SIBYL. 
181 
on his own personal observation. The species enumerated 
amount to 1200, all gathered by himself, and disposed ac¬ 
cording to the Linneen system, with the alterations of Thun- 
berg. 
SIBTHORPE, a parish of England, in Nottinghamshire; 
51 miles south-south-west of Newark. 
SIBTHORPIA [so named by Linnaeus, in honour of 
Humphrey Sibthorp, M. D., Professor of Botany at Oxford], 
in Botany, a genus of the class didyoamia, order angio- 
spermia, natural order of pediculares (Juss ).—Generic 
Character. Calyx: perianth one-leafed, turbinate, five- 
parted, spreading; leaflets ovate, permanent. Corolla, 
one-petalled, five-parted, spreading, equal, length of the 
calyx: segments rounded. Stamina: filaments four, capil¬ 
lary : two approximating. Anthers cordate-oblong. Pistil: 
germ roundish, compressed. Style cylindrical, thicker than 
the filaments, length of the flower. Stigma simple, capi¬ 
tate, depressed. Pericarp: capsule compressed, orbicular, 
two-bellied, with the sides acute, two-valved, two-celled: 
partition transverse. Seeds roundish-oblong, convex on 
one side, flat on the other. Receptacle globular, fastened 
to the middle of the partition. — Essential Character. 
Calyx five-parted. Corolla five-parted, equal. Stamina in 
remote pairs. Capsule compressed, orbicular, two-celled, 
with the partition transverse. 
Sibthorpia Europsea, or Cornish money-wort.—Root 
fibrous, perennial. Stems prostrate, creeping. Leaves al¬ 
ternate, on footstalks, horizontal, with shallow distant 
notches, hairy. Peduncles axillary, one-flowered, hairy. 
Calyx hispid. Corolla pale yellow, with a purplish tinge 
in the three upper segments.—Native of Portugal and Eng¬ 
land, in shady places and about springs; in Devonshire 
and Cornwall, plentiful, and about Longsledale in West¬ 
moreland. 
Propagation and Culture .—Planted or sown in pots, 
placed in the shade and kept moist, it will thrive very well 
in gardens. 
SIBTON, a parish of England, in Suffolk ; 2 miles north¬ 
west of Yoxford. Population 503. 
SIBU, one of the Philippine islands, about 240 miles in 
circumference. The principal productions are a species of 
grain called borona, which serves instead of rice; cotton, 
tobacco, wax, and civet. This island was discovered by 
Magellan in 1521. Lat. 10. 41. N. long. 123. 30. E. 
SIBU, Zibu, or Soobu, a town in the island of Sibu, 
containing 5000 houses; the see of a bishop, and residence 
of a governor. In this town, some say Magellan, the 
celebrated circumnavigator, died. Lat. 10. 35. N. long. 
123. 44. E. 
SIBUCO, a town on the west coast of Mindanao. Lat. 
7. 3. N. long. 122. 10. E. 
SIBULTIQUI, a river of Mexico, which runs into the 
Pacific Ocean. Lat. 13. 35. N. long. 89. 16. W. 
S1BUN, a river of South America, which falls into the 
bay of Honduras, in long. 91. 10. W. lat. 13. 8. N. It 
flows towards the sea, with a bold and rapid course, and vast 
quantities of mahogany are floated down it, and from the 
many branches and creeks with which it is united. 
SIBUNDQI, a settlement of Quito, in the province 
of Succumbios, on the shore of the river Putumayo'. Lat. 1. 
7. N. 
SIBUYAN ISLE, a small island, one of the Philippines, 
from 30 to 40 miles in circumference, and situated due south 
of Luzon. Lat. 12. 30. N. long. 122. 30. E. 
SI'BYL, s. [sibylla , Latin.] A prophetess among the 
pagans. 
It was my dismal hap to hear 
A sibyl old, bow-bent with crooked age, 
That far events full wisely could presage. Milton. 
Authors do not agree about the number of the Sibyls, 
though their existence is allowed, as sufficiently established 
by antiquity: Capella reckons but two, viz., Erophyle of 
Troo, called Sibylla Phrygia; and Sinuachia of-Erythrae, 
called Sibylla Erythraea. Solinus mentions - three; viz., 
Vol.XXIII. No. 1563. 
