321 
PANCRATIU M. 
as we learn from both Ariftotleand Quinflilian, the athleta 
borrowed many things from each of thefe fciences to render 
himfelf eminent in the pancratium. It was neceffary for 
him to learn how to trip, and ftrike, and box, and grapple 
with his antagonift ; to Hand with firmnefs, fall with ad¬ 
vantage, and rife with vigour and celerity, or maintain 
the combat upon the ground ; to attack and to defend, 
to annoy and refill his enemy in every attitude; and to 
employ in one or other of thofe purpofes every limb, 
nerve, and finew, all the faculties and all the ftrength of 
his whole body, which is implied in the word pancratium ; 
and this term gives the bell account of an exercife, in 
which the combatants were allowed (under certain re- 
llririions) to make what ufe they thought proper of all 
the arms which nature had given them, both offenfive 
and defenfive, and of only thofe : for neither (as in the 
ccejlus ) were their hands and fingers bound up or armed, 
nor their legs and feet prohibited from joining in the 
battle, nor were they conftrained from llriking, as in the 
pn!i. With no further arms than thofe, however, they 
were able fo to mangle and injure one another, that it 
was thought proper to fubjeft them to fome rellraints ; 
left a conteft, in which they engaged for victory and 
honour, fliould be difgraced by murder or malice, and 
the combatants be provoked to encounter one another in 
a manner more becoming beads than men. An athleta 
was therefore forbidden to kill his adverfary defignedly, 
to dig or pluck out his eyes, to tear him with his teeth, 
or ftrike him under the ribs with the ends of his fingers; 
but, notwithllanding thefe reftridlions, fcope enough was 
left for the combatants to exercife their {kill and ftrength, 
their courage and refolution ; becaufe it was a common 
practice for a pancratiaft to choke the ftrength and fkill 
of his antagonift by twilling and entangling himfelf about 
his legs and arms ; and to endeavour by fatigue, and pain, 
and fuffocation, to w orry him into a furrenderof the vic¬ 
tory. The pancratium was forbidden by the Spartan 
legiflator, whilft he allowed and encouraged many contefts 
no lefs rude and bloody ; for, the law of thefe exercifes re¬ 
quiring that one of the two combatants fliould yield, either 
in words, or by llretching out his hand or finger, or by 
giving fome other teftimony of his fo doing, Lycurgus 
forbade his Spartans to engage in them, becaufe, as he 
faid, he would not have them accuftom themfelves to 
yield the vidlory, not even in fport. The combatants in 
thefe exercifes were naked ; and, as it was neceffary to 
pair them, this, we may fuppofe, was done by'lot, Pau- 
lanias fpeaks of a pancratiaft named Softratus, who had 
an eafy method of obtaining the vidlory in thefe contefts: 
his cuftom was to leize fall hold of his adverfary’s fingers, 
which he broke, and never quitted his hold till they re¬ 
nounced the conteft. This method gained him twelve 
Ifthmian and Nemean, two Pythian, and three Olympic, 
crowns, together with a ftatu® at Olympia, and the fur- 
name of Acro-Cherfites. Weft's Pindar, vol.iii. Anachar- 
jis, vol. iii. 
PANCRA'TIUM, f. [of Pliny and Diofcorides; from 
wa?, all, and y.fcclag, power; i. e. an herb of every virtue.] 
In botany, a genus of the clafs hexandria, order mono- 
gynia, natural order of fpathaceae, (narcifti, Juff. lilia, 
Iiay.) Generic characters—Calyx : Spathe oblong, ob- 
tufe, comprefled, opening on the flat fide, fnrivelling. 
Corolla: Petals fix, lanceolate, flat, inferted into the tube 
of the neftary on the outfide above the bafe. Nedlary 
one-leafed, cylindric-funnel-form, coloured at top, with 
the mouth fpreading, and twelve-cleft. Stamina : Fila¬ 
ments fix, awl-fhaped, inferted into the tips of the nec¬ 
tary, and longer than they are ; anthene oblong, incum¬ 
bent. Piltillum Germen bluntly three-cornered, in¬ 
ferior; ftyle filiform, longer than the ftamens; ftigma 
blunt. Pericarpium : Capfule roundiflt, three-fided, three- 
celled, three-valved. Seeds feveral, globular.-— Ejjential 
Charatter. Petals fix ; neflary twelve-cleft ; itamina 
placed on the nedtary. 
