also the Baronial Hall (Rittersaal), in which the minstrels | reside: here are Mount Calvary, laid out in conformity held their poetic contests; and the Armoury, built in 1810, with the supposed disposition of the site in Palestine, and which contains reliques of the paraphernalia of Pope Julius enriched in the eyes of the Roman Catholics by a miraII., the Princess Cunigunda, and other personages. This culous effigy of the Virgin; and the palace called Kishold is still protected by external works, and is now made Martony, a splendid quadrangular structure, erected in use of as a prison. In the grounds between the Wartburg 1805 by Prince Esterházy, to whose family the whole suburb and the town is the remarkable rock in which the hand of belongs. The park is large, rises in terraces towards the nature has sculptured the representation of a monk and Leitha hills, and is embellished with temples, a canal and cascades, an avenue of rose-trees, 262 paces in length, an orangery of 400 trees, nine large conservatories, containing nearly 70,000 plants, water-works impelled by steam, &c. Eisenstadt possesses a head-school, a Protestant public school, a town-hospital, and an institute for forest economy. Much wine is brought here for sale. nun. EISLEBEN, formerly the capital of the earldom of Mannsfeld, the chief town of the Mannsfield circle of the Lake, in the administrative circle or county of Merseburg, in Prussian Saxony. It is situated on an eminence on the banks of the Böse, in 51° 33′ N. lat., and 11° 32′ E. long., and in the vicinity of two lakes. The town has two subdivisions; the Old Town, which is surrounded by walls and ditches, and has seven gates, and the New Town; besides these it has five suburbs. Eisleben contains altomentary schools, two hospitals, and has about 7500 inhabitants: between the years 1817 and 1831 the number increased from 6330 to 7230. The chief manufactures are potashes and tobacco; and there are copper and silver mines in the neighbourhood, with two smelting works. The town has a brisk inland trade. Luther was born here on the 10th of November, 1483, and died here on the 13th of February, 1546; but neither his parents nor himself had a permanent residence in Eisleben. The object of greatest attraction in it was the house in which he was born. After escaping several extensive conflagrations, it was at last destroyed by fire in June, 1689; and nothing was saved but a wooden table on which Luther's portrait was carved, an old engraving which also represented him, and a window, on the glass of which he and Melanchthon were pourtrayed in the old style. On the site of this house a more solid building of stone was soon afterwards erected, and on the 31st of October, 1693, it was solemnly consecrated to the purposes of a poor-house and free-school. This is the structure which is at present shown to visitors as Luther's house. A stone bust of the reformer stands over the entrance, with the well-known saying inscribed beneath it: EISENBURG, or in Hungarian Vas Vármegye, and Sclavonian Zelezne Mesto, a large county in the western part of Hungary, bounded on the north-west by the Austrian province below the Ens' (or Lower Austria), on the south-west and west by Styria, and on the east by the counties of Oedenburg, Vezprim, and Szalad. It contains an area of about 2037 square miles, which is divided into 6 circles, and has 1 royal free town (Güns or Koeszoeg), 1 episcopal town (Stein), 41 market towns, 612 villages, 57 prædia or privileged settlements, and about 301,000 inhabitants. The southern and western parts of Eisenburg are very mountainous; for here the Alpine chains which traverse Styria and the duchy of Austria terminate. The northern districts are hilly; but extensive and highly productive plains lie on both sides of the Kemenes, an ele-gether four churches, a Protestant gymnasium, several elevated plateau on the right bank of the Raab. This river is the principal stream in the county, and flows through its southern parts, whence it takes a direction to the northeastern: the three lesser rivers, the Pinka, Sorok, and Güns, which water the centre and western districts, fall into the Raab on its left bank. Eisenburg, though it has many forests, is on the whole a fertile and productive land: and it has been estimated that of the 1,039,000 acres available for useful purposes, 530,700 are already under the plough; 48,000 have been converted into vineyards; and 358,300 are occupied by woods and forests. Wheat, oats, barley and maize, peas and beans, and flax, are grown in abundance; the Yánosháza tobacco