N I T 
N I T 103 
caring to pafs under a dead body, and being invited by tire 
hopes of an immenfe treafure, broke it open ; but, inftead 
of what he fought, is faid to have found nothing but a 
corpfe ; and another infcription, to the following effedt: 
“ Hadft thou not been moft infatiably avaricious and 
greedy of the moft fordid gain, thoU wouldeft never have 
violated the abode of the dead.” 
NITRA'RIA, f. [lb named by Schober, a Ruffian 
botanift, who travelled under the fandtion of govern¬ 
ment into Siberia, and who iirft difcovered this plant on 
the fqualid nitro-faline parts of the defert extending from 
the north of the Cafpian fea to about the fiftieth degree of 
latitude. He alfo found it, affuming rather a different 
appearance, in the fait plains of Siberia, between the 
Irtis and Ob rivers, by the fait lakes near tlie Jenifea, 
and in the regions beyond the lake Baikal ] In botany, a 
genius of the clafs dodecandria, order monogynia, natu¬ 
ral order of ficoideae, Jnff. Generic charadters—Calyx: 
perianthium one-leaved, five-cleft, ereft,very fhort, perma¬ 
nent. Corolla: petals five, oblong, fpreading, channelled, 
arched at top with an inflex dagger-point. Stamina : fila¬ 
ments fifteen, awl-fnaped, almoft eredt, the length of the 
corolla: antheraeroundifh. Piftillum : germen ovate, ending 
in a thickifli ftyle, longer than the ftamens ; ftigma fim- 
ple. Pericarpium: drupe one-celled, ovate-oblong, acu¬ 
minate. Seed one, three-celled, ovate, acuminate. (The 
germ, when immature, is three celled ; nut fcrobiculate, 
one-celled, fix-valved at top; ftyle very lhort, trifid. Gart¬ 
ner.)—EJJential CliuraSler. Calyx five-cleft; corolla five- 
petalled, with the petals arched at the top; ftamina fifteen 
or more; drupe one-feeded. 
i. Nitraria Schoberi, or thick-leaved nitraria, leaves en¬ 
tire, obtufe. We have already noticed that there are two 
varieties of this fhrub: one in the north of the Cafpian, 
with the ftems almoft upright,almoft unarmed, and larger 
in all its parts. The other in the falt-plains of Siberia, prof- 
trate, thorny, fmaller, and more tender in all its parts. 
a.. The Cafpian variety, which is what Schoberdefcribed, 
rifes, with feveral ftems that are an ell in height, from a 
thick woody root, covered with a whitilh-grey bark, fpinef- 
cent at the end, as are alfo the branches, and brittle. 
Leaves in alternate buds up to the flowers, fefiile, in bun¬ 
dles four or five together, flefhy, fucculent, oblong, atte¬ 
nuated at the bale, quite entire, glaucous green. In the 
autumn, and in drying the plant, they very eafily fall off, 
leaving a dufky fpot at the place. They appear to be very 
fmooth; but, when examined by a glafs, they are found 
to have very fine proftrate hairs fcattered over them. The 
terminating cymes of the branchlets are dichotomous, 
naked, hairy, faftigiate ; the extremities bear three or four 
fefiile flowers, pointing the fame way, and forming a fort of 
fpike; perianthium in the flow'er fcarcely vifible, confiding 
of five thick toothlets furrounding the receptacle; in the 
fruit more evident, and fomewhat bell-fhaped ; petals 
white, fpreading very much;concave, blunt and cowled at 
the end, with a flender toothlet turned towards the cen¬ 
tre of the flower; ftamens twelve to fifteen, the length of 
the corolla ; antheras oblong, yellow, bifid at the bate. 
( 3 . The Siberian variety, which Steller and Gmelin 
chiefly obferved, from a woody root frequently exhibits a 
large knob or tuber, fometimes as big as the human head, 
warted and veined. From this twenty and more ftems 
fpread in a ring; they are proftrate, and even prefled clofe 
to the ground, a foot and a half in length, with the 
branches moft elegantly difpofed like a winged leaf. The 
ftems are more flender than in the preceding, more elon¬ 
gated, ftraighter, whitifli grey, with the branches alternate, 
ftpreading very much, lying on the ground. The leaves 
are much fmaller than the Cafpian plant, very like them 
in form, or more fucculent and fait. Flower, in all its 
parts fmaller, but the calyx more evident. The incipient 
fruit as in the other; but the ripe drupe much fmaller, 
ftaining paper of a very dark blue. Nut by no means 
conical-acuminate, but ovate, and fubtrigonal, which the 
Cafpian nut is not; it has, however, the fix grooves ap¬ 
proximating by pairs, and the little holes which are fome¬ 
times indeed fcarcely vifible. In the fat very-falt lands 
by the lake Koraekoffkoi in Siberia, Pallas obferved fhrubs 
of Nitraria that were much ftouter, with the ftems almoft 
equal to'the Cafpian variety; the leaves wider, five front 
each bud, fometimes entire, fometimes varioufly cut. Not 
having an opportunity of obferving it in flower, he could 
not determine what other differences there might be be¬ 
tween this and the others. 
