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have his pofterity to have fettled n the canton of Ptem- 
phis in Lower Egypt., or in Phthenotis, whofe capital 
was Buthus. But, if they did fo, we are perfuaded they, 
in after-times, removed weftward to Mauritania, where we 
find the region Phut; and a river of the fame name is no¬ 
ticed by Pliny in Mauritania Tingitana; and probably the 
Pythian Apollo is no other than Phut deified by his pof¬ 
terity. We fuppofe Shifhak conquered all Mauritania as 
far as the ftraits of Gibraltar, and gave to his brother 
Atlas the government thereof. It is certain the Phu- 
teans were in league with, or fubjeft to the Egyptians, 
about the times of Hezekiah. Gen. x. 6. Neh. iii. 9. 
PHY'A, a tall and beautiful woman of Attica, whom 
Pififtratus, when he wifiied to re-eftablifli himfelf a third 
time in his tyranny, d re fled like thegoddefs Minerva, and 
led to the city on a chariot, making the populace believe 
that the goddefs herfelf came to reftore him to power. 
PHYCI'TES,./! in natural hiftory, the name given by 
the ancients to a ftone which had the impreflion of a 
fea-plant, of the fucus or alga kind; probably in the 
manner in which our black-coal - flate is frequently 
found to contain the impreffions of fern and other vege¬ 
tables. 
PHYC'TEUM, in ancient geography, a town of Greece, 
in the Peloponnefus. 
PHY'CUS, a promontory and fortrefs of Africa, in 
Cyrenaica, between Aptuchi Fanum and Apollonia. 
Ptolemy. 
PHYCUS'SiE, iflands of Libya. Steph. Byz. 
PKYGE'LA, a town of Afia Minor, in Ionia. Mela 
and Pliny. 
PHYGETH'LON, f. in furgery, a carbuncle, or a 
phlegmon attended with confiderable heat, pain, red- 
nefs, &c. 
PHY'LA, /. [named by Loureiro, from the Gr. 
a tribe, or company, becaufe a confiderable number of 
flowers are produced from one common calyx. Loureir. 
Cochinch. 66.] In botany, a genus of the clafs tetrandria, 
order monogynia. Generic characters—Common calyx 
ovate, imbricated, of numerous crowded fpatulate pointed 
leaves, containing many flowers. Perianthium inferior, 
of two lanceolate concave ereft leaves. Corolla of one 
petal, tubular, irregular; limb fhort, fpreading, in four 
nearly equal fegments, the uppermoft emarginate. Sta¬ 
mina : filaments four fhort, in two rows below the 
mouth of the tube ; antherae roundifh, two-lobed. Pif- 
tillum : germen fuperior, roundifh; flyle fhort; fligma 
thickifh. Pericarpium none. Seeds folitary, naked, 
covering a thread-fhaped, naked, common receptacle.— 
Bffeniied Charader. Common calyx imbricated ; proper 
of two leaves, inferior; corolla four-cleft, irregular; 
antherae roundifh, within the tube; feed folitary. Only 
one fpecies, 
Phyla Chinenfis. Native of China, where it is called 
lien fuen. The Item is herbaceous, annual, creeping, with 
afcending branches. Leaves oppofite, ovato-lanceolate, 
pointed, fmooth, ferrated towards the point only. Flower 
pale violet, lateral on a long folitary ftalk. 
PHYLA'CA, in ancient geography, a place in the Pe¬ 
loponnefus, where is the fource of the river Alpheus 
Paufanias.- — A town of Epirus, in the Moloffide. Livy. 
—A town of Macedonia, in Pieria. Ptolemy. 
PHYLACIST'JE, f, among the ancients, officers to 
whofe keeping the Haves in prifons and work-houfes were 
committed. 
PHYLAC'TER, or Phylac'tery,/. [Gr. from <ptAar- 
lu, I keep, or preferve.] A bandage on which was in- 
fcribed fome memorable fentence.—The Pharifees were 
fkilful expofitors of the Mofaical law, wearing the pre¬ 
cept thereof in phyladers (narrow fcrolls of parchment) 
bound about their brows, and above their left elbows. 