This genus conlifts of perennial plants with very large 
Vol. XVIII. No. 12-45. 
bulbous roots, from whence proceed long leaves, fome 
very narrow-, others broad, and a ftrong llraight upright 
fcape from one to three feet high, terminated by a large 
fpathe, burfting on one fide, and difclofing in fome of the 
fpecies many, in others only one or two, white flowers of 
great elegance and fragrance. There are fifteen fpecies, 
fix of which have been defcribed by Mr. Salifbury in the 
2d vol. of the Linn. Tranf. 1791. 
1. Pancratium Zeylanicum, or Ceylonefe pancratium : 
fpathe one-flowered, petals reflex. This has a pretty 
large bulbous root. Leaves long and narrow, of a 
greyifti colour, and pretty thick, Handing upright. 
The ftalk rifes among them a foot and a half high, 
naked, fuftaining one flower at the top. Neftary large,, 
cut at the brim into many acute fegments. Stamens 
long, and turning towards each other at their points, in 
which it differs from the other fpecies. The flower has 
a very agreeable fcent, but is of fhort duration. Native of 
Ceylon. Cultivated by Mr. Miller in 1739. 
2. Pancratium Mexicanum, or Mexican pancratium: 
fpathe two-flowered ; ftem or fcape a long fpan in height, 
round, forked towards the top, or dividing into two pe¬ 
duncles, with two oblong, tender, membranaceous, green- 
ifli leaflets, and terminated each with a white flower, 
divided to the very bafe into fix narrow fegments; in the 
middle of thefe is a white bell-fhaped tube, which Lin¬ 
naeus names the nedlary, more tender than the petals; the 
mouth angular, and from each angle putting forth a fila¬ 
ment, long, flender, -and white, terminated by an oblong, 
incurved, laffron-coloured anther. The flowers have no 
frnell, and ihrivel-up over the fruit. Leaves four, reclin¬ 
ing, fmooth, pale-green, and fomewhat glaucous; rigid, 
flightly grooved in the middie, and with a Angle ftreak on 
each fide, otherwife veinlefs; a long fpan or a little more 
in length, an inch and a half in width, produced to a 
point at the end. It flowers in May, from bulbs brought 
from Mexico. 
3. Pancratium Caribteum, or Caribean pancratium : 
fpathe many-fiowered, leaves lanceolate, fegments of the 
corolla linear, and longer than tire tube; leaves about a 
foot long and two inches broad, having three longitudinal 
furrows. The ftalk rifes about a foot high, then divides 
like a fork into two fmall footftalks, or rather tubes, which 
are narrow, green, and at firft encompaffed by a thin 
fpathe, which withers, and opens to give way to the 
flowers : thefe are white, and have no fcent. Native of the 
Weft Indies. Dr. Browne fays, it grows wild in mod parts 
of Jamaica, and the other fugar-iflands, with large leaves 
and numerous flowers, leldom rifing above fixteen or eigh¬ 
teen inches in height. Dr. Houltoun brought fome of 
the roots from Vera Cruz; and it was cultivated by Mr. 
Miller in 1730. 
( 3 . Mr. Salifbury has figured and defcribed a fpecies 
which he has often received from Barbadoes, and which 
he fufpects may be the fame with that of Sloane and 
Martyn, but different from that of Commelin; which he 
refers to his amcenum, the declinatum of Jacquin. He 
names it Pancratium fragrans, and gives this fpecific 
character: Petioles wide; tube of the corolla fix- 
cornered, not ftreaked ; fegments longer than the tube, 
recurved, linear, alternately more concave, the finufes of 
the crown repand emarginate. He thus defcribes it: 
Plant a foot and a half high ; leaves feven to ten, green, 
bifarious; petioles flieathing at the bafe, fpreading, half 
round ; the leaves themfelves much longer than the pe¬ 
tioles, recurved, lanceolate, quite entire, blunt, a little 
channelled, fmooth, efpecially above, flelhy. Flowers 
very fragrant, from leven to twelve in a bunch. Peduncle 
(or fcape) pale glaucous, among the inner leaves, a little 
fhorter than they ; after flowering bent down towards the 
ground, comprefled, ancipital, fmooth with a glaucous 
bloom, flightly ftreaked, fiolid. Germ bright-green, 
fhortly pedicelied, oval, three-cornered, fmooth with the 
fame glaucous bloom. He affirms,. that Linnaeus has 
made up his P. caribteum from t-he doubtful fynonyms of 
4 N Sloane 
