N I S 
100 
the famine of 1757, lofing almoft all its inhabitants either 
by death or defertion. The ftreets prefented many mi- 
ferable objefts, who greedily devoured rinds ofcucumbers, 
and every other refufe article of food thrown out into 
the highway. Here the price of bread had rifen near 
4.000 per cent, within the laft fourteen years. 
NIS'IDA, a fmall ifland in the Gulf of Naples, which 
lies not a great way from the main land. It is a kind of 
large garden, laid out in Hopes and terraces, and brings 
its proprietors a confiderable yearly income. Towards 
the fouth it has a fmall harbour, called Porto Pavone; and 
on a neighbouring rock Hands a lazaretto, where Ihips 
bound for Naples are obliged to perform quarantine. 
This ifland abounds in rabbits, and large black fnakes. 
The chief produce is oil. It is five miles weft-fouth-weft 
of Naples. 
NISI'TA, a town of Naples, in the province of Lavora: 
feven miles weft-fouth-weft of Cuma. 
NIS'LER, a river of the duchy of Weftphalia, which 
joins the Sieg near its fource. 
NIS'MA, a town of Saxony, in the bifhopric of Naum- 
burg : fix miles eall of Zeitz. 
NI'SMES or NImes, a city of France, and capital of 
the department of the Gard. It is large, and pleafantly 
fituated on the fide of a hill, covered with vineyards and 
orchards of fruit, at fome diftance from a fmall river cal¬ 
led the Vijlre. Before the revolution, it was the feat of a 
particular government, a court of conventions, a confu- 
lar jurifdi&ion, &c. It contained a feminary, a college, 
an academy of ancient hiftory and belles lettres, feveral 
hofpitals, a citadel, and 32,594. inhabitants, a third of 
them fuppofed to be proteftants. The manufactures are 
various; thole of cloth and filk are very large; 20,000 
pair of ftockings are faid to be made annually. The city 
is ancient, and was formerly very large and magnificent, 
before it was taken andfacked by the Goths. Confidera¬ 
ble veftiges of Roman magnificence yet remain, and are 
fpoken of by travellers with admiration; among others, 
are an amphitheatre (which, according to M. Beaumont, 
would hold 16,599 perfons), a temple of Diana, a grand 
tower, fuppofed to have been a maufoleum, a public foun¬ 
tain, and a maifon quarree, which laft is a temple of the 
Corinthian order, in exquifite tafte, raifed by the inhabi¬ 
tants of Nifmes, in the year of Rome 754., to the memory 
of Caius and Lucius, Tons of Agrippa: five pofts and 
three quarters nortjy-eaft of Montpelier, and ninety fouth- 
fouth-eaft of Paris. Lat. 43.50. N. Ion. 4. 26. E. 
Under the article Meaux, vol. xiv. p. 614, we alluded 
to the perfections of the proteftants by their catholic 
brethren at Nifmes, Montpellier, Touloufe,and Marfeilles, 
but more particularly at Nifmes; and referring to this 
article for the details. As the difturbances have now 
ceafed, we refrain from entering upon a fubjeCt fo painful 
to our feelings. The particulars are well known to our 
readers through the medium of the news-papers and ma¬ 
gazines. We will only remind fuch of our readers as, 
from the beft of motives, wifti to do away all political 
diftinCtions between proteftants and catholics in this 
country, that the fcenes we allude to, exhibiting the man¬ 
ner in which catholics are prone to avail themfelves of 
power when they have it, were ailed no longer ago than 
the year 181 5. 
NISQUEU'NIA, or Nestigiuna, a fettlement on Mo¬ 
hawk river, between Albany and Sheneilady; founded 
by a fociety called Shakers. 
NIS'ROCH, a god of the Aflyrians. Sennacherib was 
killed by two of his fons while he was paying his adora¬ 
tion to his god Nifroch in his temple; (2 Kings xix. 37.) 
It is not known who this Nifroch was. The Septua- 
gint calls him Mefrach; Jofephus calls him Arajkes; the 
Hebrew of Tobit, publiflied by Munfter, calls him Dagon. 
The Jews have a ftrange notion concerning this deity, and 
fancy him to have been a plank of Noah’s ark. Some think 
the word iignifies a dove; and others underftand by it an 
£«glc, which has given occafion to an opinion, that Jupiter 
N I S 
Belus, from whom the AfTyrian kings pretended to be de¬ 
rived, was worfhipped by them under the form of an eagle, 
and called Nifroch. Our poet Milton gives this name to 
one of the rebel angels: 
In the aflembly next tip-ftood 
NiJ'roc/i, of principalities the prince. Par. Lojl, book vi. 
