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TRIPSACUM [Tpi^, tritus, from rgt€u, tero ], in 
Botany, a genus of the class monoecia, order triandria, 
natural order of gramina, gramineae, or grasses.—Generic 
Character. Male flowers double on one side, alternate, in the 
upper part of the spike.—Calyx: glume two-flowered; 
outer floret male, inner neuter; eachtwo-valved; outer valve 
lanceolate, flattish, obtuse, awnless, cartilaginous, with the 
margins thinner (the interior one straightish), embrac¬ 
ing the interior, oblong, triangular-boat-shaped, acute, 
almost the length of the exterior. Corolla: in each tvro- 
valved, membranaceous, very thin, awnless; less than the 
calyx; valves nearly equal; exterior ovate, boat-shaped, 
bluntish ; interior lanceolate, bifid at the top. Nectary two¬ 
leaved, very small; leaflets triangular, fleshy, convex, trun¬ 
cate, mucronate at both ends, the upper margin thinner, the 
middle emarginate. Stamina of the outer floret: filaments 
three, capillary, longer than the calyx. Anthers parallelo- 
piped.—Of the inner floret: filaments three, very slender, 
sub-connate. Anthers none. Female flowers on the same 
spike below the males, immersed alternately on each side 
into the rachis. Calyx: involucre ovate, cartilaginous, 
very thick, ventricose below, shining, obscurely margined 
on both sides at the back, subemarginate with a blunt top, 
embracing the glume with a thinner margin. Glume two- 
valved; outer valve oblong, ventricose, attenuated at the 
top, acuminate, tbickish, doubled; inner similar, bluntish. 
Corolla two-valved, smaller than the calyx and more tender; 
outer valve larger, ventricose, bluntly three-toothed; inner 
scarcely smaller, flat at the back, emarginate. Glume barren, 
one-valved, oblong, folded together at each margin, two¬ 
toothed, by the anterior side of the corollet, and much 
smaller than it. Nectary two-leaved, very small; leaflets 
linear, membranaceous, very thin, acutely emarginate at the 
top. Stamina: filaments three, at the base of the germ, 
very small, broad at the base, capillary. Anthers linear, 
very small, barren. Pistil: germ oblong. Style longer 
than the calyx, compressed. Stigmas two, very long, twisted, 
villose. Pericarp none. Seed one, ovate, compressed a little, 
acuminate with the permanent style .—Essential Character. 
Male.—Calyx: glume four - flowered. Corolla: glume 
membranaceous. Female.—Calyx: glume with perforated 
sinuses. Corolla: glume two-valved. Styles two. Seed 
one. 
1. Tripsacum dactyloides.—-Spikes androgynous. Leaves 
an ell or more in length. Culms the thickness of a goose 
quill or of the little finger, with few joints and long inter¬ 
nodes, angular, tinged with purple, as high as a man, di¬ 
viding at top into three, four, or five spikes, a long span or 
a foot in length, and straight.—Native of Virginia. It flowers 
in August. 
2. Tripsacum hermaphroditum. — Spike hermaphrodite. 
Root annual, fibrous. Culm erect, two feet high, roundish, 
very smooth, jointed, branched.—Native of Jamaica. 
TRIPTIS, a small town in the interior of Germany, 
in Saxe-Weymar, on the river Orla ; 4 miles east ofNeustadt. 
TRI'PTOTE, s. [triptoton, Latin.] A noun used but in 
three cases. Clarice. 
TRIPU'DIARY, adj. [tripudium, Latin.] Performed 
by dancing. — Claudius Pulcher underwent the like suc¬ 
cess when he continued the tripudiary augurations. 
Brown. 
To TRIPU'DIATE, v. n. [tripudio, Latin.] To dance. 
Not in use. Cockeram. 
TRIPUDIATlON.s. [ tripudium , Latin.] Act of dancing. 
TRIPUDIUM, in Antiquity, a species of divination, in 
which omens were drawn from the rebounding of corn thrown 
to chickens. 
TR1QUETRA OSSA, the small irregular bones occasion¬ 
ally found between the regular bones of the cranium. 
TRIRE'ME, s. [triremis, Latin.] A galley with three 
benches of oars on a side. 