is in repute; and much wine is made. There are many rich pasture lands, and the extensive forests, particularly the Farkas, afford plenty of timber and fuel. Large herds of horned cattle are kept, along the banks of the Raab especially; more pains are now bestowed on the breeding of sheep; poultry is extensively fed for the Vienna market; and there is much game. Near Bernstein, a mining district in the north-west of Eisenburg, large quantities of sulphur are dug quicksilver, also vitriol, ironstone, and copper, are obtained here on a small scale. Coals are dug at Mariadorf. Marble and alum, are likewise among the products of this county. The majority of the inhabitants are Roman Catholics, of whom there are about 170,000, and of Protestants about 60,000. They are as much distinguished by their mechanical as their agricultural industry, and have a good trade with various parts of Austria. The most remarkable spot in Eisenburg is Stein-amAnger (Szombathely), the Sabaria of the Romans, an episcopal town, lying between the Perenth and Güns, in 47° 13′ N. lat., and 16° 37′ E. long., with about 3800 inhabitants. This town, where the states of the county hold their meetings, as well as its environs, abounds in remains of Roman art, in columns, sepulchral tablets, votive stones, inscriptions, &c. The cathedral is a handsome modern edifice: the town has three other churches, an episcopal residence, seminary, and chapter-house, three monasteries, a Roman Catholic gymnasium, college of philosophy, county-hall, and other handsome buildings. At Tatzmannsdorf (Tarcza), a beautifully situated village in the north-western part of the county, there are excellent and much-frequented chalybeate springs. The dignity of Obergespan (or Headman of the county) is hereditary in the Bathyáni family. The word of God is Luther's say, Gottes Wort ist Luthers Lehr, Drum vergeht sie nimmermehr. The old portraits of Luther and Melanchthon on glass have been introduced into one of the windows. Over the door of one of the rooms is the portrait of Luther in wood, and beneath it is the distich, Hostis eram Papa Sociorum pestis et hujus; Vox mea cum scriptis nil nisi Christus erat. Anno post R. S. 1594, meuse Majo renovata. This inscription refers to the verse, Pestis eram vivens; moriens ero mors tua, Papa!' which Luther is said to have written at Altenburg in the year 1530, and was fond of quoting. Several articles are exhibited, such as what is called Luther's table, which in fact never were his. At St. Andrew's, the principal church in the town, the little pulpit in which Luther preached is still preserved. Sermons to his memory are regularly delivered from this pulpit on the days of his birth and decease, and on the first day of public catechizing. There are busts of Luther and Melanchthon in the same church. On the day of the jubilee of the Reformation in 1817, several additions were made to Luther's house, at the expense of the present king of Prussia, who bestowed a sufficient endowment to preserve it against future decay, and perpetuate its benevolent object. EISTEDDFOD, from eistedd to sit; a meeting or assembly. This term was more especially used as the name for the session of the bards and minstrels which was held in Wales for many centuries. [BARD.] EJECTMENT is the name of an action at law of a na EISENSTADT (in Hungarian Kis-Martony), a royal free town in the Hungarian county of Oedenburg, finely situated in a noble expanse of country bounded by the Leitha mountain range, in 47° 33' N. lat., and 16° 24' E. long. It lies about 26 miles south-east of Vienna, and contains about 5400 inhabitants. The town itself is walled round, has two gates, and three main streets, a church, and a Franciscan monastery, in which is the sepulchral vault of the Esterházy family, a monastery, and hospital of the Brothers of Charity, a town-hall, and the offices for the administration of the Esterházy domains. The Schloss grund,' or palace-domain, is an extensive suburb, containing it. ing about 2600 of the population, and comprising the Since the disuse of real actions, and under the provisions Judenstadt' or Jew's Town, where 500 of that community of the 3rd and 4th Will. IV., c. 27, for the abolition of real P. C, No. 571. ture partly real and partly personal, and therefore called a mixed action, by which a party entitled to the immediate possession of lands or other corporeal hereditaments may recover that possession from the party wrongfully withhold VOL. IX.