ftandard ; keel fhorter than the 
wings, acuminate. Stamina: filaments diadelphous (Am¬ 
ple and nine-cleft), rifing; antherse Ample. Piftillum : 
germ oblong ; ftyle Ample, rifing; ftigma obtufe, beard- 
lefs. Pericarpium : legume oblong, obtufe, columnar, 
knotty with the protuberant feeds. Seeds: four. This 
genus differs from Vicia in the fiigma alone.— EJJential 
ChardEter. Calyx five-parted, the length of the corolla. 
Species, i. Ervum lens, or flat-feeded tare or common 
lentil: about two flowers on a peduncle, feeds compreffed, 
convex. The lentil is an annual plant, and the lead of 
the pulfe kind which is cultivated. It rifes with weak 
,ftalks a foot and a half high, having pinnate leaves at 
each joint, compofed of feveral pairs of narrow leaflets, 
terminated by a tendril, which flip ports it by fattening 
about fome other plant. The flowers come out on fhort 
peduncles from the Tides of the branches ; they are fmall, 
of a pale purple colour, and three or four together. Le¬ 
gumes fhort and flat, containing two or three flat, round, 
feeds, a little convex in the middle. The flowers appear 
in May, and the feeds ripen in July. Grows wild in the 
corn-fields of France and Germany, the paftures of Car- 
niola, and the vineyards of the Valais. It is cultivated 
cither as fodder for cattle, or for the feeds, which are 
ufed in lotips. Thefe are commonly eaten by the poorer 
fort in fome iflands of the Archipelago, and other warm 
countries. The contempt, however, in which they are 
held is apparent from the proverbial expreflions, Dives 
JaCtus jam defnt gaudere lente ; and mira de lente. The cul¬ 
tivation of this pulfe does not l'eem to have been of very 
long (landing in England : for Gerarde fays, “ thefe pulfes 
(great and little lentils) do grow in my garden (1596) ; 
and it is reported unto ine by thofe of good credit, that 
about Watford in Middlefex (Hertford(hire), and other 
places of England, the hulbandnten do low them for their 
cattle, even as others do tares. 
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2. Ervum tetrafpermum, or fmooth tare: about tvm 
flowers on a peduncle ; feeds globular, four in a legume. 
Root annual. Stems in open places (lender, weak, and 
much branched ; but among corn fupporting themfelves 
by tendrils to a foot or more in height; two-edged and 
inclining to four-cornered. Legumes perfe&ly fmooth, 
inclining to cylindric, and containing four feeds, nearly 
globular, brownifii mottled with black. According to 
Scopoli, there are fometimes five feeds in a legume; and 
Mr. Woodward remarked a variety near Cambridge, in 
which the legumes contain, five, fix, or feven, feeds, 
very rarely four. The Item was low and extremely 
branched. Thefe differences could not proceed from 
luxuriance of foil, as the fpot where it grew was remark¬ 
ably dry gravel. This fpecies is found in mod corn¬ 
fields, clinging to the corn, and if the feafon favours its 
growth, fometimes quite overcoming it. 
3. Ervum hirfutum, or hairy tare : peduncles many- 
flowered ; feeds globular, two in a legume. Annual. 
Stems weak, much branched, climbing, quadrangular, 
ftreaked, from one to two feet high. Eafily diftinguiflied 
from the foregoing ; the leaves not being pointed as in 
that, but truncate; the ftipules divided into many more 
fegments; the flowers, and confequently the legumes, 
growing-in a kind of duffer. . It is deftrudlive to corn, 
being Wronger and more prolific. In wet feaforis whole 
crops are overpowered by this plant. Yet this and the 
preceding may be eafily deftroyed, if they are cut up 
when they begin to flower. 
4. Ervum folonienfe, or fpring tare : about two flowers 
on a peduncle awned, petioles acuminate, leaflets obtufe. 
Flower fmall,reddiffi. Legumes (lender,an inch in length, 
with three or four minute hexaedral feeds in each. It is 
diffinguiffied by its earlinefs, the tenuity of its parts, and 
the lhape of its feeds. It appears at the clofe of winter, 
in negledled paftures, in France. Linnaeus thinks that 
it is allied to Lathyrus angulatus. Cultivated in Chelfea 
garden in 1739 > it flowers in April and May. 
5. Ervum monanthos, or one-flowered tare or lentil : 
peduncles one-flowered. Larger than lentil, climbing by- 
means of bifid or trifid tendrils. It is annual; and, ac¬ 
cording to Linnaeus, the leaflets convolute. Native of 
Ruffia, and the county of Nice. Near Herborn in Ger¬ 
many, among lentils. It flowers from May to July. 
6. Ervum ervilia, or officinal tare: germs naked and 
plaited, leaves unequally pinnate. This is an annual plant, 
rifing with angular weak ftaiks, having at each joint one 
pinnate leaf, compofed of fourteen or fifteen pair of leaf¬ 
lets, like thofe of the vetch, but narrower. The flowers 
come out, in June, from the fides of the (talk, on pedun¬ 
cles an inch long, each fuftaining two pale-coloured flow¬ 
ers, which are fucceeded by fhort pods a little compreffed, 
each containing three or four feeds. Native of France, 
Italy, and the Levant. 
Propagation and-Culture. The feeds of lentils are com¬ 
monly (own in March, where tiie land is dry, but in moift 
ground April is the belt time. The ufual quantity of 
feed allowed to an acre is from a bufhel and a half to two 
bufliels. If thefe are fown in drills in the fame manner 
as peafe, they will fucceed better than when they are 
fown broad caff : the drills ffiould be a foot and a half 
aliinder, to allow room for the hoe to clean the ground 
between them ; for if weeds be permitted to grow, they 
will foon ftarve the lentils. See Sophora. 
ER'VY, a town of France, and principal place of a dif- 
trift, in the department of the Aube: feventeen miles 
fouth of Troyes, and twelve north of Tonnerre. 
ER'WASH, a river of EngFand, which rifes in the 
county of Nottingham, and ahnoft in its whole courfe fe» 
parates that county from Derbyfliire, and falls into the 
Trent, four miles fouth-weft of Nottingham. 
ER'WITE, a town of Germany, in the circle of the 
Lower Rhine, and duchy of Weftphalia; five miles fouth. 
of Lippftadt. 
GENERAL 
