P H A 
P H E 
74 
owing to the imperfedlions of their telefpopes. That 
great author, a flirted by the beft telefcopes, noted three 
principal phafes ; viz. Jan. 16, 1656, he was round ; 0 <Tf. 
13, brachiated ; and Dec. 17, 1657, anfated. 
PHA'SIS, in ancient geography, a river of Afia, which 
had its fource in the mountains of Armenia, and after a 
long courfe, in which it was augmented by feveral ftreams, 
and in parting through the Colchide, and dividing it into 
two altnoft equal parts, difcharged itfelf into the Euxine 
Sea. Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, &c, mention this river. 
Procopius fays, that it was called JBous from its fource to 
the extremities of Iberia, where it aflumed the name of 
Phafts. “From the Iberian Caucafus, (fays Gibbon,) 
the moft lofty and craggy mountains of Afia, that river 
defcends with fucli oblique vehemence, that in a fhort 
fpace it is traverfed by a hundred and twenty bridges. 
Nor does the rtreani become placid and navigable till it 
reaches the town of Sarapana, five days’journey from the 
Cyrus, which flows from the fame hills, but in a contrary 
direction, to the Cafpian lake. The proximity of thefe 
rivers has fuggefted the practice, or at leaft the idea, of 
wafting the precious raerchandife of India down the 
Oxus, over the Cafpian, up the Cyrus, and with the cur¬ 
rent of the Phafis into the Euxine and Mediterranean 
feas. As it fuccertively collefts the ftreams of the plain of 
Colchos, the Phafis moves with diminiflied fpeed, though 
accumulated weight. At the mouth it is fixty fathoms 
deep, and half a league broad 5 but a lmall woody ifland 
is interpofed in the mid ft of the channel : the water, fo 
foon as it has depofited an earthy or metallic fediment, 
floats on the furface of the waves, and is no longer fuf- 
ceptible of corruption. In the courfe of five hundred 
miles, forty of which are navigable for large vefiels, the 
Phafis divides the celebrated region of Colchos or Min- 
grelia, which, on three fides, is fortified by the Iberian 
and Armenian mountains, and whofe maritime coaft ex¬ 
tends about two hundred miles, from the neighbourhood 
of Trebizond, to Diofcurias and the confines of Circaflla. 
Both the foil and climate are relaxed by exceflive moifture: 
twenty-eight rivers, befides the Phafis and his dependent 
ftreams, convey their waters to the fea; and the hollow- 
nefs of the ground appears to indicate the fubterraneous 
channels between the Euxine and the Cafpian.” This 
river is now called the Riome. 
PHA'SIS, in ancient geography, the name of the moft 
celebrated of the towns which were fituated on the river 
Phafis, according to Strabo. Its pofition was on the left 
bank and near the mouth of the river. Mela fays, that it 
was built by Themiftagorus, the Milefian. It had a tem¬ 
ple of Phryxus, and a grove memorable on account of the 
fable of the golden fleece. 
PH ASM, or Phas'ma, / [Greek.] Appearance; phan¬ 
tom ; fancied apparition.—In grofs darknefs the phafma 
having aflumed a bodily fliape, or other falfe reprefenta- 
tion. Sir T. Herbert's Trav. —Thence proceed many 
aerial fidtions, and phafms, and chimaeras, created by the 
vanity of our own hearts or fedu&ion of evil fpirits, and 
not planted in them by God. Hammond. —-It is fometimes 
written pliafmata in the plural.— PhaJ'mala are certain ap¬ 
pearances arifing from the various tindfures of the clouds, 
by the rays of the heavenly luminaries, efpecially the fun 
and moon. Thefe are infinitely diverfified by the differ¬ 
ent figures and fituations of the clouds, and the appulfes 
of the rays of light; and, together . with the occafional 
flafhings and ftiootings of different meteors, they have, 
no doubt, occafioned thofe prodigies of armies fighting 
in the air, See. of which we have fuel) frequent accounts 
in moft forts of writers. (See 2 Macc. xi. 3 .) Kircher, 
and his imitator Schottus, have erroneoufly endeavoured 
to explain the phenomenon from the refledlion of terref- 
trial objedts made on opaque and congealed clouds in the 
middle region of theair, which, according to them, have the 
effedt of a mirror; fo that, according to thefe authors, 
the armies pretended by feveral hiftorians to have been 
feen in the fkies, were no other than the refledtion of the 
like armies placed in fome part of the earth, (Hift, Asad. 
Roy. Scienc. 1726.) Chambers. 