-2 T and some mixed actions, it has become the only legal mode of trying the title to lands and tenements. The remedy by ejectment is founded almost entirely upon a succession of legal fictions, and it is therefore necessary to give a short account of its history and the proceedings under it. Originally this action was brought by any person having a lease for years of lands, &c., to repair an injury done him by dispossession; but gradually it became the nieans of indirectly bringing in question the title to the lands, which was thus collaterally tried with the supposed trespass. For this purpose it was necessary that the claimant should enter upon the lands in order to empower him to constitute a lessee for years who would be capable of receiving the injury of dispossession. A lease for a term of years is therefore stated in the declaration (for there is no other process in this action) to have been made by the party claiming title to the plaintiff, who is generally a fictitious person. It is also stated that the lessee, in consequence of the demise to him, entered into the premises, and that the defendant, who is also a fictitious person, and called the casual ejector, entered thereupon and ousted the plaintiff, for which ouster the plaintiff brings his action. Under the declaration is a notice in terms professing to be written by the casual ejector to the tenant in possession of the premises, advising him to appear in court at a certain time and defend his title; otherwise he, the casual ejector, will suffer judgment to be had against him, by which means the actual tenant would inevitably be turned out of possession. The declaration, as well as the notice, is then served upon the tenant in possession of the premises, who has thus an opportunity of defending his title. If he omits to do so within a limited time, he is supposed to have no right; and upon judgment being obtained against the casual ejector, the real occupier is turned out of possession by the sheriff. EKATARINBURG or YEKATARINBURG (Cathe rine's borough), the chief town of a circle in the govern ment of Perm (Permia), in the western part of Asiatic Russia, was founded by Peter the Great, in the year 1723, who gave it the name which it bears in honour of his consort. It is situated on both sides of the Iceth or Iset, the western quarter of the town being built along the slope of a gentle acclivity of the Ural mountains. It is at an elevation of about 860 feet above the level of the sea: in 56° 50′ N. lat, and 60° 41′ E. long. It is fortified and regularly con structed: the streets are long and straight, but they are unpaved, and have planks laid on each side of them by way of a foot-pavement. The greater part of the houses are of wood, but there are many handsome stone buildings; the chief of them form three sides of a square, the fourth side of which is the right bank of the Iceth: this range of buildings is composed of the Mining Department (for Ekatarinburg is the seat of administration for the Ural mines), a museum of mineralogy, a public library, an excellent chemical laboratory, an imperial mint, works for cleansing and amalgamating metals, as well as for cutting and polishing precious stones, a school for educating miners, a hospital, storehouses, a guardhouse, &c. A handsome bridge unites both quarters of the town, and on the acclivity on the left bank of the river is a long range of wooden tenements where the work-people reside, with the stone residences of the public offices between them and the bridge. The merchants and dealers' houses in the town are also of stone, and would be an ornament to any city in Europe. Besides five churches, there are a Greek monastery, a public school for 300 pupils, a German school, a large bazaar, a magazine for grain, a house of correction, and several district and elementary schools. At the northwestern end of Ekatarinburg are remains of the fortifications where the garrison is quartered. The number of honses is upwards of 1200, and of inhabitants about 11,000. By the official return of the year 1830 they amounted to 10,695. The population consists of a motley assemblage of Asiatics and Europeans, the latter principally Russians and Germans, among whom are numbers of persons exiled for public offences. There is a public hall for drugs and che micals, and a botanic garden attached to the hospital. The greater part of the inhabitants depend upon the Ural mining concerns for their subsistence; and as Ekatarinburg lies on the high road from Russia into Siberia, it is a place of gold mines of Beresoff and the iron mines of Niviansk, which extend over a surface of nearly forty square miles; there is also a chalybeate