4 32 
If O XJ 
1 I 0 TJSS, f. [from houfeaux, or houfes, Fr.T Covering of 
. cloth originally ufed to keep oft dirt, now added to lad¬ 
dies as ornamental figns : 
Six lions' hides with thongs together faft, 
His upper parts defended to his waift; 
And where man ended, the continu’d weft, 
Spread on his back, the houfs and trappings of a bead. 
Dry den. 
HOUSSA, the capital of a large kingdom of the fame 
sname, fituated to the ealtward of Tornbucloo in Africa, 
and is a great mart for Moorifh commerce. It is larger, 
and more populous, than Tombufiloo itfelf. The trade, 
police, and government, are nearly the tame in both; 
but in Honda, the Negroes are in greater proportion to 
the Moors, and have tome fliare in the government. 
TbHOUST, v.n. [fromheajryean,Sax.] Tocough. Scott. 
HOUS'TON (William), an able phylician and botanitt, 
who went to'the Weft Indies firtt in the capacity of a 
furgeon, and upon his return ftudied phytic at Leyden 
under Boerhaave, and graduated in 1719. While he re- 
lided at that univerfity he i.nftituted a fet of experiments 
upon brutes concerning the effefils of perforation of the 
thorax upon rel'piration, which were publilbed in the 
twenty-ninth volume of the Philofouhical Tranfafilions. 
He was made a fellow of the Royal Society ; and, returning 
again to the Weft Indies, he took up his refidence at the 
"Engliih fettlement in the bay of Campeacny. A defcrip- 
tion of the plant affording the contrayerva-root was firft: 
fent by him to the Royal Society, and publilbed in the 
thirty-feventh volume of their Tranfadtions. He likewile 
tranfmitted to Mr. Miller, at ChcTl'ea, the feeds of many 
rare and new plants, collected by him in Jamaica and 
Cuba, and upon the Spahifli main. He fell a facrifice to 
thefe labours in an unhealthy climate, and died in July 
1733. A manufcript catalogue of plants collefiled by him, 
together with engravings by his own hand, came into the 
poffeflion of P. Miller, efq- and afterwards into that of 
fir Jofeph Banks, who publifhed them under the title of 
Reliqute Houfioniana, 4to. tab. xxvi. 1781. They contain 
the characters and defcriptions of fifteen genera, and ele¬ 
ven fpecies, the latter all natives of the country about 
Vera Cruz. The defcriptions are according to the lyftem 
of Tournefort. 
HOUSTO'NI A, f. [fo named by Gronovius, from the 
fubject of the preceding article.] In botany, a genus of 
the clafs tetrandria, order monogynia, natural order of 
ftellatse, (rubiaceae, JuJf.) The generic characters are— 
Calyx: perianthiuni very fmall, four-toothed, upright, 
permanent. Corolla: one-petalled, funnel-fhaped ; tube 
cylindric, long ; border four-parted, fpreading, parts 
roundifh. Stamina : filaments four, in the neck of the 
corolla, very fmall; antherae fimple. Piftiilum: germ fu- 
perior, roundilh, compreffed ; ftyle fimple, fhorter than 
the ltamens ; ftigma bifid, acute. Pericarpium: capfule 
roundilh, twin, gaping tranfverfely at the top, two-celled, 
two-valved ; valves oppolite to the partition. Seeds: few 
(three or fpur) fmall, ovate, adhering to the partition.— 
EJfential CharaElcr. Corolla one-petalled, funnel-form; 
capfule fuperior, two-celled, tvvo-feeded ; (feeds three or 
four in each cell. Gartner.') 
Species’. 1. Houftonia caerulea, or blue-flowered houf- 
tonia: root-leaves ovate, Item compound, firft peduncles 
two-flowered. This is a vernal plant, with terminating 
flowers. From a flender root it produces fmall, oblong, 
pointed leaves, fpreading on the ground in a ring; among 
thefe, ilender linooth ftalks arife, at the height of two 
inches forming a joint, and furnifhed with two or'three 
fmall leaves; here they divide into two, or l'ometimes 
three, flender branches, or peduncles, an inch or two in 
length, having at the end of each a fingle blue flower. 
Native of Virginia, whence it was fent by John Ba- 
jtifter. 
2. Houftonia purpurea, or purple-flowered houftonia: 
isayes ovate-lanceolate, corymbs terminating, flowers fu¬ 
ll o u 
perlor. This has leaves in pairs, refembling thofe of 
chickweed. The flower is of a red purple. Native of 
Maryland ; where it is alfo found with a narrower leaf. 