NIS'SA, a river of Servia, which joins the Ibar thirty 
miles north-north-weft of Nifla. 
NIS'SA, a town of European Turkey, in Servia, fitua¬ 
ted on a river of the fame name, confifting of Upper and 
Lower Fortrefs, and furrounded with walls and ramparts. 
It contains feveral mofques, baths, and fountains: the 
houfes are of clay and wood. In 1599, it was taken by 
the waiwode of Walachia. In 1689, prince Louis of Baden 
defeated the Turks here, and took the town ; but the year 
following the Turks recovered it. In the year 1737, it 
was taken by the Hungarians, but retaken by the Turks 
the year following : 245 miles north-weft of Adrianople, 
and 150 eaft-north-eaft of Ragufa. Lat. 43. 31. N. Ion. 
21. 36. E. 
NIS'SA, or Nizza, a town of Portugal, in Alentejo: 
twelve miles north-weft of Caltello de Vide, and twenty- 
one eaft of Abrantes. 
NIS'SER, alake of Norway, in the province of Chriftian- 
fand : thirty-five miles weft of Skeen. 
NISSO'LIA, f. [fo named by Jacquin, in honour of 
William Niflole, M.D. of Montpellier, who deferibed 
plants in Mem. Par. 1711, &c. the plant fo named by 
Tournefort having proved to be a fpecies of Lathyrus.J 
In botany a genus of the clafs diadelphia, order decandria, 
natural order of papilionaceae, or leguminofas. Generic 
characters—Calyx : perianthium one-leafed, bell-fliaped, 
five-toothed, with the upper teeth deeper. Corolla: 
papilionaceous; banner roundifti, fubemarginate, reflex, 
with the fides reflex; wings oblong, blunt, ereit, broader 
at top, fpreading in front; keel clofed, of the fame 
form with the wings. Stamina: filaments ten, united 
into a cylinder, cloven above; antherae roundifli. Pif- 
tillum: germ oblong, comprefled; ftyle awl-fliaped, af- 
cending at a right angle; ftigma capitate, obtufe. Pe- 
ricarpium : caplule oblong, round, running out into a 
ligulate wing. Seed ufually one, oblong, round, blunt. 
—EjQential Charafler. Calyx five-toothed ; caplule one- 
feeded, ending in a ligulate wing. There are three fpecies. 
1. Niflolia arborea, or tree-niflola: Item arboreous erebl. 
This is an inelegant tree, twelve feet high, the branches 
of which, being often weak and bending, require fup- 
port. Leaves deciduous, pinnate or ternate, having two 
leaflets on a fide or one only with an odd one, ovate, 
bluntly acuminate, quite entire. Alining, thin, the end 
one largeft, the inner ones fmaller, oppofite or alternate. 
Flowers fmall, feflile, without feent, and almoft without 
colour, numerous. Native of Carthagena in New Spain, 
in the woods, flowering in July and Auguft. 
2. Niflolia fruticofa, or fiirubby niflolia : Item flirubby, 
twining. This is a thornlefs flirub, with numerous twin¬ 
ing ftems and branches, climbing the trees to the height 
of fifteen feet. Leaves numerous, alternate, pinnate, fiub- 
villofe, three or four inches long, having two leaflets on 
each fide and an odd one; thefe are fubovate, quite en¬ 
tire, bluntifli with a fmall briftle-fliaped point, fimooth, 
petioled, an inch and a half long. Common peduncles 
fliort, many-fiowered, numerous, on the younger branch- 
lets axillary, and at the fame time at their extremities 
coming out from naked tubercles, making altogether a 
leafy panicle, often a foot long, and handfome. Flowers 
peduncled, fmall, yellow, inodorous. Native of Cartha¬ 
gena in woods and coppices; flowering in September. 
Jacquin would not oppofe any one who fhould make two 
dillinil genera of thefe two fpecies. Cultivated in 1766, 
by Robert James lord Petre. 
3. Niflolia ferruginea, or rufty niflolia: ffein flirubby, 
climbing; clufters compound 5 leaves clothed with rufty 
down beneath. Gathered by Aubleton the banks of the 
river 
