506 N A I 
NA'IAD, /'. [naias, Lat.] A water nymph : 
What though nor fabled dryad haunt their grove, 
Nor naiads near their fountains rove. Shcnftone. 
The naiades generally inhabited the country, and re- 
forted to the woods or meadows near the ftream over 
which they prefided, whence the name. They are repre- 
fented as youngand beautiful virgins, often leaning upon 
an urn, from which flows a ftream of water. Aigle was 
the faireft of the naiades, according to Virgil. They were 
held in great veneration among the ancients, and often 
facrifices of goats and lambs were offered to them, with 
libations of wine, honey, and oil. Sometimes they re¬ 
ceived only offerings of milk, fruit, and flowers. 
NA IANT, adj. in heraldry. See vol. ix. p. 423. 
NAJA'RA, a town of Spain, in Old Caftile, contain¬ 
ing three churches and three convents : thirty-fix miles 
eaft of Burgos, and thirty-two weft of Calahorra. Lat. 
42. 20. N. Ion. 2. 45. W. The battle of Najara (1367) 
is famous in the hiftory of Spain. See that article ; and 
England, vol. vi. p. 601. 
NA'IAS, ./! [fo named by Linnaeus, from the naiads, or 
water-nymphs, becaufe it grows floating in clear ftreams.] 
In botany, a genus of the clafs monoecia, order monandria, 
natural order inundatae, Linn, (naiades, Juff. hydrocha- 
rides, Brown.) Generic Characters—Male. Calyx : peri- 
antbium of one leaf, tubular, abrupt at the bafe, tapering 
upwards, divided into two reflexed, oblong, revolute, feg- 
ments. Corolla : of one petal; tube flender, much longer 
than the calyx; limb bell-fhaped, in four equal, lanceo¬ 
late, revolute, fegments. Stamina: filament ufually want¬ 
ing; anthers lolitary, oblong, eredl. Female. Calyx and 
corolla: none. Piftillum : germen oblong, taper-pointed ; 
ftyle awl-fliaped, fliort; ftigmas two or three, undivided, 
acute, permanent. Pericarpium : capfule elliptic-oblong, 
of one cell, not burfting, crowned with the ftyle. Seed : 
lolitary, inverted, oblong.— Ejfential CharaEler. Male : 
calyx Ihealth-like, cloven ; corolla of one petal, four- 
cleft; anther nearly feflile. Female: calyx and corolla 
wanting; ftigma two or three, undivided; capfule with 
one feed. 
1. Naias marina, or marine naias: leaves oppofite or 
ternate, eredl, linear, deeply toothed. Native of lakes 
and ditches, efpecially near the fea, in Italy; and in the 
frefh waters of Germany, Swilferland, &c. In the fea it- 
felf on the coaft of Sweden. Mr. Menzies gathered it in 
O-wy-hee, and Commerlon in the Ifle of Bourbon. The 
whole plant floats under water, having the flender branch¬ 
ed ftem and narrow pellucid leaves of a Potamogeton. 
The latter grow two or three together, feflile or fome- 
what fheathing, at each joint; and are from an inch to an 
inch and a half long, linear, with very fharp teeth or fer- 
ratures, and very deep intermediate finufes. Flowers 
axillary, feflile, lolitary, minute. Capfule elliptical, not 
a quarter of an inch long, fingle-feeded. 
The above was the only fpecies known to Linnaeus. 
He originally confidered it as monoecious, but was in¬ 
duced, by the obfervations of Bernard de Juflieu, to re¬ 
move the genus to dioecia, which, however, every other 
perfon has found to be a millake. The remaining fpecies 
are the Caulinia of Willdenow. 
2. Naias minor, or fmaller naias : leaves oppofite or 
ternate, linear-awl-fliaped, recurved, rigid, with trian¬ 
gular fpinous teeth. Native of lakes and ditches in Italy, 
France, and Germany. We have alio fpecimens gathered 
in Swilferland by M. du Cros ; but Haller knew it not; 
the former, which is his N° 556, Handing on the autho¬ 
rity of Lachenal alone, who found it near Baiil. This 
fpecies is much fmaller than the preceding, and, as Will¬ 
denow obferves, remarkably brittle. Capfule of a more 
flender figure. 