Cumaea, Delphica, or the Sibyl of Sardis, and Erythraea; 
and of this opinion is Ausonius, who thus describes them :— 
“ Et tres fatidicae nomen commune Sibyllae, 
Quarum tergemini fatalia carmine libri.” 
iElian makes their number four; viz., the Erythraean, th 
Egyptian, the Sibyl bom at Samos, and another of Sardis, 
in Lydia; and Varro increases it to ten, denominating them 
from the places of their birth; the Persian, called Sabetha 
by the Persians; Libyan, according to Euripides, the 
daughter of Jupiter and Latona; Delphic, named Daphne, 
by Diodorus Siculus, who says that she was born at Thebes, 
in Bceotia ; Cimmerian ; Erythraean, who prophesied to the 
Greeks, that were going to besiege Troy, the happy success 
of their enterprise, and who lived, according to Eusebius, 
not in the time of the Trojan war, as Varro believes, but 
under the reign of Romulus; Samian, called, according to 
Suidas, Pitho or Persuasion, and according to Eusebius, 
Eriphile; Cumsean, named Amalthsea by some authors, and 
by others Demophile or Hierophyle, who is said to have 
offered to Tarquin the Elder a collection of Sibylline verses, 
in nine books; Hellespontic or Troiad, born at Marpesus, 
near the town of Gorgis, in Troas, who lived, according to 
Heraclides, in the time of Cyrus and Solon; Phrygian, 
who gave her oracles at Ancyra, the place of her residence; 
and Tiburtine, named AlbumSea, and honoured as a divinity 
in the vicinity of the river Anio. Of these, the most cele¬ 
brated are, the Erythraean, Delphic and Cumsean Sibyls. 
Some modern authors, without regarding the authority 
of Varro, or that of the other ancients, are for uniting all 
the Sibyls in one; so that, according to them, different 
names were given to one and the same Sybil from the 
different places where she uttered her oracles, She first pub¬ 
lished her predictions in the city of Erythraea, the place of 
her nativity ; then rambled about the world; and closed 
her life at Cumae, in Italy. 
The Sibylline oracles were held in great veneration by the 
more credulous among the ancients ; but they were much 
suspected by many of the more knowing. The books in 
which they were written were kept by the Romans with 
infinite care; and nothing of moment was undertaken with¬ 
out consulting them. Tarquin first committed them to the 
custody of two patrician priests, instituted for that purpose. 
How, when, or by whom this collection was made, are cir¬ 
cumstances which authentic history has not ascertained. It 
is not likely that the Sibyls prophesied in verse, far less that 
they themselves kept their predictions, and digested them 
into order. All that we know concerning them is, that a 
woman came to Tarquin the Elder, as Varro says, or, accord¬ 
ing to Pliny, to Tarquin the Proud, offering him a collec¬ 
tion of these verses, in nine books, or three according to 
Pliny; and that she demanded for them 300 pieces of gold; 
that when the prince refused to give that sum, she threw 
three of them into the fire, and asked the same sum for the 
remaining six, which being refused, she burned three more, 
and persisted in asking the same sum for those that were 
left: at length the king, fearing that she would burn the 
other three, gave her the sum which she demanded. Al¬ 
though this story has very much the air of a romance, it is 
attested by many authors; and it is certain that the Ro¬ 
mans had in their possession a collection of the Sibylline 
verses. 
These books were carefully kept till the civil wars of 
Sylla and Marius: when the Capitol being accidentally 
set.on fire, and burnt down to the ground, these books were 
burnt with it. This happened in the year before Christ 83. 
But the Capitol being again rebuilt about seven years after 
this period, the senate determined to restore the Sibylline 
oracles; and having procured many that were said to be of 
this kind, laid them up in the Capitol, in order to supply the 
place and office of those that were lost. However, the books 
thus obtained had been dispersed in the hands of many, and 
were, therefore, by being thus vulgarly known, unfit for the 
use which the Romans proposed to make of them. On this 
account a, law was passed, which required the surrender of 
3 A \ them. 