well, which is much used by invalids. A wood of pines encircles the north-western extremity of the town, and about half a mile beyond lies lake Iset. If the tenant apply to be made a defendant, he is allowed upon condition that he enters into a rule of court to confess at the trial of the cause four of five requisites for the maintenance of the plaintiff's action-the lease of the lessor, the entry of the plaintiff, the ouster by the tenant himself, and the possession by the tenant. These requisites (except in certain cases, as of vacant possession, &c.) are wholly fictitious; and if the plaintiff should put the defendant to the proof of them, he would of course be non-transit and of brisk trade. In the neighbourhood lie the suited at the trial; but the stipulated confession of lease, entry, and ouster being made, the case then rests upon the merits of the title only. The cause goes to trial under the name of the fictitious lessee on the demise of the lessor, who is the person claiming title against the defendant. The lessor is bound to make out on the trial his title to the premises; and if he do so in a satisfactory manner, judgment is given for the nominal plaintiff, and a writ of possession goes to the sheriff to deliver up the possession to him, under which process it is in fact delivered to his lessor, the real claimant. If it appears that the person claiming title to the lands has no right of entry, that is, no right to the immediate possession, he cannot maintain this action. EKATARINOSLAF, one of the three southern provinces of Russia in Europe, which since 1822 have constituted the government of New Russia. It is bounded on the north by the provinces of Pultava, the Slobodsk-Ukraine, and Voronesh; on the east by the territory of the Don-Cossacks; on the south by the sea of Azof, and the government of Tauria; and on the west by the government of Cherson. There is an isolated district of this province, of which Taganrog is the chief town, lying at the northA mortgagee may maintain an action of ejectment against western extremity of the sea of Azof, and separated from the mortgagor to gain possession of the mortgaged pre- the remainder of Ekatarinoslaf by the territory of the Don mises without giving any notice, unless the mortgagor is Cossacks. The area of this province is estimated by some protected by the covenant for quiet enjoyment until de-at 23,700 square miles; but according to Arsenief, at fault. He may also eject the lessee, to whom the mortgagor has made a lease subsequent to the mortgage, with out giving him notice to quit. Where the right of the tenant to retain the possession has ceased by effluxion of time, by a legal notice to quit, or by the commission of an act of forfeiture, a landlord may bring an ejectment against his tenant; and various other persons who have a right of entry in law upon the premises may take advantage of the same remedy. The time within which an action of ejectment may now be brought is regulated by the 3 and 4 Wm. IV. cap. 27, which enacts that no person shall bring an action to recover any land or rent (the meaning of which terms is explained by the first section of the act) but within twenty years next after his right to bring such action, or that of the person through whom he claims, shall have first accrued. The third section fixes the time at which the right shall be deemed to have first accrued. (Runnington On Ejectment; Adams On Ejectment; Blackstone's Com.) 28,980. Upwards of two-thirds of this area are an open steppe, destitute of wood, and adapted to pasturage only: this is peculiarly the case with that large tract which is situated east of the Dnieper. The districts west of that river are much more fertile, and are skirted by a range of hills which run northwards from Alexandrofsk along the Dnieper. Here it is principally that the arable lands of Ekatarinoslaf, occupying about one-fourth of the soil, are situated. The whole extent of the woods and forests does not exceed 256,000 acres. The principal river is the Dnieper, which enters the province at its north-western extremity, and, winding through the western parts of it, quits it below Alexandrofsk. The immense blocks of granite which obstruct the course of the river at and below Kidak, give rise to thirteen beautiful falls, here called 'paroghi;' and below them the river is divided by islands into several channels. The Don skirts Ekatarinoslaf only at its mouth; but its tributary, the Donecz, waters it partially in the east. The other streams in this province, such as the Samara, Kalmius, &c., are of