3. Naias Indica, or Indian naias : leaves oppofite or 
ternate, linear-awl-lhapcd, wavy, ereft ; the younger ones 
with briftly teeth ; ftipules fringed. Native of pools at 
Tranquebar, in the Eaft Indies, where fpecimens, in fruit, 
N A I 
were gathered in 1799, by the Rev. Dr. Bottler. This- 
has much the afpedl of fome of the moft narrow-leaved 
pond-weeds ; but the leaves are furnilhed with very fine 
briftly deciduous teeth, fo as to feem a miniature refem- 
blance of Fucus aculeatus, nor are there any intermediate 
finufes. The membranous ftipules, attached to the bafe 
of each leaf, are bearded, or fringed at the furnmit. Cao- 
fule not half the live of the former, elliptical. 
4. Naias tenuifolia, or fine-leaved naias: leaves oppo¬ 
fite, linear-awl-fliaped, with briftly teeth; ftipules fringed ; 
calyx of the male flov'ers entire at one fide ; antherse 
llalked, of one cell. Found near Port Jackfon, as well 
as in the tropical part of New Holland, by Mr. R. Brown, 
who doubts whether it be truly diftindl from the third 
fpecies. 
5. Naias ftriata, or ftriated naias : leaves oppofite or al¬ 
ternate, linear-awl-lhaped, with briftly teeth ; ftipules 
abrupt, toothed ; capfule longitudinally ftriate. Gather¬ 
ed in the ditches of Lombardy in 1787. The habit of 
this is very near N. Indica ; nor do we find much diftinc- 
tion in the leaves. The ftipules are rather toothed than 
fringed, and the capfule is marked with numerous longi¬ 
tudinal ribs, which, added to the difference of their na¬ 
tive countries, induces us to feparate the two fpecies. 
6. Naias flexilis, or Ihort-leaved naias : leaves whorled, 
linear ; entire in their lower part; minutely toothed, and 
fpreading, at the extremity. Sent by the Rev. Dr. Muh¬ 
lenberg, from pools and ditches near Lancafter, in Penn- 
fylvania. It is readily known from all the reft, by its leaves 
growing from three to fix at each joint, and being of a 
broader fhorter figure, entire, except near the extremity, 
where they are minutely and copioufly toothed, but not 
finuated. The fruit is elliptic-oblong, fmooth. 
NA'IB. See Nabob, p.499. 
NAIBA'Y, a town of Nubia : 126 miles fouth of Syene. 
_NA'IC, or Na'ig, f. in the Indian armies, a fubaitern 
officer of the fepoys, equal in rank to a corporal. 
NA'ID, the interior of the great defert of Arabia, in¬ 
habited by a few fcattered tribes of feeble and wretched 
Arabs. 
NAID CHO'KEY, a town of Hindooftan, in the Car¬ 
natic, near the coaft of Coromandel: twenty-five miles 
north of Pullicate. 
NA'IDES, a town of Germany, in the principality of 
Culmbach : four miles north of Wonfiedel. 
NAIL,./! [ntegl, Sax. nagel, Germ.] The hard cruft 
or horny fubftance at the ends of the fingers and toes. 
See the article Anatomy, vol. i. p. 588, 9.— The Romans' 
were very curious in the cutting and forming the nails, 
and had it done by artifts, who made an employment of it! 
The Chinefe doctors and literati pique themfelves on the 
exceffive length of their nails. F. le Compte fays, fome of 
them wear nails nearly as long as their fingers. Chambers . 
The meaneft fculptor in the dEmilian fquare 
Can imitate in brafs the nails and hair; 
Expert in trifles. Dnjden. 
The talons of birds; the claws or paws of beafts. 
NAIL, J'. A fpike of metal by which things.are faftened 
together.—An equivocal word, ufed for the nail of the 
hand or foot, and for an iron nail to fallen any thin<- 
As one nail hy its ftrength drives out another. 
So the remembrance of my former love 
Is by a newer objeft foon forgotten. Shakefpeare. 
The feveral kinds of nails are very numerous. As, 
Bach-nails , made with flat thanks to hold fit ft, and not 
open the wood. Clamp-nails, thole proper to fallen the 
clamps in buildings, &c. Clafp-naiis, whole heads are 
flatted, and, clafping and flicking.into the wood, render 
the work fmooth, fo as to admit a plane over it. Clench- 
nails, thofe ufed by boat, barge, See. builders, with boves 
or nuts, and often without; lor fine work, they are made 
with clafp-heads, or with the head beat Hat on two fides. 
Clout- 
