POLLENTIA, a town of Liguria, at the confluence of the Stura and Tanarus. Suetonius calls it a municipium, and the people Pollentina Plebs. It was famous for its abundance of black fleeces; but was afterwards, under Arcadius and Honorius, stained with a defeat rather of the Romans under Stillico than of the Goths under Alaricus, though palliated by Claudian the poet; after which Rome was taken and set on fire. It is now called Solenza, in the late Piedmont, near Asti.

PO'LLEVIL, n. s. Poll and evil. Pollevil is a large swelling, inflammation, or imposthume in the horse's poll or mane of the neck, just between the ears towards the mane.

Farrier's Dictionary.

POLLEX, in anatomy, the thumb or great toe, according as manûs or pedis is added to it. POLLEXFEN (Sir Henry), a celebrated English lawyer and judge under Charles II., was born in Devonshire. In 1688 he sat as one of the members for Exeter, and was retained as counsel for the bishops. After the revolution he was appointed chief-justice of the common pleas; but held this office only a very short time, dying in 1692. His Arguments and Reports were published in 1702 in folio. Burnet gives

him a character still exemplified, both on the bench and at the bar, that of an honest and learned but perplexed lawyer.'

POLLIA, in botany, the name given by Mr. Lee to the plant called by others

POLLICHIA, a genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the monandria class of plants; and in the natural method ranking with those that are doubtful. Of this there is only one species, viz. P. campestris, or whorl-leaved pollichia, a native of the Cape of Good Hope, which flowers in September.

POLLICIS PRESSIO, and POLLICIS VERSIO were used at the combats of gladiators as signals of life or death to the vanquished combatant; or to the victor to spare or take the life of his antagonist. The pollicis pressio, by which the people granted life to the prostrate gladiator, was no more than a clenching of the fingers of both hands together, and so holding the two thumbs upright close together. The pollicis versio which authorised the victor to kill the other as a coward was the bending back of the thumbs. Such is Dacier's opinion; but others say the pollicis pressio was when the people held up one hand with the thumb bent, and the pollicis versio when they showed the hand with the thumb raised. Authors, however, are not perfectly agreed, though the phrases pollicem premere, and pollicem vertere, frequently occur in the Latin classics.

POLLIO (Caius Asinius), a celebrated Latin poet and orator, was of consular dignity, and composed some tragedies which were esteemed, but are now lost. He was the first who opened at Rome a library for the use of the public. He died at Frescati, aged eighty.

POLLIO, a friend of Augustus, who used to feed his fishes with human flesh. This cruelty was discovered when one of his servants broke a glass in the presence of Augustus, who had been invited to a feast. The master ordered the ser vant to be seized, but he threw himself at the feet of the emperor, and begged him to interfere, and not to suffer him to be devoured by fishes. Upon this the causes of his apprehension were examined; and Augustus, astonished at the bar barity of his favorite, caused the servant to be dismissed, all the fish-ponds to be filled up and the crystal glasses of Pollio to be broken to pieces.

POLLISELLA, or POLLICELLA, called anciently Vallis Poenina, a valley of Italy, between the Adige and the Baltena, in the department of the Mincio, district and late territory of Ve rona; containing thirty-eight parishes, in 1797. It abounds in meadows, black cattle, sheep, and

Envy you my praise, and would destroy With grief my pleasures, and pollute my joy? Dryden.

Ev'n he, the king of men, Fell at his threshold, and the spoils of Troy The foul polluters of his bed enjoy. Id. Æneid. The contrary to consecration is pollution, which happens in churches by homicide, and burying an excommunicated person in the church. Ayliffe.

POLLUTION, in general, signifies the rendering a person or place unclean or unholy. For the Jewish pollutions, see IMPURITY. The Romanists hold a church to be polluted by the effusion of blood or of seed therein; and that it must be consecrated anew. And the Indians are so superstitious on this head, that they break all the vessels which those of another religion have drunk out of, or even only touched; and drain all the water out of a pond in which a stranger has bathed.

