S E R 
Pure serenity apace 
Induces thought, and contemplation still. Thomson. 
Peace; quietness; not disturbance.—A general peace and 
serenity newly succeeded a general trouble and cloud 
throughout all his kingdoms. Temple .—Evenness of tem¬ 
per; coolness of mind.—I cannot see how many men 
should ever transgress those moral rules, with confidence 
and serenity, were they innate, and stamped upon their 
minds. Locke .—Highness; title of respect.—The sentence 
of that court, now sent to your serenity, together with 
these letters, positively declares, &c. Milton to Prince 
Leopold. 
SERENUS (Sammonicus, Quintus), a Roman physician, 
in the reigns of Severus and Caracalla, who was assassinated 
at a banquet, by the order of the last-mentioned emperor. 
He left an immense library, said to contain twenty thousand 
volumes, to his son, who was preceptor to the younger Gor¬ 
dian, to whom he presented this valuable bequest. Serenus 
was the author of several works on history and the products 
of nature; and also of a medical work in verse, which has 
passed through a multitude of editions, under the title of 
“ Carmen de Medicina.” He was superstitious in the choice 
of his remedies, and especially in that which he proposed 
for the Semitertian fever, which consisted in wearing about 
the neck, suspended by a linen thread, a piece of paper, on 
which was written the word Abracadabra, in the form of a 
triangle. Eloy. Diet. Hist, de la Med. 
SERERES, a rude tribe of theJolop nation, in Western 
Africa, inhabiting the country in the vicinity of Cape Verd. 
They are dispersed into several small republics, which unite 
into one body against a common enemy. They go naked, 
and appear to have few ideas on the subject of religion. 
They seem to be an inoffensive people, and hospitable to 
strangers; industrious, and unacquainted with strong liquors. 
SERES, or Sirus, a large inland town of European 
Turkey, in Macedon, situated in an elevated plain, at some 
distance to the east of the river called anciently Strymon, 
now the Carasou or Pondus. It is tolerably well built, has 
a number of handsome mosques, baths and other public 
edifices, and is said to contain a population of 30,000. Its 
manufactures of towels and other strong linen cloth, are the 
most noted in the Levant; and those of cotton stuffs are 
very extensive, consuming annually about 1000 bales of that 
article. The surrounding district is fertile, producing cotton, 
tobacco, and different kinds of corn and fruit. It is to this 
fertility; and the health of the situation, that the town owes 
its increase, having no harbour, and being out of the great 
road to Constantinople. It is the residence of a Greek arch¬ 
bishop ; 45 miles north-east of Salonica. 
SERETH, a large and navigable river of European Tur¬ 
key, which rises at the foot of the Carpathians, flows through 
the Buckowine and Moldavia, and falls into the Danube at 
Brailow; 4 miles south of Galacz. 
SERETH, or Siret, a small town of Austrian Galicia, 
in the Buckowine, on the river Sereth, with 2000 inhabitants; 
80 miles west-north-west of Jassy. 
SERETKINA, a village of Irkoutsk, in Asiatic Russia, on 
the Angara. 
SERF, s. [ serf, old Fr.; serous, Lat.] A slave.—A 
great part of them were serfs, and lived in a state of absolute 
slavery or villainage. Hume. 
SERFIA, or Serfidsche, a town of European Turkey, 
in Romania, on the small river Indschekara; 45 miles west- 
south-west of Salonica. 
SERFO. See Serphanto. 
SERGATSCII, a small town of the interior of European 
Russia. Population 1800; 75 miles south-east of Niznei- 
Novgorod. 
SERGE, s. [serge, Fr., or serge, Germ, a mat.'] A 
kind of woollen cloth.—The same wool one man felts into a 
hat, another weaves into cloth, another into kersey or serge, 
and another into arras. Hale. 
SE'RGEANT, s. [sergent, Fr.; sergente, Ital.; from 
serviens, Lat.] An officer whose business it is to execute 
Vox.. XXIII. No. 1553. 
S E It 45 
the commands of magistrates.—A petty offiaer in th e 
army. 
This is the sergeant. 
Who, like a good and hardy soldier, fought. Sha/cspeare. 
