37S I R I 
IRGANONG', a town of Hindooftan, in Baglana: 
twenty miles fouth-eaft of Saler Mouler. 
IR'GIS, a river of Ruffia, which runs into the Volga 
■near Volfk. 
IRGIS'KOE, a town of Ruffia, in the government of 
Saratov, on the Irgis: ninety-fix miles eaft of Vollk. 
, I'RI, [Hebrew.] A man’s name. 
I'RI, a town of Africa, in the kingdom of Congo. 
IR'IA, f. in botany. See Cyphrus. 
IR'JAB, a town of Candahar., In 1398, it was taken 
by Timur Bee : forty-fix miles fouth-eaft of Cabul. Lat. 
33. 50.N. Ion.69. 8. E. 
IRIGNY', a town of France, in the department of the 
Rhone.and Loire: fix miles I’outh of Lyons. 
IRI'JAH, [Heb. the fear of the Lord.] A man’s name. 
IRIJU', a river of Guiana, which runs into the Atlan¬ 
tic in lat. o. 58. N. Ion. 51. 30. W. 
IRIN'GES, a daughter of Pan. 
IR'IO, /. in botany. See Erysimum. 
IR'ION, f. in botany. See Roridula. 
IRI'PA, f. in botany. See Cynometra. 
I'RIS, a daughter of Tliaumas and Eledtra, one of the 
Oceanides, meffenger of the gods, and more particularly 
of Juno. Her office was to cut the thread which Teemed 
to detain the foul in the body of thofe that were expiring. 
She is the fame as the rainbow, and, from that circum- 
ftance, (he is reprefented with all the variegated and 
beautiful colours of the rainbow, and appears fitting be¬ 
hind Juno ready to execute her commands. She is like- 
wife deferibed as fupplying the clouds with water to de¬ 
luge the world. Hcfwd. 
I'RIS, f. [Latin.] The rainbow.—Befide the folary 
iris, which God Ihoweth unto Noah, there is another lu- 
nary, whole efficient is the mo’on. Brown. —Any appear¬ 
ance of light refembling the rainbow.—When both bows 
appeared more diftindl, I meafured the breadth of the in¬ 
terior iris 2 gr. io'j and the breadth of the red, yellow., 
and green, in the exterior iris, was to the breadth of the 
fame colours in the interior 3 to 2. Newton. —The ftriped 
variegated circle round the pupil of the eye, formed of a 
duplicature of the uvea. In different fubjects, the iris is 
of feveral very different colours 5 whence the eye is called 
grey, black, &c. In its middle is a perforation, through 
which appears a fmall black fpeck, called the fight, pupil, 
or apple of the eye, round which the iris forms a ring. 
Iris lunaris, or Moon Rainbow. The moon fometimes 
exhibits the phenomenon of an iris or rainbow by the 
refradtion of her rays in drops of rain in the night time. 
This phenomenon is very rare. In the Philofophical 
Tranfadlions for 1783, however, we have an account of 
three feen in one year, and all in the fame place, com¬ 
municated in two letters by Marmaduke Tunftall, efq. 
The firft was feen 27th February, 1782, at Greta Bridge, 
Yorklhire, between feven and eight at night, and appeared 
6C . in tolerably diftinct colours, fimilar to a Tolar one, but 
more faint: the orange colour feemed to predominate. 