POLLUX. See CASTOR AND POLLUX. POLLUX, in astronomy, a fixed star of the second magnitude in the constellation Gemini, or the Twins. See CASTOR.

POLLUX, CASTOR AND, a fiery meteor. See CASTOR AND POLLUX.

POLLUX (Julius), an ancient Greek writer, who was born at Naucrates, in Egypt, and flourished under Commodus. He was educated under the Sophists, and made great progress in grammatical and critical learning. He taught rhetoric at Athens, and became so famous that he was made preceptor to Commodus. He drew up for his use an Onomasticon or Greek Vocabulary, divided into ten books. It is extant, and contains a vast variety of synonymous words and phrases, ranged under the general classes of things. It was intended to facilitate the knowledge of the Greek language to the young prince; and it is still very useful to all who wish to be perfect in it. The first edition was printed at Venice by Aldus in 1502, and a Latin version was afterwards made and published with it: but there was no correct and handsome edition till that of Amsterdam, in 1706, in folio, by Lederlinus and Hemsterhusius. Lederlinus went through the first seven books, correcting the text and version, and subjoining his own, with the notes of Salmasius, Is. Vossius, Valesius, and of Kuhnius, whose scholar he had been, and whom he succeeded in the professorship of the oriental languages in the university of Strasburg. Hemsterhusius continued the same method through the last three books. Pollux wrote many other things, none of which remain. He died aged fifty-eight.

POLO (Marco), a famous traveller of the thirteenth century, son of Nicolas Polo, a Venetian merchant. Accompanied hy bis brother

Matthew, Nicholas had penetrated to the court of Kublai, the khan of the Tartars, when this prince, highly entertained with their account of Europe, made them his ambassadors to the pope. They now therefore proceeded to Rome, and, having obtained a couple of missionaries, visited Tartary, accompanied by the young Marco. He was employed by the sultan on various embassies, until, after a residence of seventeen years, the three Venetians returned with immense Marco wealth to their own country, in 1295. afterwards served his country at sea, and, being taken prisoner by the Genoese, remained many years in confinement, which he beguiled by composing the history of the travels. The first edition appeared at Venice in 1496, 8vo. It has been translated into various languages, the best versions are in Latin, Cologne, 1671, and in French, published at the Hague in 1675, in 2 vols. Polo not only gave a better account of China than any previous one, but likewise furnished an account of Japan, of several islands in the East Indies, of Madagascar, and of the coast of Africa. The period of his death is not known.

POLTAVA, a town and government of Russia, on the Vorskla. The town is indifferently built, but the streets are wide and straight, and in the centre is a very good square, with a granite monument in honor of Peter the Great. It carries on an active traffic, chiefly in cattle, with Siberia, Germany, the Crimea, and Constantinople. They also export flax, hemp, corn, and wax, at the four yearly fairs. Gardens in the environs produce a large quantity of cherries and other fruit. Here is a regular earthen fortress, which was besieged in 1709 by Charles XII., between whom and Peter I. on the 8th of July, was fought the well known battle of Po!tava, in which the Swedes were completely defeated. 737 miles south by east of Petersburg, and 459 S. S. W. of Moscow.

The province is situated between the governments of Cherson and Charkov, extending from 48° 30′ to 50° 75′ of N. lat. Its area is about 16,000 square miles. The soil is rich and strong, yielding, to an extremely imperfect cultivation, heavy crops. The pasturage is also rich; and the horses, though small, are active, and in considerable repute. The manufactures and trade are very limited. Population 1,500,000. The rivers are numerous; but, with the exception of the Dnieper, are navigable only by small boats. The exports are corn, cattle, linen, lime, charcoal, pitch, and potash.

POLTRON', n. s. Lat. pollice truncato, from the thumb cut off; it being an old practice of cowards to cut off their thumbs, that they might not be compelled to serve in war.-Saumaise. Menage and Minsheu derive it from the Italian poltro, a bed; as cowards feign themselves sick: others derive it from poletro or poltro, a young unbroken horse. Fr. Span. and Ital. poltrone is an idle wench. A coward; a nidgit; a scoundrel.

