H E S 
827 
H E S 
Willing to wound, and yet afraid to ftrike, 
Juft hint a fault, and heftate diflike ; 
Alike referv’d to blame or to commend, 
A tim’rous foe, and a fufpicious friend. - Pope. 
HESITA'TION, f. Doubt; uncertainty; difficulty 
made.—I cannot forefee the difficulties and hefitations of 
every one : they will be more or fewer, according to the 
capacity of each perufer. Woodward —Intermiffion of 
fpeech ; want of volubility.-i-Many clergymen write in 
fo diminutive a manner, with ,fuch frequent blots and 
interlineations, that they are hardly able to go on with¬ 
out perpetual hefitations. Swift. 
HES'IVON, a town of Egypt: twenty-two miles 
fouth-fouth-weft of Cairo. 
HESN, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in the province of 
Diarbek : forty miles weft of Tfecrit. 
. HES^NAL-MAI, a fmall ifland and village of Egypt, 
in the lake of Tennis: twenty-five miles north-weft of 
Tineh. 
HES'NE, a river of France, which runs into the 
Scheldt, near Conde, in the department of the’North. 
HES'PER,y; The evening ftar, Venus when fhefets 
after the Cun. 
HESPE'RIA, in ancient geography, a large ifland of 
Africa, once the refidenc? of the Amazons. Diod. 3. It 
was a name common both to Italy and Spain. It is 
derived from Hefper, or Vefper, the fettingfun, or the 
evening; whence the Greeks’called Italy Hefperia, 
becaufe it was lituate at the fetting fun, or in the weft. 
The fame name, for fimilar reafons, was applied to Spain 
by the Latins. Virg. JEn. i. 634. 
HESPE'RIAN, adj. Belonging to the Hefperides. 
HESPERJDE'/E,/! in botany, the name of the forty- 
firft order in Linnasjis’s Fragments of a Natural Method; 
containing only three genera, Citrus, Styrax, Garcinia. 
HESPER'IDES, in mythology, three celebrated 
nymphs, daughters of Hefperus. A pollodorus mentions 
four, Aigle, Erithia, Vella, and Arethufa ; and Diodo¬ 
rus confounds them with the Atlantides, and fuppofes 
that they were the fame number. They were appointed 
to guard the golden apples which Juno gave to Jupiter 
on the day of their nuptials; and the place of their 
refidence, fixed beyond the oceap by Hefiod, is more 
univerfally believed to be near mount Atlas in Africa, 
according to Apollodorus. This celebrated place or 
garden abounded with fruits of the mod delicious kind, 
and was carefully guarded by a dragon which never flept. 
It was one of the labours of Hercules to procure fome of 
the golden apples of the Hefperides. The hero, igno¬ 
rant of the fituation of this celebrated garden, applied 
to the nymphs in the neighbourhood of the Po for 
information, and was told that Nereus the god of the 
fea, if properly managed, would direct him in his pur- 
iuits. Hercules feized Nereus as he was afleep, and 
the fea-god, unable-to efcape from his grafp, anfwered 
all the queftions which he propofed. Some fay that 
Nereus fent Hercules to Prometheus, and that from him 
he received all his information. When Hercules came 
into Africa, he repaired to Atlas, and demanded of him 
three of the golden apples. Atlas unloaded himfelf, 
and placed the burden of the heavens on the Ihoulders 
of Hercules, while he went in queflf of the apples. At 
his return, Hercules expreffed his wilh to eafe his burden 
by putting fomething on his head, and, when Atlas 
affifted him to remove his inconvenience, Hercules art¬ 
fully left the burden, and feized the apples, which 
Atlas had thrown on the ground. According to other 
accounts, Hercules gathered the apples himfelf, without 
the affiftance of Atlas, and killed the watchful dragon 
which kept the tree. Thefe apples were brought to 
Euryftheus, and afterwards carried back by Minerva 
into the garden of the Hefperides, as they could be pre- 
ferved in no other place, Hercules is fometimes repre- 
fented gathering the apples, and the dragon which 
uarded the tree appears bowing down his head, as 
aving received a mortal -wound. This monfter, as it 
Vol.IX. No. 630. 
is fuppofed, was the offspring of Typhon, and it had a 
hundred heads and as many voices. This~ntimber, how¬ 
ever, is reduced by fome to only one head. Thofe that 
attempt to explain mythology, obferve, that the Hel- 
perides were certain perfons who had an immenfe number 
of flocks, and that the ambiguous word jXor, which 
fignifies an apple and a fheep, gave rife to the fable of 
the golden apples of the Hefperides. Hefiod. Theog. 
v. 215, &rc. 