Murray has given a full-length defcription of this rare 
fhrub; but the above from Pallas is pofterior to Murray’s, 
and made from wild plants, not diftorted and changed by 
culture. Pallas informs us, that the berries, though ftalt- 
ifh and infipid, are eaten in the Cafpian defert; but in that 
arid loil they are almoft the only luxury. Camels feed on 
the twigs. The Ruffians near the Cafpian call this fhrub 
famanickn, and the Turcomans J'nga/i. Both varieties feem, 
from Chevalier Murray’s account, to have been in the 
botanic garden at Gottingen; one of them flowered there, 
and Murray’s defcription was made from that plant. Lin- 
neus' had the fhrub twenty years before it flowered in 
Sweden ; and, during ten years, having in vain tried to 
make it flower in the garden at Upfal, he at length fuc- 
ceeded by watering the plant with fait water; it flowered 
however at Gottingen without this affiftance. It flowers 
at Kevv through the greater part of the fummer. From 
the very fucculent and faline properties of its leaves, 
Murray conjectures that it might be employed with ad¬ 
vantage for the extraction of foda. 
z. Nitraria tridentata : (Desfont. inUft. Annal. xvi. ioi.) 
leaves three-toothed at their tips. Native of moift anti 
fandy (pots near the fea in the neighbourhood of Sufa in 
the kingdom of Tunis, and on the borders of the defert. 
All we know of this is from Desfontaines, quoted above; 
who defcribes it as having “ fpinous branches, flefhy 
leeves, and a nut with only one cell inftead of three.” 
NI'TRATS, /! in ch'emiftry; falts formed by nitric 
acid with the different faline bafes. The chief of thefe 
is nitrat of potafh, or common nitre. See Nitrum nati- 
vum; and the article Chemistry, vol. iv. p. 236-243. 
NI'TRE, J\ [nitre, Fr. nitrum, Lat.] A cryftalline, 
pellucid, but fomewhat whitifli, fubftance, of an acrid 
and bitterifli tafte, imprefling a peculiar fenfe of coldnefs 
upon the tongue. This fait, though it affords, by means 
of fire, an acid fpirit capable of diffolving almoft every 
thing, yet manifefts no fign of its containing any acid at 
all in its crude ftate. Nitre is of the number of thofe 
falts which are naturally blended in imperceptible parti¬ 
cles in earths, ftones, and other foflil (ubftances, as the 
particles of metals are in their ores : it is fometimes, how¬ 
ever, found pure, in form of an efflorefcence, either on its 
ores or on the furface of old walls. The earth from 
which nitre is made, both in Perfia and in the Eaft Indies, 
is a kind of yellowifh marl found in the bare cliffs of the 
fides of hills expofed to the northern and eaftern winds, 
and never in any other iituation. See Nitrum, and the 
article Chemistry. 
The natrum, or nitre of the ancients, is-a genuine, 
native, and pure, fait, extremely different from our nitre, 
and from all other native falts; being a fixed alkali plainly 
of the nature of thofe made by fire from vegetables; yet 
being capable of a regular cryftallization, which thofe 
falts are not. It is found on or very near the furface of 
the earth, in thin flat cakes, fpungy, light, and friable ; 
and, when pure, of a pale brownilh-white colour. In 
Scripture we find that the fait called nitre would ferment 
with vinegar, (Prov. xxv. 20.) and had an abfterfive qua¬ 
lity ; properties which perfedtly agree with this fait, but 
not with laltpetre, as do many different qualities afcribed 
to it by the ancients. Bill on Fofiils. —Though thou walk 
thee with nitre, and take thee much fope, yet thine ini¬ 
quity is marked before me, faith the Lord God. Jer. ii. 22. 
Some tumultuous cloud, 
Inftindt with fire and nitre, hurried him. Milton. 
Some deep their feed, and fome in cauldrons boil, 
With vigorous nitre and with lees of oil. Drijden.. 
NI'TRIC, 