For who, but a poltroon possessed with fear, Such haughty insolence can tamely bear?

Dryden. POLYADELPHIA, from woλuç, many, and adeλpia, brotherhood, many brotherhoods, the eighteenth class in Linnæus's sexual system, consisting of plants with hermaphrodite flowers, in which several stamina or male organs are united by their filaments into three or more distinct bundles. See BOTANY, Index.

POLYÆNUS (Julius), the author of some Greek epigrams, extant in the first book of the Anthologia.

POLYÆNUS, the author of eight books of the Stratagems of Illustrious Commanders in War. He was probably a Macedonian, and perhaps a soldier in the early part of his life. He was undoubtedly a rhetorician and a pleader of causes; and appears, from the dedication of his work to the emperors Antoninus and Verus, to have lived towards the end of the second century. The Stratagemata were published in Greek by Isaac Casaubon, with notes, in 1589, 12mo.; but no good edition of them appeared till that of Leyden, 1690, in 8vo. The title-page runs thus :Polyæni Stratagematum libri octo, Justo Vulteio Interprete; Pancratius Maasvicius recensuit; Isaacus Casaubonus necnon suas notas adjecit. POLYANDRIA, from woλuç, many, and avno, a man or husband, many husbands, the thirteenth class in Linnæus's sexual method, consisting of plants with hermaphrodite flowers, furnished with several stamina, that are inserted into the common receptacle of the flower. See BOTANY,

Index.

POLYANTHEA, a collection of commonplaces in alphabetical order, for the use of orators, preachers, &c. The word is formed from the Greek Toλuç, much, and avoog, flower; and has much the same meaning with anthology or florilege. The first author of the polyanthea was Dominic Nanni de Mirabellio, whose labor nas been improved on by Barth. Amantius, and Franc. Torsius; and since these by Jos. Langius, under the title of Polyanthea Nova, 1613.

POLYANTHES, the tuberose, a genus of the monogynia order, hexandria class of plants; natural order tenth, coronaria. The corolla is funnel-shaped, incurvated, and equal; the filaments are inserted into the throat of the corolla; in the bottom of which the germen is situated. There is but one species, consisting of some varieties; all of which, being exotics of tender quality, require the aid of artificial heat, under the shelter of frames and glasses, &c., to bring them to flower in perfection in this country. It has an oblong, bulb-like, tuberous, white root; crowned with a few long very narrow leaves; amidst them an upright, straight, firm stem, three or four feet high, terminated by a long spike of large white flowers arranged alternately. The varieties are the common tuberose, with single flowers, double-flowered, dwarf-stalked, and variegated-leaved. They all flower here in June, July, and August; the flowers are funnel or bellshaped, and garnish the upper part of the stem in a long spike, consisting of from ten to twenty or more separate in alternate arrangements. The common single-flowered tuberose is the

sort

most commonly cultivated, as it generally blows the most freely, and possesses the finest fragrance. The double-flowered kind also highly merits culture, as when it blows fair it makes a singularly fine appearance. The dwarf and the variegated kinds are inferior to the other two. All the varieties being exotics from warm countries, although they flower in great perfection in our gardens by hot-beds, they will not prosper in the open ground, and do not increase freely in England; so that a supply of the roots is imported annually from Italy, arriving in February or March for the ensuing summer's bloom. The largest are preferred; for on this depends the having a complete blow. They are planted in pots, and plunged in a hot-bed, under a deep frame with glass-lights; or placed in a hot-house, where they may be blowed to great perfection. The principal season for planting them is March and April: in order to continue a long succession of the bloom, make two or three different plantings, at about a month interval; in March, April, and May, whereby the blow may be continued from June until September. The propagation is principally by offsets of the roots. Plant them in March either in a bed of light dry earth in the full ground; or, allow them a moderate hot-bed; and in either method indulge them with a shelter in cold weather, either of a frame and lights, or arched with hoops and oecasionally matted; but let them enjoy the full air in all mild weather, giving also plenty of water in dry weather during their growth. Let them grow till their leaves decay in autums: then take them up, clean them from earth, and lay them in sand till spring; when such roots as are large enough to blow may be planted and managed as already directed, and the smaller roots planted again in a nursery bed, to have another year's growth; afterwards plant them for flowering. The Egyptians put the flowers of tuberose into sweet oil; and by these means give it a most excellent flavor, scarcely inferior to oil of jasmine.

