N A R 
refting that impetuous motion of the fpirits, as thofe' 
things do that pafs for narcoticaUxj cold. Whitlock's 
Mann, of the Engl. 
NARCOT'ICNESS, f. The quality which takes away 
the fenfe of pain. Scott. 
NARD, f. [ nardus , Latin; Gr.] Spikenard; 
a kind of ointment: 
He now is come 
Into the blifsful field, through groves of myrrh, 
And fio w’ring odours, caflia, nard, and balm. Milton's P. L. 
An odorous lhrub. See Nardlts. 
Smelt o’ the bud o’ the briar, 
Or the nard in the fire. Beu Jonfon’s Underwoods. 
NARD (Indian). See Andropogon. 
NAR'DECK, a circar of Hindooftan, in the fubah of 
Delhi, bounded on the north by HilTar, on the eaft by 
Ballogiftan, on the Ibuth by Nagore, and on the weft by 
Moultan : it feetns to be woody, with few towns. 
NAR'DEN, See Naarden, p. 498. 
NAR'DI (Jacopo), an eminent Italian hiftorian, was 
born of an ancient and noble family at Florence in 1476. 
After fuftaining feveral honourable offices in his native 
city, he was lent ambaflador to the republic of Venice in 
1527. Upon his return to Florence he efnoufed the party 
adverfe to the Medici family, and diftiuguilhed himfelf as 
well in counfel as in arms. The prevalence of the Me¬ 
dici was attended with his imprilonment and his exile, 
after being ftripped of all his property. He was one of 
the emigrants who in 1535 laid their complaints before 
the emperor Charles V. at Naples; but, the application 
proving fruitlels, he retired to Venice, where he employed 
the latter years of his life in cultivating literature, and 
compofing various works. It is not known when he died. 
In a letter written by him to Varchi, dated in July 1755, 
he lays, “I am ftill in health, though weak, having to 
begin, in the tvventy-firft of the prefent month, to afcend 
with my ftaff the laborious fteep of the eightieth year of 
this my milpent life.” Probably he did not long furvive. 
Nardi w'rote the hiftory of Florence from 1494 to 1531, a 
period all within his own obfervation. A party-exile 
could fcarcely avoid writing a party-hiftory; and his work, 
though much elfeemed, bears the ftamp of that character. 
He wanted either the power or the courage to publilh it 
in his life-time, and it was firrt printed at Lyons in 1582. 
Several other editions followed. Some dilcourfes belong¬ 
ing to it, with fome expunged paffages, exift in rnanu- 
feript in libraries at Venice and Florence. He likewife 
cotnpofed the life of Antonio Giacomini Tebalducci 
Malefpini, printed at Florence in 1597. Thefe original 
works, however, contributed perhaps lefs to his repu¬ 
tation than his tranflation of Livy, firft publilhed at Ve¬ 
nice in 1540, and feveral times reprinted. It has always 
been accounted one of the belt verfions in the Italian 
language. He alfo tranllated Cicero’s Oration for Mar- 
cellus. Nardi moreover cultivated Italian poetry, and 
cotnpofed fome Canti CamwJchialeJchi, printed in the col¬ 
lections of poems of that kind; and a comedy in verfe 
entitled L'Amieizia. Tirabojchi. 
NAR'DO, a town of Naples, in the province of Otranto ; 
the fee of a bilhop, fuffragan of Brandifi, but exempt 
from his jqrifdiClion : twenty-two miles weft of Otranto, 
184 eaft-louth-eaft of Naples. Lat. 40. 27. N. Ion. 18.0. E. 
In this little city are 8000 inhabitants. The fteeple of 
its cathedral is built in a very uncommon but fttowy ftyle 
of Gothic architecture. Luco Giordano and Solimeni 
have adorned the church with lome agreeable paintings. 
This place was part of the Balzo eftate. The Aquavivas 
were the next poffeffors.- they are thought to have come 
from the Marca di Ancona. In 1401, in confideration 
of their rdationlhip to pope Boniface IX. Ladifiaus erec¬ 
ted their manor of Atri into a dukedom, an honour till 
then feldom granted to any but princes of the blood-royal. 
Claudius Aquaviva, a famous general of the Jefuits, who 
died in 1615, was of this family. 
Vol. XVI. No. 1137. 
K A R 581 
NAR'DO CEL'TICAJ SIM'ILIS. See Valeriana. 