PHAS'MA, f, in entomology. See Mantis, vol. xiv. 
PHA'TEZ, a town of RulTia, in the government of 
Kurfk, on the Ufoza: forty miles north of Kurfk. 
PHA'TUK, f. [Indian.] a gaol or prifon. It likewife 
means a gate. 
PHAU'GUN, f. [Indian.] A month which includes 
part of our February and March. 
PHAYLOP'SIS, J - . [fo named by Willdenow apparently 
from tpa.v Ao?, vile or contemptible, and o-J/k, afpedf,] In 
botany, a genus of the clafs didynamia, order angiofper- 
mia, natural order perfonatas, Linn, (fcrophulariae, Jujf.) 
Effential generic characters—Calyx rive-cleft> upper feg- 
nient largeft; corolla ringent, upper lip very fmall, clo¬ 
ven ; capfule pod-fhaped, of one cell, with four feeds. 
Phaylopfis parviflora, a fingle fpecies. Suppofed to be 
a native of India, l^oot annual. Stem eredt, fquare, 
clothed in the upper part with long white hairs, furnifhed 
at its fummit with fmall reddifh granulations; branches 
oppofite. Leaves oppofite, on long (talks, ovate, pointed, 
flightly toothed, veiny, hairy, running down into the 
foot-ftalks. Stalks axillary, three-flowered ; calyx co¬ 
vered with glandular hairs, its upper fegment oblong- 
lanceolate, veiny, the four others fetaceous. Corolla 
narrow; the lower lip in three deep fegments, twice as 
long as the upper. Capfule fmaller than the calyx. Will¬ 
denow, iii. 34.2. 
PHAZEMONI'TIS, in ancient geography, a country 
of Afia, in Pontus, which, according to Strabo, extended 
from the river Amyfus to the Halys. 
PHE'A, a town of the Peloponnefus, in the Elide.— 
Alfo, a confiderable river of the Peloponnefus. 
PHEAS'ANT, [phafianus, Lat. from Phafs, a river 
of Colchis, from the banks of which it was firft brought 
into Europe. Martial, lib. xiii. ep. 72.] A beautiful bird, 
very nearly allied to our common poultry. See the arti¬ 
cle Phasianus. —The hardeft to draw are tame birds ; as 
the cock, peacock, and pheafant. Peacham on Drawing. 
Preach as I pleafe, I doubt our curious men 
Will chufe a pheafant ftill before a hen. Pope. 
PHEAS'ANT’S EYE. See Adonis. 
PHEAS'ANT’S-EYE PIN'K. See Dianthus. 
PHEASANT’S PSLAND, or Island of Conference, 
an ifland fituated in the river Bidaflao, between France 
and Spain. 
PHEAS'ANTRY, f. A building or place conftrudled 
for the purpofe of breeding, rearing, and keeping, phea- 
fants. 
PHEBA'LIUM, f. [a name adopted by Ventenat (Jar- 
din de Malmaifon) from John Bauhin, who, in his Hift. 
Plant, i. 509, mentions it as applied by fome Greek co¬ 
mic poets to the myrtle, to which Ventenat thought his 
plant (the firft fpecies) allied.] In botany, a genus of the 
clafs decandria, order monogynia, natural order of ruta- 
cea;, Jujf. Generic characters—Calyx : perianthlum in¬ 
ferior, of one leaf, with five fhallow teeth, permanent. 
Corolla : petals five, equal, elliptic-oblong, concave, en¬ 
tire, nearly fertile ; neCtary glandular beneath the germen. 
Stamina : filaments ten, capillary, fimple, fmooth ; an- 
therse terminal, incumbent, of two round lobes. Piftil- 
lum : germens five, ereCt, pointed; ftyle central, from the 
bafe of the germens, ereCt, thread-fhaped ; ftigma obtufe. 
Pericarpium : capfules five, combined at the bafe, fpread¬ 
ing, ovate, comp relied, of one cell and two valves. Seeds 
folitary, fmooth, in an elaftic tunic of two valves.— Effen¬ 
tial Charader. Calyx five-toothed ; petals five ; ftamens 
capillary, fimple; antherae terminal, fimple; ftyle from 
the bafe of the germens; capfules five, combined, feated 
on a glandular neCtary ; feeds folitary, in an elaftic tunic. 
There are three fpecies. 
1. Phebalium fquamulofum, orfealy phebalium, (Vent. 
Malmaif. t. 102.) leaves lanceolate, fcaly beneath; um¬ 
bels terminal, folitary. Native of the mountains of New 
South 