A lawyer of the highest rank under a judge.—None should 
be made sergeants, but such as probably might be held fit 
to be judges afterwards. Bacon. —It is a title given to some 
of the king’s servants: as, sergeant chirurgeons ; that is, a 
chirurgeon servant to the king. 
SE'RGEANTRY, s. Grand sergeantry is that where 
one holdeth lands of the king by service, which he ought to 
do in his own person unto him: as to bear the king’s banner 
or his spear, or to lead his host, or to be his marshal, or to 
blow a horn, when he seeth his enemies invade the land; or 
to find a man-at-arms to fight within the four seas, or else to 
do it himself, or to bear the king’s sword before him at his 
coronation, or on that day to be his sewer, carver, butler or 
chamberlain. Petit sergeantry is where a man holdeth land 
of the king, to yield him yearly some small thing toward his 
wars; as a sword, dagger, bow, knife, spear, pair of gloves 
of mail, a pair of spurs, or such like. C owel. 
SE'RGEANTSHIP, s. The office of a sergeant. 
SERGIEY, a village of Tobolsk, in Asiatic Russia, on 
the Yenisei; 72 miles north of Yeniseisk. 
SERGIEVSK, a town of Asiatic Russia, in the govern¬ 
ment of Oufa; 180 miles west of Oufa. 
SERGIEUSKAIA NOVA, a fortress of Oufa, in Asiatic 
Russia, on the Samara; 56 miles north-west of Orenbourg. 
SERGIEVSKY-POSAD, a large village of European Rus¬ 
sia, in the government of Moscow ; 45 miles north north¬ 
east of Moscow. 
SERGILUS, in Botany, a genus formed by Gaertner, 
v. 2. 409. t. 174. f. 6, of the Linnsean Ca/ea scoparia, 
Chrysocoma, n. 2, Browne Jam. 316. t. 34. f. 4. 
SERG1NES, a small town in the central part of France, 
department of the Yonne, with 1500 inhabitants; 13 miles 
south of Provins, 
SERGNA, a small town in the north of the kingdom of 
Naples, province of Molise. It is a bishop’s see. 
SERIANA [designed to commemorate a person of the 
name of Sergeant], in Botany, a genus of the class octandria, 
order trigynia, natural order of trihilatae, sapindi (Juss .)— 
Generic Character. Calyx: perianth inferior, of five ovate, 
concave, spreading, permanent, unequal leaves. Corolla: 
petals four, obovate-oblong, twice the length of the calyx, 
furnished with claws; two of them more distant than the 
rest. Nectaries two; one of four oblong scales, inserted into 
the claws of the petals; the other of four glands at the base 
of the petals. Stamina: filaments eight, simple, shortish; 
anthers small, ovate, two-lobed. Pistil : germen superior, 
stalked, obovate, with three furrows; styles three, combined 
at the base, recurved; stigmas simple, obtuse. Pericarp: 
capsules three, globose, combined longitudinally, each of 
one cell, not bursting, dilated at the base into a half-ovate 
membranous wing. Seeds solitary ovate.— Essential Cha¬ 
racter. Calyx of five unequal leaves. Petals four. Nec¬ 
taries of four scales and four glands. Capsules three, glo¬ 
bose, combined, not bursting, each with a dilated wing at 
the base. Seeds solitary.—The fruit only distinguishes this 
genus from Paullinia, however similar the flowers, and 
habits of the plants. 
1. Seriana sinuata.—Wings of the capsules dilated below 
their insertion. Leaves ternate; leaflets ovate-lanceolate, 
sinuated and toothed.—Native of South America. The stem 
is angular, furrowed and downy, climbing by means of ten¬ 
drils. Leaves alternate, stalked; leaflets about two inches 
long, veiny, tapering at the base; roughish to the touch, 
though somewhat shining, above; paler beneath. Flowers 
small, in compound downy clusters. Wing of each cap¬ 
sule near an inch long. 
2. Seriana divaricata.—Native of the woods of Jamaica. 
Stem climbing to a great height, zig-zag, with a few distant 
slight prickles, angular, smooth. Footstalks two inches long, 
N furrowed, 