TRISA'GION, s. [old French; roac and a,yio$, Greek.] 
A particular kind of hymn.—Hereto agrees the seraphieal 
hymn, called the trisagion, Holy, holy, holy, &c. that used 
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to be sung in all churches throughout the Christian world. 
Bp. Bull. 
TRIS-DIAPASON, or Triple-diapason, in Music, what 
is otherwise called a triple eighth. 
TRISE, at Sea, the seamen’s word for hauling up of any 
thing with a dead-rope, or one that doth not run in a block, 
but is pulled by hand or by main strength: thus if any cask, 
chest, or other goods, hath only a rope fastened to it, and so 
without a tackle be pulled up into a ship by hand, they say 
it is trised up. 
TRI'SECTION, s. [/res and sectio, Latin.] Division 
into three equal parts: the trisection of an angle is one of 
the desiderata of geometry. 
TRISMEGISTUS [formed from -rpei$, thrice, and 
greatest ], an epithet, or surname, given to one of the two 
Hermeses, or Mercuries, kings of Thebes, in Egypt, who was 
contemporary with Moses. 
TRISPYRGOI, a cape on the coast of Greece, in Liva- 
dia. Lat. 36. 53. N. long. 23. 29. E. 
TRISSINO (Giangiorgio), an Italian poet, was descended 
from a noble lineage, and born in 1478 at Vicenza. In his 
youthful studies he was industrious and ardent. Besides the 
Latin and Greek languages, the latter of which he acquired 
under Demetrius Cbalccmdylas, he became a proficient in 
mathematics, physics, architecture, and other fine arts. He 
was employed in posts of trust and honour by the popes 
Leo X. and Clement VII., and he also received many tokens 
of distinction from the Venetian republic and his native city. 
He died at Rome in 1550. His great work, in which he 
was engaged for twenty years, was his epic poem, entitled 
“ Italia Liberala de’ Goti,” the subject of which was the de¬ 
liverance of Italy from the Goths in the reign of the emperor 
Justinian. His model in the composition of this work was 
Homer, whom he servilely imitated, insomuch that, according 
to Voltaire, “ he took every thing from him but his genius.” 
Gen Biog. 
TRIST, adj. [tristis, Latin.] Sad; gloomy. Old Corn¬ 
ish trist, sad; tristyans, sorrow. 
Amaz'd, asham’d, disgrac’d, sad, silent, trist, 
Alone he would all day in darkness sit. Fairfax. 
TRISTAN D’ACUNHA, the largest of three islands in the 
South Atlantic ocean, about 1500 miles from any land either 
to the west or north, very lofty, and about 15 miles in cir¬ 
cumference. A part of the island, towards the north, rises 
perpendicularly from the sea to a height apparently of a 
thousand feet or more. A level then commences, forming 
what among seamen is termed table laud, and extending 
towards the centre of the island; from whence a conical 
mountain rises, not unlike in appearance to the Peak of 
Teneriffe, as seen from the bay of Santa Cruz. These islands 
are certainly worthy of a more particular inquiry ; for they 
are not 50 leagues from the general track of vessels bound to 
China, and to the coast of Coromandel by the outer passage. 
In war time an excellent rendezvous might be settled there 
for ships that wanted no other supply than that of water. 
Lat. 37. S. long. 15. 40. W. 
TRISTE, an island on the coast of America, near the 
boundary of the provinces of Vera Cruz and Merida, in the 
lake or gulf of Terminos. It abounds in delicious water ; is 
full of lizards and other reptiles, and is desert. Lat. 18.20. N. 
TRUSTFUL, adj. [tristis , Latin.] Sad; melancholy; 
gloomy ; sorrowful. A bad word. 
Heaven’s face doth glow 
With tristful visage; and, as ’gainst the doom. 
Is thoughtsick at the act. Shalcspeare. 
To TRISTI'TIATE, v. a. [from tristitia, Latin.] To 
make sad or sorrowful. Not used. —Nor is there any, 
whom calamity doth so much tristitiate as that he never 
sees the flashes of some warming joy. Fcltham. 
TRISTRA, Trustra, or Trista, in our old Law, an 
immunity, by which a man is excused from attending on the 
lord of the forest, when he is disposed to chace within the 
forest ; 