no great importance. | The 30,000 original Greeks have a bishop of their own at There are several lakes, the water of which is often much Feodosia; and the Armenians are under the bishop of Naimpregnated with salt: swamps are of frequent occurrence. kitshevan. There are a few Mohammedans and Jews. The climate is mild, and not exposed to much variation, Ekatarinoslaf is divided into the seven circles of Ekataand the winter is of short duration. The quantity of grain rinoslaf, on the west side of the Dnieper; Verchne-Dniaproduced is scarcely adequate to the consumption; in some profsk, north of Ekatarinoslaf, also on the west side of years it is so scanty that the supply is drawn from foreign the Dnieper; Novo Moskofsk, on the east side of the parts. Hemp and flax, peas, beans, lentils, vegetables, Dnieper; Alexandrofsk, on the east side of the Dnieper, and fruit, particularly melons, are cultivated. The grape which separates it from Ekatarinoslaf; Paulograd, northripens, and some wine is made, but the fruits of the mul- east of Ekatarinoslaf; Bakmut, east of Ekatarinoslaf; berry and walnut do not attain to maturity. The fo- and Slarenoserfsk, the north-easternmost circle of the rests do not furnish sufficient timber or fuel; and straw, province, independently of the isolated district of Rostof, rushes, and even dung, are substituted for the latter. on the Sea of Azof. The principal towns are EkatariThe chief kinds of trees in the forests west of the Dnieper noslaf; Alexandrofsk, on the left bank of the Dnieper are the oak, linden, and poplar. In consequence of the (about 4000 inhabitants); Novo-Moskofsk, on the Samara scarcity of timber, the houses are built of clay, and roofed (3000); Paulograd, on the Voltsha, east of Ekatarinoslaf with rushes. Cattle-breeding is carried on upon an extended (900); Verknébiaprofsk, on the right bank of the Dnieper, scale, for the steppes are one vast expanse of pasture- (about 250 houses); Bakmut, on the Bakmuta, (about ground. The stock of horses, horned cattle, goats, and 4500 inhabitants); Slavenoserfsk, on a tributary of the swine is immense; and numerous flocks of sheep are also Donecz; and Taganrog, on the Sea of Azof (about kept, the breed of which has been so much ameliorated 14,000). Besides these towns, which are the capitals of the that 336,835 pure Merinos alone were in stock in the year seven circles, there are several others, the most important 1832 all these animals are left to graze in the open fields of which are Azof, on the sea of that name; Mariapol, at throughout nearly the whole twelve months. There were, the efflux of the Kalmius into the Sea of Azof, with about in 1832, between 1480 and 1500 establishments for breed- 3500 inhabitants; Nakitshevan, on the Don (about 9200); ing oxen and cows, and 232 for rearing horses. Cheese and St. Dmitria Rostofskaye, a fortress at the confluence of and butter are made of sheep's milk. In the same year the Temernik and Don (about 2500). Ekatarinoslaf possessed 86,100 hives, from which much honey and wax were obtained. The culture of the silkworm is a favourite pursuit with the Greeks at Mariapol and the Armenians at Nakitshevan, and this branch of industry is rapidly on the increase. The chase forms a means of livelihood, as wild animals and game are plentiful: under this head we may enumerate the jerboa, wolf, fox, buffalo, antelope-goat (saiga), wild cat, tiger-martin, musk-rat, pelican, wild duck, and partridge. The fisheries on the Dnieper, Don, Kalmius, and Sea of Azof are very productive, and are estimated to bring in upwards of 20,000l. per annum. Among the mineral products of the province, which are few and not of much importance, are lake salt, of which little advantage is taken on account of the scarcity of fuel, granite, chalk in large quantity, clay, and bog iron. The garnet is occasionally met with. The population is a mixed race, principally of colonists who have gradually transformed a wilderness into a habitable and productive region during the last eighty or ninety years; they are composed of Great and Little Russians, Cossacks, Servians (who migrated hither between the years 1754 and 1760, by thousands at a time,) Walaks, Magyárs, Albanians, Greeks, Armenians, Tartars, Germans, and Europeans in general. Of Greeks and Armenians, the numbers are about 30,000 of each; the Germans amount to about 10,000. The inhabitants are classed as follows in the returns for the year 1830: 546,615 Total Arsenief considers this return as much below the real number, and estimates the population at 610,000 for the year in