NAR'DOLE, a town of Hindooftan, in the circar of 
Rajamundry : twelve miles fouth-weft of Rajamundry. 
NAR'DUS, J'. [a name retained from the Greek and 
Latin writers, but faid to be of Hebrew origin.] Mat- 
grass, or SriKENARD ; in botany, a genus of the clafe 
triandria, order monogynia, natural order of gramina or 
graffes. Generic characters—Calyx: none. Corolla: 
two-valved; outer valve lanceolate-linear, long, mucro- 
nate, embracing the fmaller with its belly : inner fmaller, 
linear, mucronate; neCtary none. Stamina : filaments 
three, capillary, fhorter than the corolla; antherae oblong. 
Piftillum : germ oblong ; ftyle one, filiform, long, pubef- 
cent; lligma limple. Pericarpium : none; the corolla 
grows to the feed, and does not open. Seed one, ftraight, 
linearroblong, acuminate at both ends, narrowerat top.— 
Ejjeniial Character. Calyx none; corolla two-valved. 
There are five fpecies. 
1. Nardus ftriCta, or common mat-grafs: fpike briftle- 
fhaped, ftraight, pointing one way. Root perennial. 
Culms from a fpan to a foot in height, llender, ftiff, 
roughilh, having one, two, or three, joints near the bafe, 
with a fhort leaf to each, and thence naked to the fpike. 
Root-leaves numerous, longer, narrow', a little rough. 
Spike two or three inches long, confiftingof about twenty 
fpikelets dilperfed thinly along the rachis. Florets yel- 
lowiffi white or purple, pubefeent, alternate, feffile. Ra-’ 
chis, or fpike-ftalk, convex on one fide, hollowed on the 
other, with rough alternate teeth on the edges for the 
infertion of the florets, and continued above them to a 
fhort brillly point. This grafs is eafily diftinguifhed by 
the llendernefs and rulhy ftiffnefs of the ftalks and leaves ; 
and by the florets being thinly dilperfed along the fpike, 
moftly in pairs, pointing all the lame way, and having 
each only one ftyle. It flowers from May or June to 
Auguft: Ray fays from the end of April; and that it 
holds its fpike till winter. Native of moft parts of Europe, 
in woody moift barren meadows ; with us chiefly on or 
about bogs or heaths. Being ftiff, hard, and fhort, Lin¬ 
naeus oblerves that it eludes the ftroke of the feythe, or 
takes off its edge, for which reafon it is dilliked by the 
mowers. In England it rarely comes under the feythe. 
Linnaeus alfo informs us that crows frequently ftock it 
up, for the fake of the larva of fome Tipula, which they 
find at the root. He fays that goats and horfes eat it, 
but that cows and llieep are not fond of it. With us it 
does not feem to be applied to any ufe. 
a. Nardus ariftata, or awned matrgrafs: calyxes horned. 
Root biennial. This is a very iinali fpecies. The leaves 
curve back, and roll up like hair, dry away, and difap- 
pear in part. The fpike makes about one-third of the 
culm : it is curved back at the end, which dilcovers the 
little awns of the florets; for they are fo fmall, that they 
are not feen without attention and praffice. The florets 
come in pairs in a very Iinali lcale, which fierves them for 
a calyx, and which might rank this grals with the Loliums. 
The florets are very llightly peduncled, two-valved, and 
terminated by a little awn. Native of the South of Eu¬ 
rope, in fandy barren foils. 
3. Nardus Indica, Indian mat-grafs, or fpikenard; 
fpike briftle-lhaped, pointing one way, a little curved in¬ 
wards. It feetns very doubtful to what genus the real 
Indian fpikenard belongs. The laft edition of Miller’s 
Dictionary, by Mr. Profeflor Martyn, has deferibed it in 
three different places: firitly, under Andropogon nardus; 
fecondly, here : and thirdly, as Rottboellia fetacea. It was 
firft noticed by Kcenig at Tranquebar; and a very parti¬ 
cular defeription of it was afterwards given by Dr. Blane, 
for which fee Andropogon, vol. i. p. 684, 5. As that ac¬ 
count was not accompanied with a reprefentation, we 
have fupplied that deficiency by the annexed Plate, fig. 
1. where alfo at a is a portion of the rachis; and at b the 
flower. This grafs, in its wild ftate, rifes to the height 
of three or four feet, and, when carefully cultivated, to 
fix feet. 
7l 
4. Nardus 