HES'PERIS, in ancient geography, a town of Cyre- 
naica, now Bernic, or Ber.gazi; where rnoft am hors 
have placed the garden of the Hefperides. 
HES'PERIS, f. [from ec-Tr^e?, Gr. becaufe the flower 
fmells fweet in the ev'ening.] Rocket, or Dame’s 
Violet ; in botany, a genus of the clAfs tetradynamia, 
order filiquofa, natural order of filiquofae, (cruciformes, 
Tournef. cruciferae, JuJf.) The generic characters are— 
Calyx: perianthium four-leaved; leaves lanceolate- 
linear, from, parallel converging, at top incumbent, at 
bottom gaping deciduous; of thefe two oppofite ones 
are gibbous at the bafe. Corolla : four-petalled, cru¬ 
ciform ; petals oblong, the length of the calyx, a little 
bent back obliquely, contrary, to the fun’s apparent 
motion, ending in attenuated claws, the length of the 
calyx. Stamina : filaments fix, the length of the tube; 
two of them fhorter by half than the others ; antherae 
linear, upright, reflex at the tip : an acuminate honied 
gland between each fhorter ftamen and the germ, and 
furrounding the ftamen. Piftillum: germ the length of 
the calyx, prifmatic, four-cornered ; ftyle none ; ftigma 
two-parted, placed on the infide, oblong, upright, forked 
at the bafe, converging at the tip, withering. Pei icar- 
pium: filique long, preffed flat, ftiff and ftraight, two- 
celled, two-valved ; the valves of the fame length with 
the partition. Seeds very many, ovate, compreffed.— 
EJfentialCkaraEler. Petals bent obliquely ; a gland within 
the fhorter ftamens ; filiqua ftiff; ftigma with a forked 
bafe and converging tip ; calyx clofed. 
Species. 1. Hefperis triftis, or night-fmelling rocket: 
ftem hifpid, branched, fmelling. The leaves of this 
fort are much larger than thofe of the garden rocket,, 
and of a paler green; the ftalks are clofely fet with 
briflly hairs; the flowers grow in loofe panicles at the 
top of the (talk, and appear about the fame time with 
the garden-rocket. Native of Auftria and Hungary. 
Much cultivated abroad for the great fragrancy of the 
flowers in the evening. The ladies in Germany have 
pots of it placed in their apartments, whence it obtained 
the name of dame's violet. It was cultivated here by 
Mr. Miller in 1739. 
2. Hefperis matronalis, or garden-rocket: Item Ample, 
upright; leaves ovate-lanceolate, toothletfed, petals 
emarginate, with a point. The garden-rocket with 
purple flowers was formerly in greater plenty in the 
Englifh gardens than at prelent, having been long neg- 
lefted becaufe the flowers were Angle, and made but 
little appearance : however, as they have a very grateful 
feent, the plant is worthy of a place in every good gar¬ 
den. It riles with an upright ftalk a foot and a half 
high, with fpear-fhaped leaves which fit clpfe to the 
ftalk, and are flightly indented on their edges, ending 
in acute points: the flowers are produced in a loofe 
thyrle on the top of the ftalks; the petals are roundifh, 
and indented at the points, of a deep purple colour, and 
fmeli very fweet, efpecially in the evening or in cloudy 
weather. It flowers in June, and the feeds ripen the 
latter end of Auguft. Mr. Miller is of opinion that 
the garden-rocket with white flowers is different from 
that which bears purple ones, becaufe the leaves are 
not fo long, but much broader, and the borders entire; 
the flowers not quite fo large, nor forming fo good 
lpikes, nor having fo fine a feent. It is however gene¬ 
rally agreed that they are not fpecifically diftindtj 
There are double flowers in the gardens of both colours; 
and having a mixture of both. Native of Italy. Mr. 
Ray cbferved the wild Angle fort flowering in the month 
10 B «t 