question; but Schubert, in his recent statistics of the Russian empire, states it to have been 826,100 even so far back as the year 1829. Hörschelmann, in his new edition of Professor Stein's Geography and Statistics,' states it to be 860,000. The numbers given by the two last writers appear to justify Hassel's estimate for 1820, of 761,600. All but the Cossack part of the population, which is semi-nomadic, have fixed abodes. We have no official account of their increase or decrease, excepting for the year 1832, when the births amounted to 40,218, and the deaths to 27,053, showing an increase of 13,165 in that year (Schnitzler). The religion of the majority is Russo-Greek: the province contains 690 parishes, and the ecclesiastical head is the archbishop of Ekatarinoslaf, Cherson, and Tauria. The manufactures of Ekatarinoslaf, although gradually extending, are not yet of much importance; in fact, there is still need for a much greater number of hands for the cultivation of the soil. The returns of 1830 show that in the 30 larger manufacturing establishments there were not more than 648 hands employed: these establishments consisted of 3 manufactories of woollen cloths, 6 of tallow and 7 of candles, 10 tanneries, 1 bell foundry, 2 breweries, &c. There were at that time not less than 225 brandy distilleries. The district of Rostof however is not comprised in this enumeration; and here there were 49 manufactories in the year 1832. The principal articles exported are fish, tallow, and other animal products. The revenue collected by the crown in 1830 amounted to 7,439,704 paper rubles, or about 340,9907. sterling. About fifteen years before it was not more than 1,540,000 rubles, or about 70,5807. The province of Ekatarinoslaf was first constituted by the empress Catherine in the year 1784, and was composed of the districts lying next the southern banks of the Dnieper, which were before this held by the Cossacks, of several large districts wrested from the Turks, and of Crimean Tartary as far as the shores of the Sea of Azof. In 1797 the emperor Paul augmented it by the addition of other lands between the Bog and Dniester, which had been ceded by Turkey, and the peninsula of Tauria; and he designated the whole of this extensive country New Russia. In the year 1822, however, the emperor Alexander, his son and successor, reorganised these possessions, and forming them into the governor-generalship of New Russia, divided it into the three provinces of Ekatarinoslaf, Cherson, or Nikolaieff, and Simferopol, or Tauria. EKATARINOSLAF, the capital of the province, is situated on the right bank of the Dnieper, at the junction of the Kaidak with that river, in 43° 27' N. lat., and 35° 2′ E. long. The first stone was laid by the empress Catherine II. in 1787. The town is close to the foot of a mountain, and is built according to an extended and regular plan adapted for a much greater number of inhabitants than the 12,000 which it at present contains. In 1833 they amounted to 11,648. The streets are broad, and laid out in straight lines, but in an unfinished state. There are three churches, a gymnasium, and an ecclesiastical seminary, an imperial manufacture of woollens, and several hospitals. Silk stockings are made, and some retail trade is carried on. The houses are about 900 in number. The navigation of the Dnieper terminates at Ekatarinoslaf, in consequence of the 'peroghi,' or falls, which obstruct its navigation at Kaidak just below it. Prince Potemkin has some gardens and grounds in the vicinity. ELEAGNA'CEÆ, a small natural order of Apetalous Exogens, consisting of trees or shrubs, whose leaves are either opposite or alternate, destitute of stipules, and always protected more or less by scurfy scales, which usually give the plants a leprous aspect. The genera of this order have a tubular 4-lobed calyx, the inside of which is lined with a 2T2 Mr. Brown has observed it as remarkable that Cocos Indiea and this palm, which is universally, and he relieves justly, considered as having been imported into the West India colonies from the west coast of Africa, should be the only two species of an extensive and very natural section of palms that are not confined to America. The elais occi dentalis of Swartz, the thatch-tree of Brown's Jamaica,' and the avoira of Aublet, are probably all identical with the maba, or oil-palm, of the African coast. fleshy disk, that sometimes almost closes up the tube; there | to which it belongs, and analogous to the cocoa-nut, has The oil is obtained by bruising the fleshy part of the fruit (and not the kernel, as