N 1 G 
■trifle. Yet ufedin Lancafhire.—He ferved them with nijles 
and with fables. Chaucer's Sompn. Tale. 
To NI'FLE, v.n. To trifle, to fpend time to little pur- 
pofe. 
NI'FO (Agoftino), a celebrated philofopher and man 
•of letters in the fifteenth and fixteenth centuries, was a 
native either of Jopoli in Calabria, or Sefla in the Terra 
.di Lavoro. He received his education chiefly at Tropea 
in Abruzzo ; and, quitting'his father’s houfe, which was 
rendered uncomfortable to him by a mother-in-law, he 
went to Naples, where he undertook the inftruCtion of 
youth. He accompanied fome of his fcholars to Padua, 
where, in 1492., he was chofen profeifor extraordinary of 
philofophy. He afterwards was advanced, to the profeflor- 
fhip in ordinary, and to thefirfl: chair. During his abode 
nt Padua, he had imbibed from Niccolo Vernia the opinion 
of Averrhoes concerning the unity of fpiritual fubftance, 
nnd that there is only one foul and intellect which ani¬ 
mates all nature. This he maintained in a treatife, “ De 
IntelleCtu & Dasmonibus,” which brought upon him a 
formidable attack from the theologians, under which he 
might have funk, had not Barazzi, bifliop of Padua, 
kindly interpofed, and induced him to correCt fome of 
the offenfive paflages of his work. To give further proof 
of his orthodoxy, Nifo publithed a refutation of the opi¬ 
nion of Pomponazzi on the immortality of the foul. Leav¬ 
ing Padua, he refided fome time at Seffa, where he mar¬ 
ried, and had feveral children ; and he regarded this place 
fo much as his home, that he ufually ftyled himfeJf Suef- 
fanus. His reputation now fpread throughout Italy, and 
he was fuccefllvely invited to various fchools of learning. 
The prince of Salerno engaged him to teach philofophy 
for fome time in that city. About 1510, he appears to have 
held a chair in theuniverflty of Naples. In 1513, he was 
invited to Rome by Leo X. who regarded him with parti¬ 
cular favour, honoured him with the title of Count Pala¬ 
tine, and conferred upon him the extraordinary privilege 
of ufing the name and arms of the Medici. For the good 
graces of this pontiff he was probably indebted, not only 
to his philofophical acquifitions, but to his jocular and 
facetious turn in converfation, and to a levity which 
tendered him a happy, fubjeft of ridicule to the wits of 
that court. He was a profeifor at Rome in the college of 
Sapienza, and for fome time he occupied a chair at Bo¬ 
logna. In 1519 he removed to Pifa, where he was offered 
a falary of leven hundred gold florins. The prince of 
Salerno drew him again to that city in 1525, in which, or 
at Sefla, he appears to have palled the remainder of his 
days. The time of his death is uncertain ; for, whilft fome 
flx it in 1237, others adduce a dedication of his to Paul 
III. in 1545 as a proof he was then living. There feems, 
however, to be good evidence that he died at Sefla, in 
January 1538. Nifo was a man of a mean and forbid¬ 
ding alpeft, with the ruftic pronounciation of his country; 
but full of pleafantry when animated in company. He 
■was free, and not very decorous, in manners; and made 
himfelf ridiculous in his old age by his amorous extrava¬ 
gances, either real or affeCted. He lived much among 
the great, and feems to have been in eafy circumftances; 
he poflelfed a fine and valuable library, This author 
wrote a great number of works, relative to the peripatetic 
philofophy, afironomy, medicine,rhetoric, ethics, politics, 
&c. which are all at prelent configned to oblivion, fothat 
a catalogue of them would be fuperfluous. Commenta¬ 
ries and tranflations of the works of Ariftotle and Aver¬ 
rhoes compofe the greater part. Some are on lighter to¬ 
pics; and in two of them he has tranfgrefled the bounds 
of decency. It is to his praife that he refuted the im¬ 
postures of aftrologers; and was the firft to deliver Eu¬ 
rope from, the terrors of a deluge which they had pre¬ 
dicted for the year 1524. 7 toj'coe's Leo X. 
NIG-TSING', a town of China, of the third rank, in 
Pe-tche-li; twenty-five miles eaft of King. 
NIGANISH', a town or valley on the ealt coall of the 
jfland of Cape Breton. Lat. 46.40. N. Ion, 60. 15. W. 
Voi. XVII. No. Ii6j. 
