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scatter; thinning them, and keeping them clean from weeds. 
Most of them prefer a dry soil, and some flourish best on 
walls. 
SISYRINCHIUM [of Pliny. IZia-vf/iyxiov of Theophrastus. 
From v; sus, and rostrum. Swine’s snout. From 
the form of the flower], in Botany, a genus of the class 
monadelphia, order triandria, natural order of ensatae, 
Irides (Juss.) —Generic Character. Calyx: spathe com¬ 
mon ancipital, two-leaved: valves compressed, acuminate. 
Proper several, lanceolate, concave, obtuse, one-flowered. 
Corolla, one-petalled, superior, six-parted: segments ob- 
ovate with a point, from erect spreading : three outer alter¬ 
nate a little wider. Stamina: filaments three, united into a 
subtriquetrous tube shorter than the corolla, distinct at the 
top. Anthers bifid below; fastened by the back. Pistil: 
germ obovate, inferior. Style three-sided, length of the 
tube. Stigmas three thickish; awl-shaped at the top, erect. 
Pericarp: capsule obovate, rounded-three-sided, three-celled, 
three-valved ; with the partitions contrary. Seeds several, 
globular.— Essential Character. Spathe two-leaved. 
Calyx none. Petals six, almost equal, style one. Capsule 
three-celled, inferior. 
1. Sisyrinchium elegans.—Scape round, one-flowered, 
simple; leaf radical, linear, acuminate shorter; petals oblong 
acute.—Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 
2. Sisyrinchium collinum.—Scape round, somewhat 
branched ; stem-leaf linear-acuminate shorter; petals oblong, 
acute.—Native of the hills near the Cape, where it is very 
abundant. 
3. Sisyrinchium grandiflorum, or great-flowered sisyrin¬ 
chium.—Scape round, simple; spathe subtriflorous; petals 
obovate, obtuse; leaves lanceolate, plaited. Root bulbous.— 
Native of Peru. 
4. Sisyrinchium Bermudiana, or iris-leaved sisyrinchium. 
—Scape ancipital, branched, leafy; spathe subquadriflorous; 
shorter than the flowers; petals mucronate ; leaves ensiform. 
—Native of Bermuda. 
5. Sisyrinchium anceps, or narrow-leaved sisyrinchium. 
—Scape ancipital, winged simple, almost leafless; spathe sub¬ 
quadriflorous unequal, longer than the flowers ; petals mu¬ 
cronate, leaves ensiform.—Native of Virginia and other parts 
of North America. 
6. Sisyrinchium micranthum, or small-flowered sisyrin¬ 
chium.—Scape ancipital, branched, leafy; spathe subtriflorous 
unequal, nearly equal to the flowers;petals linear, acuminate; 
leaves grassy, channelled.—Native of Peru. 
7. Sisyrinchium palmifolium, or palm-leaved sisyrinchium. 
—Scape ancipital; flowers in spikes; leaves ensiform, nerved 
and plaited.—Native of Brasil. 
8. Sisyrinchium striatum.—Scape ancipital, leafy ; flowers 
in spikes; petals roundish-ovate acute; leaves linear-ensiform. 
Root tuberous.—Supposed to be a native of Mexico. 
9. Sisyrinchium ixioides.—Scape compressed, panicled at 
top; petals flat, the outer ones smaller by half; leaves ensi¬ 
form nerved. Root fibrous.—Native of New Zealand. 
10. Sisyrinchium narcissoides.—Stem erect, round; spathe 
two-valved subquadriflorous; flowers drooping; leaves linear- 
ensiform.—Native of the straits of Magellan. 
Propagation and Culture. —The first and second species 
must be kept in the dry stove, and the rest in the bark bed. 
They may all be increased by the root. 
SISZKO, a small town of Prussia Poland, on the Wartha; 
26 miles north-north-west of Posen. Population 1700. 
To SIT, v. n. preterite, I sat. [sitan. Gothic; petan. 