POLYANTHOS, or POLYANTHUS, in botany, See PRIMULA.

POLYAN THUS, n. s. Gr. πολυς, a prehis in the composition of many words, derived from the Greek, and intimating multitude; and artes, a flower. A plant.

The daisy, primrose, violet darkly blue, And polyanthus of unnumbered dyes. Thomson. POLYANUS, a mountain of Macedonia, near Pindus.-Strabo.

POLYBIDAS, a Spartan general, who com manded after the death of Agesipolis. He reduced Olynthus.

POLYBIUS, in fabulous history, king of Corinth, a son of Mercury and Chthonophyle. the daughter of king Sicyon. He married Pe riboa, who having no sons, they adopted Oedipus, when found in the woods. His daughter Lysianassa was married to Talus, son of Bias, king of Argos; by whom she had Adrastus, who succeeded his grandfather, Polybius.-Paus. Apollod.

POLYBIUS, a famous Greek historian, born at Megalopolis, in Arcadia, 205 B.C. He was the son of Lycortas, chief of the republic of the

Achæans, and trained to arms under the celebrated Philopomen, whose urn he carried in the funeral procession of that general. He arose to considerable honors in his own country, but was compelled to visit Rome with other principal Achæans, who were detained there as hostages for the submission of their state. Hence he became intimate with Scipio Africanus Emilianus, and was present with him at the demolition of Carthage. He saw Corinth also plundered by Mummius, and thence passing through the cities of Achaia reconciled them to Rome. He extended his travels into Egypt, France, and Spain, that he might avoid such geographical errors as he has censured in others. It was in Rome that he composed his excellent history, for the sake of which his travels were undertaken. This history was divided into forty books; but there only remain the five first, with extracts of some parts of the others. It has had several editions in Greek and Latin; and there is an English translation by Mr. Hampton. He lived to the age of eighty-two.

POLYBOTES, in fabulous history, one of the giants who warred against Jupiter. Neptune crushed him under the island Coos, as he was walking across the Egean Sea.-Paus. i. 2.

POLYCARP, one of the most ancient fathers of the Christian church, was born towards the end of the reign of Nero, probably at Smyrna; where he was educated at the expense of Calista, a matron distinguished by her piety and charity. He was a disciple of St. John the Evangelist, and conversed with some of the other apostles. Bucolus ordained him a deacon and catechist of his church; and upon his death he succeeded him in the bishopric. The controversy about the observation of Easter arising, Polycarp had a conversation with Anicetus, bishop of Rome, on the subject, which they carried on with calmness, though they differed in opinion. But he showed great zeal against the heresies of Marcion, Valentinus, and Cerinthus. Some think that St. John dedicated his Apocalypse to him, under the title of the angel, or messenger, of the Church of Smyrna.' Polycarp governed the church of Smyrna with apostolic purity, till he suffered martyrdom in the seventh year of Marcus Aurelius. He was burnt at a stake on the twenty-third of April A. D. 167, and many miraculous circumstances are said to have happened at the time, to which some modern divines, particularly Dr. Jortin, give credit, while Dr. Middleton and others ridicule them such as, that the flames divided and formed an arch over his head, without hurting him; that, upon this, the persecutors run him through with a sword; that his body sent forth a most fragrant smell, and that a dove was seen to fly away from the wound, which some took to be his soul! &c. He wrote some homilies and epistles, which are now lost, except that to the Philippians, which contains short precepts and rules of life. St. Jerome informs us, it was even in his time read in the public assemblies of the Asiatic churches. It is singularly useful in proving the authenticity of the books of the New Testament; for he has several passages quoted from Matthew, Luke, the Acts, and most of St. Paul's Epistles;

:

the first Epistle of St. John, and first of Peter. Indeed his whole Epistle consists of phrases and sentiments taken from the New Testament. POLYCARPON, in botany, a genus of the trigynia order, belonging to the triandria class of plants; natural order twenty-second, caryophylleæ: CAL. pentaphyllous; there are five very small ovate petals: CAPS. unilocular and trivalved.

