X Y L 
X Y R 
lanceolate, acuminate, silky beneath, smooth at the tip; pe¬ 
duncles one, or many-flowered; fruits smooth.—Native of 
Guiana and Brazil. 
3. Xylopia glabra, or smooth-fruited bitter-wood.— 
Leaves oblong-ovate, smooth; peduncles one-flowered sub¬ 
geminate ; fruits smooth. This tree grows to a considerable 
size, and will sometimes raise its branches to the height of 
fifty or sixty feet. The wood, bark, and berries have an 
agreeable bitter taste, not unlike that of the orange seed.— 
Native of Barbadoes and Jamaica. 
The common name of bitter-wood was translated into the 
Greek Xylopieron or Xylopicrum, for a generic appellation, 
by Plukenet and Browne. Linnaeus shortened it into Xylo¬ 
pia, a name of no meaning. 
XYLOSMA [from fvXov, wood, and ovy-y, a sweet smelt], 
in Botany, a genus of the class dioecia, order polyandria. 
Male.—Calyx: perianth four or five-parted : leaflets round¬ 
ish, minute, spreading. Corolla none. Nectary very small, 
annular, crenulate, surrounding the stamens. Stamina: fila¬ 
ments numerous (20—50) capillary, twice as long as the 
calyx. Anthers roundish, small. Female. Calyx, and 
corolla, and nectary, as in the males. Pistil: germ ovate- 
globular. Style scarcely any, cylindrical. Stigma obtuse, 
flat, indistinctly trifid. Pericarp: berry dry, oblong, sub- 
bilocular. Seeds two, three-sided, convex on the back, flat 
on the sides. Partition incomplete in the bottom of the 
berry.— Essential Character. Calyx four or five-parted. 
Corolla none: but a small annular crenulate nectary sur¬ 
rounding the stamens. Male, stamina twenty to fifty. Fe¬ 
male. Style scarcely any. Stigma trifid. Berry dry, sub- 
bilocular. Seeds two, three-sided. 
1. Xylosma suaveolens.—Leaves ovate, serrate. 
2. Xylosma orbicularum.—Leaves roundish, quite entire. 
The first of these is a native of the Society isles; the 
second of Savage island. 
767 
Forster first named this genus Myroxylon, because the 
natives use the wood to perfume the coco-nut oil, with 
which they anoint their hair: but he changed it afterwards, 
to avoid its being confounded with the tree which yields 
the Balsam of Peru, and which had before been named My¬ 
roxylon. 
XYRIS [fupj? of Dioscorides, of Theophrastus, xyris 
of Pliny. Derivation unknown], in Botany, a genus of the 
class triandria, order monogynia, natural order of ensatae, 
junci (Juss.) —Generic Character. Calyx: spike round¬ 
ish ; scales roundish, concave, imbricate, separating the 
flowers. Glume two-valved, small; valves boat-shaped, 
compressed, bowed, acute, converging. Corolla: petals 
three, flat, spreading, large, crenate; claws narrow, length 
of the calyx. Stamina: filaments three, filiform, shorter 
than the corolla. Anthers erect, oblong. Pistil: germ su¬ 
perior, roundish. Style filiform. Stigma triple. Pericarp: 
capsule roundish, one-celled, three-valved, opening by a 
cleft at the corners. Seeds numerous, very small, adhering 
to a raised rib in the middle of each valve.— Essential Cha¬ 
racter. Corolla three-petal led, equal, crenate. Glumes two- 
valved in a head. Capsule superior. 
1. Xyris Indica.—Leaves ensiform, sheathing the scape ; 
head globular; scales roundish. Scapes several, a foot high. 
—Native of the East Indies. 
2. Xyris pauciflora.—Leaves linear-subulate, sheathing the 
scape; head oblong; scales ovate, obtuse.—Native of Ma¬ 
labar. 
3. Xyris Americana.—Leaves three-sided, linear-subulate, 
distinct at the base; head oblong; scales lanceolate, acute. 
—Native of South America. 
4. Xyris Capensis.—Leaves linear, very short; head ovate, 
acute; scales obtuse.—Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 
Y A C 
At the beginning of words, is commonly taken for a 
» consonant; at the end, and when it follows a conso¬ 
nant, is a vowel, and has the sound of i. It is used at the 
end of words, and whenever two ii's would come together; 
and in words derived from the Greek, to express the u. Y 
was much used by the Saxons, whence y is found for i in 
the old English writers. 
Y is in old English sometimes prefixed as an increasing 
syllable to preterites, and passive participles of verbs. It 
seems borrowed from ge, the Saxon augmentum of the pre¬ 
terite. It is sometimes put before present tenses. 
Y, an arm or inlet of the Zuyder Zee, in the Netherlands, 
on the south shore of which is built the city of Amsterdam. 
Y, a town of China, of the third rank, in Kiangnan. 
Y, a town of China, of the third rank, in Shantung. 
Y, a city of China, of the second rank, in Shantung. 
Lat. 35. 10. N. long. 118. 19. E. 
YA, a city of China, of the second rank, in Sechuen. Lat. 
30. 9.N. long. 102. 39. E. 
YABAQUE, one of the Lucayos or Bahama islands, situ¬ 
ated south-west of Meguana island. Lat. 22. 30. N. 
YABARI, Yavari, orYAHUARi, a large river of Peru, 
which runs into the Amazons, in Lat. 47. S. 
YABARKULSKAIA, a village of Tobolsk, in Asiatic 
Russia, on the Irtysch; 120 miles east of Tobolsk. 
YABAZA, a river of South America, in the province of 
Darien, which runs from east to west, and enters the Chucu- 
naqui. 
YABEVIRI, a river of Peru, in the province of Chaco, 
which runs from north-west to south-east, and enters the 
Paraguay.—There is another river of the same name in Para¬ 
guay- 
YACA, a river of Paraguay, which runs east, and enters 
Y A C 
the Parana.—There is another river of the same name, which 
also runs into the Parana. 
YACA, a river of New Granada, which enters the Pu¬ 
tumayo. 
YACAN, a settlement of Peru. 
YACANTO, mountains of Chili, in the province of Cuyo. 
YACARE, a river of South America, which runs south, 
and enters the Uruguay. 
YACARE-GUZAU, a river of South America, in Buenos 
Ayres, which runs west, and enters the Parana. 
YACARE-MINI, a river of South America, in Buenos 
Ayres, which runs'west, and enters the Parana. 
YACAYOBI, a river of Paraguay, which runs south-south¬ 
west, and enters the Picazura. 
YACHAN, a town of China, of the third rank, in Ki¬ 
angnan. 
YACHT, s. [a Dutch word.] A small ship for carrying 
passengers.—The evening before, we met, off the sound, 
Lord Sandwich in the Augusta yacht. Cook's Voyage. 
YACINTO, St., a town of Brazil, on the Tapajos; 40 
miles south of Pauxis. 
YACONG TALA, a number of small lakes in Thibet, si¬ 
tuated near each other. 
YACUAPIRI, a river of Brazil, which runs north-north¬ 
west, and enters the Madera. 
YACUI, a river of Buenos Ayres, which runs west, and 
enters the Uruguay. 
YACUI, a river of Paraguay, which runs south-south-east, 
and enters the Ucay. 
YACUMARE, a settlement of New Granada, in the dis¬ 
trict of Pamplona. 
YACUMBE, a settlement of the Caraccas, in the province 
of Maracaibo, to the south-south-east of the city of Tocuyo. 
YADDLETHORPE, 
Y. 