3. Gaertner has a fpecies (from fir Jofeph Banks’s Her¬ 
barium) which he calls H. longifolio : the capfule of 
which is fuperior, bipartile, at the bafe furrounded by the 
four-parted calyx, compreffed at the top, marked with 
two grooves; receptacle fungofe, fubglobular, pedicelled, 
fixed to the middle of the partition of each cell, when 
ripe falling along with the feeds ; of which there are three 
or four in each cell, compreffed a little, having a ridge 
along the back, and a little umbilical fear in the middle 
of the belly ; they are of a very dark brown colour. 
HOUT BAY', a bay on the fouth coaft of Africa, 
north-north-weft from the Cape of Good Hope. Lut. 
34. 5. S. Ion. 18.19. E. Greenwich. 
HOU'TEVILLIi (Claude-Francis), a French ecclefiaf- 
tic, born at Paris in 16S8. He was promoted, in 1723, to 
the abbey of St. Vincent du Bourg-fur-mer, in the diocefe 
of Bourdeaux, and in the fame year was admitted a mem¬ 
ber of the French Academy. Upon the death of the abbe 
Dubois, in 1742, he was defiled perpetual fecretary of the 
academy; but he did not fill that poll many months, be¬ 
ing cut off by death in the fame year, when about the age 
of fifty-four. His mod admired work was firft publifhed 
in 1722, under the title of La Verite de la Religion C&reti 
enne, prouvee par les Faits, 4to. A fecond and confiderably- 
enlarged edition of it was publifhed in 1741, in 3 voir. 
4to. He was alfo the author of, 2. A Philofophical Effay 
on Providence, 1728, 12010. 3. A11 Hiftorical Eulogium 
on M. Bofiuet, Bifhop of Meaux, inferted among the fu¬ 
neral orations for that illuftrious prelate publifhed at Pa¬ 
ris in 1731, i2ino; and feveral Difcourfes pronounced be-- 
fore the French Academy. 
HOUT'HOVE, a town of Flanders: fix miles north- 
weft of Bruges. 
HOUTTUYNTA, f [fo named by Thunberg, in ho¬ 
nour of Mart, llouttuyn, M. D. of Holland ; author of Na~ 
tuurlyke Hijlorie, in 14V0IS. 8vo. Amfl. 1773 to 1783.] In 
botany, a genus of the clafs mouoecia, order monandria, 
(heptandria, Gif. polyandria polygina, Thunb.) natural or¬ 
der of piperitse, (arcidea:, JuJf.) The generic charafilers 
are—I. Male flow'ers. Calyx: fpathe? four-leaved; leaf¬ 
lets ovate, concave, obtufe, coloured ; fpadix oblong, the 
length of the fpathe, covered with fructifications. Co¬ 
rolla : none. Stamina: filaments very many, intermixed 
with the germs (about feven round each germ), very fhort; 
an therm twin ovate. II. Females. Calyx : fpathe and 
fpadix common with the males. Corolla: none. Piftil- 
lum : germs very many, intermixed with the llamens; 
(germ three-cornered ; ltyle none ; ftigmas three, oblong, 
reflex. Lour.) Pericarpium: capfule three-cornered, three- 
celled, three-valved, opening at the top. Seeds : many, 
ovate, fmall.— EJfential Character. Calyx four-leaved : co¬ 
rolla none; ftamina mixed with the pillils, feven about 
each the germ. 
Houttuynia cordata, a fingle fpecies. This plant has 
the habit of polygonum, with ltipules as that has. Root 
annual, fibrous; item fimple, herbaceous, grooved, flex- 
uole, upright, a hand, a fpan, or a foot, in height, fmooth 
in all its parts; leaves alternate, petioled, cordate, cufpi- 
date, entire, pale underneath. It is difficult to deter¬ 
mine the number of llamens in this genus, becaufe there i* 
no calyx, corolla, or feales to feparate the germs. It ought, 
however, to be referred to the clafs polyandria, the fta- 
mens being fcattered over an elongated receptacle, among 
feveral germs. Discovered by Thunberg in Japan, be¬ 
tween Miaco and Jedo, very common in the ditches, and 
near the towns ; flowering in May and June. Loureiro 
alfo found it, if his polypara be the fame plant, in the 
gardens of Cochin-china, where it is eaten in falads, and 
is elleemed attenuant, and emmenagogue. The leaves are 
five-nerved in his plant, which they are not in the hout¬ 
tuynia of Thunberg; but they agree fo nearly in habit, 
that we may prefume they are the fame fpecies. 
HOUT'WAEL* 