It happened at full moon; at which time alone they are 
laid to have been always feen. Though Ariftotle is faid 
to have obferved two, and fome others have been feen by 
Snellius, Sec. 1 can only find two deferibed with any ac¬ 
curacy; viz. one by Plot, in his Hiftory of Oxfordlhire, 
feen by him in 1675, though without colours; the other 
fi?en by a Derbylhire gentleman at Glapwell, near Chef- 
terfield, deferibed by Thorefby, and inferted in No. 331 
of the Philofophical Tranfaftions: this was about Chrilt- 
mas 1710, and faid to have had all the colours of the iris 
folaris. The night was windy ; and though there was then 
a drizzling rain and dark cloud, in which the rainbow 
was reflefted, it proved afterwards a light froft.” Two 
others were afterwards feen by Mr. Tunftall; one on July 
the 30th, about eleven o’clock, which laftedabouLa quar¬ 
ter of an hour, without colours. The other, which ap¬ 
peared on Friday Oftober 18th, was “ perhaps the molt 
extraordinary one of the kind ever feen. It was firft vifible 
I R I 
about nine o’clock, and continued, though with very dif¬ 
ferent degrees of brilliancy, till pall two. At firft, though 
a ftrongly-marked bow, it was without colours; but af¬ 
terwards they were very Confpicuous and vivid, in the 
fame form as in the folar, though fainter: the red, green, 
and purple, were moft diftinguilhable. About twelve it 
was the moft fplendid in appearance; its arc was confi- 
derably a fmaller fegment of a circle than a folar; its 
fouth-eaft limb firft began to fail, and a confiderable time 
before its final extinftion : the wind was very high, nearly 
due weft, moft part of the time, accompanied with a 
drizzling rain. It is a fingular circumftance, that three 
of thefe phenomena ftiould have been feen in fo fliort a 
time in one place, as they have been efteemed ever lince 
the time of Ariftotle, who is faid to have been the firft 
obferver of them, and faw only two in fifty years, and 
fince by Plot and Thorefby, almoft the only two Englith 
authors who have fpoke of them, to be exceeding rare.” 
In the Gentleman’s Magazine for Auguft 1788, we 
have an account of a lunar rainbow by a correfpondent 
who faw it. “ On Sunday evening the 17th of Auguft 
(fays he), after two days, on both of Which, particularly 
the former, there had been a great deal of rain, together 
with lightning and thunder, juft as the clocks were 
linking nine, twenty-three hours after full-moon, looking 
through my window, I was ftruck with the appearance of 
fomething in the fky, which feemed like a rainbow. 
Having never feen a rainbow by night, I thought it a 
very extraordinary phenomenon, and haftened to a place 
where there were no buildings to obftruft my view of the 
hemifphere: here I found that the phenomenon was no 
other than a lunar rainbow; the moon was as brilliant as 
file could be; not a cloud was to be feen near her; and 
over againft her, toward the north-weft, or perhaps rather 
more to the north, was a rainbow, a vaft arch, perfeft in 
all its parts, not interrupted or broken as rainbows fre¬ 
quently are, but unremittedly vifible from one horizon to 
the other. In order to give fome idea of its extent, it is 
neceilary to fay, that, as I flood toward the weftern extre¬ 
mity of the parifli of Stoke Newington, it feemed to take 
its rife from the weft of Hampftead, and to end, perhaps, 
in the river Lea, the eaftern boundary of Tottenham; its 
colour was viffiite, cloudy, or greyifii, but a part of its 
weftern leg feemed to exhibit tints of a faint fickly green. 
I continued viewing it for fome time, till it began to 
rain; and at length, the rain increafing, and the fky grow¬ 
ing more hazy, I returned home about a quarter or twenty 
minutes paft nine, and in ten minutes came out again; 
but by that time all was over, the moon was darkened by 
clouds, and the rainbow of courfe vanifhed.” 
On the 7th of January, 1806, from half-paft nine to 
half-paft ten at night, a lunar iris was feen at Horbury, 
near Wakefield, very beautiful, and entirely perfedt in its 
arch. It continued much longer than rainbows ufually 
do. A fecond bow was clearly difcernible above the firft, 
which was alfo perfedt in its. arch, but the colours could 
not be diftindtly feen. The phenomenon was feen in 
Wakefield, and feveral places adjacent; alfo in Leeds, but 
not quite fo vivid. 
Iris marina, or Sea Rainbow'. The fea-bow is a phe¬ 
nomenon which may be frequently obferved in a much- 
agitated fea, and is occafioned by the wind fweeping part 
of the w'aves, and carrying them aloft; which when they 
fall down are refradted by the fun’s rays, which paint the 
colours of the bow juft as in a common (hower. Thefe 
bows are often feen when a veffel is failing with confi¬ 
derable force, and dafhing the waves around her, which 
are raifed partly by the adlion of the fhip and partly by 
the force of the wind, and, falling down, they form a 
rainbow; and they are alfo often oxcafioned by the dafli- 
ing of the waves againft the rocks on-fhore. In the Phi¬ 
lofophical Tranfadtions, it is obferved by F. Bourzes, that 
the colours of the marine rainbow are lefs livel}', lels dif¬ 
tindl, and of (hotter continuance, than thofe of the com- 
_ j raoa 