.N I G 81 
NIGA'TA, a fea-port of Japan, on the north coall of 
the illand of Niphon. Lat. 37. 30. N. Ion. 139. 10. E. 
NIG'DEH, or Nikde, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in 
Caramania, furrounded with walls, and defended by a 
caftle j forty-four miles fouth-eaft of Akferai. Lat. 38. 7. 
N. Ion. 35. 10. E. 
NIGEL'LA, f. [from the blacknefs of the feeds.] 
Fennel-flower ; in botany, a genus of the clafs.poly- 
andria, order pentagynia, natural order of multifiliquas ; 
(ranunculaceae, Jnff.) Generic characters—Calyx r none. 
Corolla: petals five, ovate, flat, blunt, fpreading, more 
contracted at the bafe; neCtaries eight, placed in a ring, 
very fliort: each two lipped ; outer lip larger, lower, bifid, 
fiat, convex, marked with two dots; inner lip lhorter, 
narrower, from ovate ending in a line. Stamina: filaments 
numerous, awl-lhaped, lhorter than the petals; antherae 
comprefled, blunt, ereCt. Piltillum : germs five to ten, 
oblong, convex, comprefled, ereCt, ending in ftyles which 
are,awl-lhaped, angular, very long but revolute, perma¬ 
nent; ftigmas longitudinal, adnate. Pericarpium: cap- 
fules as many as there were germens, oblong, comprefled, 
acuminate, connected on the infide by the future, gaping 
on the infide at top. Seeds very many, angular, rugged. 
—Effential C/car after. Calyx none ; petals five; neCtaries 
five (or more), two-lipped, within the corolla; caplules 
5-10, connected (or feparate, beaked, opening inwards, 
Gartner). There are fix fpecies. 
I. With five ftyles. 
1. Nigella damafcena, or common fennel-flower, devil 
in a built, or love in a milt: flowers furrounded with.a 
leafy involucrum. This riles with an upright branching 
italk, a foot and a half high. Leaves long and finely cut, 
like fennel. Flowers large, pale blue with a five-leaved 
involucrum under ea,ch, longer than the flower. They 
are fucceeded by larger fwelling feed-vefiels, with five 
horns at the top. It varies with white and blue flowers; 
both Angle and double, which laft is frequently fown in. 
gardens with other annuals for ornament. Gasrtner 
defcribes the capfule as Ample fubglobular, filiform, 
five-beaked, five-xelled, inflated; that is, the cells being 
vertically, by means of a very "thin tranlparent white 
membrane, divided into a larger empty chamber, and 
an inner {mail one with feeds in it. Seeds in each ceil 
about twenty-four, ovate-acuminate, marked with a rib 
on one fide, wrinkled, raifed-dotted, black. Albumen 
flefliy, thick, pale-water-coloured ; embryo yellowifh ; 
cotyledons fubfoliaceous; radicle roundish, centripetal. 
Native of the South of Europe among corn. It was cul¬ 
tivated here in 1570, as appears by Lobel. It flowers 
from June to September; and is repreiented on the an¬ 
nexed engraving, at fig. 1. 
2. Nigella ariftata, or Athenian fennel-flower: flowers 
furrounded with a leafy involucrum; nectaries and anthers 
awned ; capfules turbinate, rough. This is more branched 
than the preceding; but the leaves, flowers, and involucrum, 
are fmaller; the petals are heart-lhaped, with long claws, 
and pointed ; the under lip of the neCtaries is a beautiful 
objeCt when fomewhat magnified, being almoft triangu¬ 
lar, pale yellow, with a broad tranfverfe blue ftripe, bor¬ 
dered with purple, and having two afcending horns in 
front, annulated with red ; the whole clothed with long 
hairs. Gathered by Dr. I. Sibthorp, near Athens. 
3. Nigella fativa, fmall fennel-flower, or gith : piftils 
five ; capfules muricated, roundiflt; leaves fomewhat hairy; 
involucrum none. This riles to the fame height as the 
firft fpecies ; but the leaves are not fo finely cut, and are 
a little hairy. At the top of each (talk is one flower, com- 
pofed of five white petals, which are (lightly cut at their end 
into three points; thefe are fucceeded by oblong fwelling 
feed-veflels with five horns at the top, filled with fmall 
pale-coloured feeds. It is a native of the Levant; commoa 
in Greece and the Archipelago. Dr. Sibthorp deter¬ 
mines this fpecies to be the real of Diofcorides; 
and records, in his manuferipts, that the modern Greeks 
Hill retain the cuftom, mentioned by this ancient writer, 
Y of 