POLYCASTE, in fabulous history, the youngest daughter of Nestor, and wife of Telemachus.

POLYCHREST, in pharmacy, signifies a medicine that serves for many uses, or that cures many diseases.

POLYCHREST, SAL, a compound salt, made of equal parts of saltpetre and sulphur, deflagrated in a red-hot crucible.

POLYCHROITE, the coloring matter of

saffron.

POLYCLETUS, a celebrated statuary of Sicyon, who flourished about A. A. C. 232. He was so eminent that many of the ancients preferred him to Phidias.

POLYCLITUS, an ancient historian of Larissa.-Elian. xxi. 41.

POLYCNEMUM, in botany, a genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the triandria class of plants; natural order twelfth, holeracea: CAL. triphyllous; and there are five calciform petals, with one seed almost naked.

POLYCOTYLEDONES. See BOTANY. POLYCRATES, tyrant of Samos, is famous for the good fortune which always attended him. He became very powerful; and got possession not only of the neighbouring islands, but also of some cities on the coast of Asia. He had a fleet of 100 ships of war, and was so universally esteemed that Amasis, the king of Egypt, made a treaty of alliance with him. He, however, advised him to chequer his enjoyments, by relinquishing some of his most favorite objects. Polycrates, in compliance, threw into the sea one of his most valuable jewels; but soon after he received as a present a large fish, in whose belly it was found. Amasis no sooner heard this than he gave up all alliance with him, saying that sooner or later his good fortune would vanish. Some time after Polycrates visited Magnesia on the Mæander, whither he had been invited by Orontes the governor, who traitorously put him to death, merely to terminate his prosperity.

POLYCRITUS, an ancient biographer, who wrote the life of Dionysius, tyrant of Sicily.Diog.

POLYCROTA, in the naval architecture of the ancients, is used to express such of their galleys as had three, four, five, or more tires of rowers, seated at different heights; they were distinguished by this term from the monocrota, or those which had only single rows of oars. The number of rows of rowers in the polycrote galleys has given occasion to some to suppose those vessels of such a height from the water as is scarcely credible. Commentators are not agreed upon the construction of these vessels.

POLYDAMAS, in fabulous history, was a famous athlete, who imitated Hercules in whatever he did. He killed a lion with his fist, and

it is reported he could stop a chariot with his hand in its most rapid course. He was one day with

some of his friends in a cave, when on a sudden a large piece of rock came tumbling down, and, while all fled away, he attempted to receive the falling fragment in his arms. His prodigious strength, however, was insufficient, and he was instantly crushed to pieces under the rock.

POLYDECTES, son of Magnes, was king of the island of Seriphos. He received with great kindness Danae and her son Perseus, who had been exposed on the sea by Acrisius. He took great care of the education of Perseus; but, becoming enamoured of Danae, he removed her from his kingdom, apprehensive of his resentment. He afterwards paid his addresses to Danae; and, being rejected, he attempted to offer her violence. Danae fled to the altar of Minerva for protection; and Dictys, the brother of Polydectes, who had himself saved her from the seawaters, opposed her ravisher, and armed himself in her defence. At this critical moment Perseus arrived; and with Medusa's head he turned into stones Polydectes, and the associates of his guilt. The crown of Seriphos was given to Dictys, who had shown himself so active in the cause of innocence.

POLYDORA, an island of the Propontis, near Cyzicus.

POLYDORA, in fabulous history, the daughter of Meleager, king of Calydon, who married Protesilaus, and killed herself when she heard of his death.