Sax.; setten, Dutch.—To rest upon the hisch-bone.—Their 
wives do sit beside them carding wool. May. —To perch. 
—To be in any local position. 
I should be still 
Plucking the grass to know where sits the wind: 
Peering in maps for ports. Shakspeare. 
Those 
Appointed to sit there had left their charge. Milton. 
The ships are ready, and the wind sits fair. A. Philips. 
To rest as a weight or burthen.—Your brother’s death sits 
at your heart. Shakspeare. —When God lets loose upon us 
a sickness, if we fear to die, then the calamity sits heavy on 
us. Bp. Taylor. —To toss and fling, and to be restless, 
only galls our sores, and makes the burthen that is upon us 
sit more uneasy. Tillotson. 
Fear, the last of ills, remain’d behind. 
And horrour, heavy sat on every mind. Thy den. 
Our whole endeavours are intent to get rid of the present 
evil, as the first necessary condition to our happiness. No¬ 
thing, as we passionately think, can equal the uneasiness 
that sits so heavy upon us. Locke. —To settle; to abide. 
That this new comer shame, 
There sit not and reproach us. Milton. 
When Thelis blush’d, in purple not her own, 
And from her face the breathing winds were blown ; 
A sudden silence sate upon the sea. 
And sweeping oars, with struggling, urg’d their way. Dry den. 
He to the void advanc’d his pace, 
Pale horrour sat on each Arcadian face." Dryden. 
To brood; to incubate.—As the partridge sitteth on eggs, 
and hatcheth them not, so he that getteth riches not by 
right, shall leave them in the midst of his days. Jer. —The 
egg laid and severed from the body of the hen, hath no 
more nourishment from the hen; but only a quickening 
heat when she sitteth. Bacon. —She mistakes a piece of chalk 
for an egg, and sits upon it in the same manner. Addison. 
—To be adjusted; to be with respect to fitness or unfitness, 
decorum or indecorum. [ sied , old Fr. “ cet accoustrement 
luy sied bien,” this garment becomes, sits, &c. Cotgrave.] 
How ill it sits with that same silver head 
In vain to mock! Spenser. 
This new and gorgeous garment, majesty, 
Sits not so easy on me as you think. Shakspeare. 
Heav’n knows. 
By what by-paths, and indirect crook’d ways 
I met this crown ; and I myself know well, 
How troublesome it sate upon my head; 
To thee it shall descend with better quiet. Shakspeare. 
Your preferring that to all other considerations does, in 
the eyes of all men, sit well upon you. Locke. —To be 
placed in order to be painted.—One is under no more ob¬ 
ligation to extol every thing he finds in the author he trans¬ 
lates, than a painter is to make every face that sits to him 
handsome. Garth. —To be in any situation or condition.— 
As a farmer cannot husband his ground so well, if he sit at 
a great rent; so the merchant cannot drive his trade so well, 
if he sit at great usury. Bacon. —Suppose all the church- 
lands were thrown up to the laity; would the tenants sit 
easier in their rents than now > Swift. —To be convened, 
as an assembly of a public or authoritative kind ; to hold a 
session: as, the parliament sits: the last general council 
sate at Trent.—To be placed at the table.—Whether is greater, 
he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? St. Luke. — 
To exercise authority.—The judgment shall sit, and take 
away his dominion. Daniel. —Asses are ye that sit in 
judgment. Judges. 
Down to the golden Chersonese, or where 
The Persian in Ecbatan sate. Milton. 
One council sits upon life and death, the other is for taxes, 
and a third for the distributions of justice. Addison. 
Assert, ye fair ones, who in judgment sit, 
Your ancient empire over love and wit. Bowe. 
To be in any solemn assembly as a member.—Three hun¬ 
dred and twenty men sat in council daily. 1 Maccabees. 
To Sit down. Down is little more than emphatical.— 
Go and sit down to meat. St. Luke. —When we sit down 
to our meal, we need not suspect the intrusion of armed un¬ 
invited guests. Dec. of Chr. Piety. 
To 