Sundys's Chrift's Pajfion. —The philaderies on their wrifts 
and foreheads were looked on as fpells, which would 
yield them impunity for their difobedience. Hammond. 
Golden fayings, 
On large phyladeries expreffive writ, 
Were to the foreheads of the Rabbins ty’d. Prior. 
The Almighty had charged his people, (Exod. xiii. 9.) 
to have his law as “ a iign upon their hand, and as a me¬ 
morial between their eyesor, as it is exprefled in the 
16th verfe, and in Deut. vi.‘8. as “ frontlets between 
their eyes;” that is, to have a thorough knowledge of it, 
conftant regard to it, and obey it in all they did. After 
the death of the prophets, the Jews began to underftand 
thefe words according to their literal fignification; in 
which, perhaps, they were partly juftified by the words 
of Deut. vi.8, 9. “ Thou fhalt bind them for a fign upon 
thine hand, and thou fhalt write them upon the ports of 
thy houfe, &c.” However this may be, certain texts of 
Scripture, particularly of the Decalogue, were copied on 
vellum, inclofedin leather cafes, and bound with thongs 
on the forehead, and on the left arm. On thefe phyla&e- 
ries were written thirty paflages out of Exodus and Deu¬ 
teronomy. The phyladeries for the head had four cavi¬ 
ties, into each of which was put one of the four following 
fedions of the laws ; viz. Exod. xiii. 1—10. Exod. xiii. 
11—16. Deut. vi. 4—9. Deut. xi. 12—13. The other 
had but one cavity, and into that four fedions were put. 
The Pharifees, in order to maintain an appearance of 
greater fandity, or to attrad notice by their oftentation, 
wore broader phyladeries, and larger fringes to their gar¬ 
ments, than the reft of the Jews. (Matt, xxiii. 5.) In our 
Saviour’s time, however, they w'ere worn by the Jews in 
general, by the Sadducees, who received only the law, as 
well as by the Pharifees; but with this difference, that 
thofe of the latter were larger than the others. Thefe 
paflages are taken in a figurative fenfe by the Caraite 
Jews, who wear no phyladeries at all; for they de- 
teft the Pharifaic traditions, and call the wearers of phy¬ 
laderies, or frontlets, “bridled afles.” 
Phylactery was alfo a general name given by the an¬ 
cients to all kinds of charms, fpells, or characters, which 
they wore about them, as amulets, to preferve them from 
dangers or difeafes. The primitive Chriftians alfo gave 
the name phyladeries to the cafes wherein they inclofed 
the relics of their dead. 
PHYLAC'TERED, adj. Wearing phyladeries; drefled 
like the pharifees : 
Nor they fo pure and fo precife, 
Immaculate as their white of eyes ; 
Who for the fpirit hug the fpleen, 
Phylader'd throughout all their mien. Green's Spleen. 
PHYLACTER'ICAL, adj. Relating to phyladeries.— 
The Jewifh church ordained that all their public prayers 
fhould be concluded with Amen; I fay public prayers; 
for,in their private or pkyladerical prayers, it was omitted. 
L. AddiJ'on's Clirijlian Sacrifice. 
PHYLAR'CHUS, f. [from the Gr. tpvhn, a tribe, and 
afxot, chief.] Among the Athenians, the phylarchi were 
magiftrates, who had each of them the government of a 
tribe committed to his charge; and their bufinefs was to 
take care of the public treafures belonging to each tribe, 
to manage all their concerns, and call them together as oft 
as any thing happened that required the prefence of the 
whole body. 
PHY'LASIST, f. [from the Gr. (pvXaaaa, to keep.] 
A jailor. Cole. 
PHYL'ICA,/. [an ancient Greek name, occafionally 
written either (pvhixn, or <p iXvxjj ; but to what it properly 
belongs, commentators have not determined. It is ac¬ 
knowledged to have been a tree or Ihrub with ever-green 
leaves, and poffibly the name may have originated from 
pvATmco;, leafy; in which fenfe it is well applied to the 
prefent Linnaean genus, confiding of Ihrubs with very 
copious ever-green foliage.] In botany, a genus of the 
clafs pentandria, order monogynia, natural order of du- 
mofs,. 