POLYDORE VIRGIL. See VIRGIL.

POLYDORUS, a son of Priam by Hecuba; or, according to others, by Laothoe, the daughter of Altes, king of Pedasus. Being young and inexperienced, when Troy was besieged by the Greeks, his father removed him to the court of Polymnestor, king of Thrace, to whose care he entrusted the greatest part of his treasures, till his country should be freed from foreign invasion. On the death of Priam, Polymnestor made himself master of the riches which were in his possession; and, to ensure them the better, he murdered the young prince, and threw his body into the sea, where it was found by Hecuba. According to Virgil, his body was buried near the shore by his assassin; and there grew on his grave a myrtle, whose boughs dropped blood, when Eneas, going to Italy, attempted to tear them from the tree.

POLYDORUS, a king of Thebes, the son of Cadmus and Hermione, who married Nycteis, by whom he had Labdacus the father of Laius and grandfather of Oedipus.-Apollod.

POLYDORUS, Son of Alcamenes, king of Sparta. He put an end to a war which had lasted twenty years between his subjects and the Messenians: and in his reign the Spartans planted two colonies, one at Crotona, the other at Locri. He was highly respected, yet was assassinated by a villain named Polemarchus.

situation of the lucid body, the light must be va riously affected. Bogle. A tubercle of a pale brown spar had the exterior surface covered with small polyhedrous crystals, pelWoodward. lucid with a cast of yellow.

POLYGALA, milkwort, a genus of the octandria order, and diadelphia class of plants; and in the natural method, ranking under the thirty-third order, lomentaceæ. The calyx is pentaphyllous, with two of its leaflets wingshaped and colored; the legumen is obcordate and bilocular. There are twenty-four species, of which the most remarkable are

1. P. senega, seneka, or rattlesnake-wort, grows naturally in most parts of North America. It has a perennial root composed of several fleshy fibres, from which arise three or four branching stalks, which grow erect, garnished with spear-shaped leaves placed alternately. The flowers are produced in loose spikes at the end of the branches; they are small, white, and shaped like those of the common sort. It flowers here in July, but the plants do not produce seeds. The root of this species operates very powerfully; but besides the virtues of a purgative, emetic, and diuretic, it was long recommended as an antidote against the poison of 2 rattlesnake; but this opinion is now exploded. It still, however, maintains its character in sereral disorders. Its efficacy in pleurisies is most fully established in Virginia: formerly near fifty out of 100 died of that distemper, but by the happy use of this root hardly three out of that number are now lost. As the seeds seldom succeed, even in the countries where the plant is a native, the best method of propagating it is to procure the plants from America, and plant them in a bed of light earth in a sheltered situation, where they will thrive without any other culture than keeping them free from weeds. though the plant will stand out ordinary winters, it will be proper to cover it during that season with old tanners' bark, or other mulch, to keep out the frost.

But,

2. P. vulgaris, common milkwort, is a native of the British heaths and dry pastures. The stalks are about five or six inches long, several arising from the same root: the leaves are firm, smooth, entire, and grow alternate upon the stalks, which are terminated with spikes of flowers, most commonly blue, but often red or white: the calyx consists of five leaves, three of which are small and green, two below, and one above the corolla; the other two intermediate ones are large, oval, flat-colored, veined, and resemble petals, which at length turn greenish, and remain a defence to the seed-vessel; the corolla consists of three petals folded together, and forming a tube: the carina is terminated by a heart-shaped, concave appendage, fringed at the extremity. The root has a bitter taste, and pos sesses the virtues of the American rattlesnake root. It purges without danger, and is also emetic and diuretic; sometimes operating all the three A spoonful of the decoction, made by boiling an ounce of the herb in a pint of water till one-half has exhaled, has been found serviceable in pleurises and fevers, by promoting a diaphoresis and expectoration; and three

POLYE'DROUS. ing many sides.

The protuberant particles may be spherical, ellip tical, cylindrical, polyhedrical, and some very irregular; and according to the nature of these, and the