sometimes stated), and subjecting the bruised paste to boiling water in wooden mortars; an oil of an orange-yellow colour separates, which concretes when cool to the consistence of butter, and has when fresh the smell of violets or of the root of the Florentine iris, with a very slightly sweetish taste. This oil is used by the Africans in cookery and for anointing the body. It forms a considerable article of commerce to Europe, where it is chiefly employed in perfumery and medicine. Cocos butyracea (which is referred by Kunth to the genus elæis) is considered by the Edinburgh College to be the plant which yields palm-oil. 6 Reference has been made from ALFONSIA to this article in consequence of Mr. Brown (Tuckey's Congo, Appendix, p. 456) having stated, 'It is probable that alfonsia oleifera of Humboldt, Bonpland, and Kunth belongs to elæis, and possibly may not even differ from the African species. To this the above authors, in the Synopsis Plant. Equinoct.' reply, that in elæis, according to the description of Jacquin, both the floral envelopes are sexifid, while in alfonsia they are trifid. If this, moreover, be the same as the corozo of Jacquin, another essential difference may be observed in the structure of the fruit of the two plants, the nut in elæis being perforated at the apex, while the corozo has its nut perforated with three foramina at its base;' but this might have been inverted, as that of elæis was by Gærtner. Humboldt and Bonpland, moreover, found alfonsia oleifera always growing wild, while elaeis guineensis, as they state, is never found except in a cultivated state out of Africa. These two palms require to be carefully re-examined and compared, to ascertain whether, if they are distinct as Elaeagnus angustifolia. 1, a section of the tube of the calyx, showing the fleshy disk almost closing up the tube, the carpel, with its style and stigma, and the erect solitary ovule; 2, a ripe fruit; 3, the same cut away to show the single furrowed seed." ELEIS, a genus of palms, so named from elaia, the olive-tree, because an oil is yielded by the fruit of its principal if not only species. This is Elæis Guineensis, or oilpalm, maba of the natives of the Congo, and common all along the western coast of Africa. The tree is monœcious, as we are informed that both male and female_spadices were obtained from a single plant cut down by Professor Smith. (Brown, in Tuckey's Congo). The stem is tall, about ten inches in diameter, rough, and bristling with the persistent bases of the petioles, of which the margins, as in recent leaves, are fringed with spines. The leaves are pinnate, about 15 feet in length, with two rows of swordshaped leaflets, each 14 foot long. The fruit is ovoid, about the size of a pigeon's egg, with its outer fleshy covering of a golden yellow colour, and like that of the section Cocoinæ, In the Indian genera the nuts, cleared of the soft pulp or flesh that covers them, are curiously sculptured, and being bony, and taking a fine polish, they are frequently set in gold and strung into necklaces. The nuts of Ganitrus sphæricus, a middle-sized tree, common in various parts of India, as well as the Malay Archipelago, and those of Monocera tuberculata, from the forests of Travancore, are what are principally used for this purpose. The fruits of Elaocarpus serratus, which are very much like olives when ripe, are said by Roxburgh to be pickled or dried and used in their curries by the natives of India. Elæocarpus cyaneus has pure white beautifully fringed petals, and is one of the most ornamental plants of New Holland. The species, as is probable from the figure of the former by | Masa availed herself of this feeling to induce the officers Martius, they may not both belong to the same genus. The to rise in favour of her grandson, whom she presented to compressed nut of the alfonsia, like that of the cocoa-nut, them as the son of the murdered Caracalla. Elagabalus, is described as yielding an oil, which is obtained by boiling who was then in his fifteenth year, was proclaimed emperor in water the manteca del corozo; it is described as a liquid by the legion stationed at Emesa. Having put himself at fat employed for ordinary lamps, as well as those of their head he] was attacked by Macrinus, who at first had churches. the advantage, but he and his mother Soæmis with great ELEOCARPA'CEE, a natural order of chiefly Indian spirit brought the soldiers again to the charge, and defeated trees, having a strong botanical resemblance to our Euro- Macrinus, who was overtaken in his flight and put to death pean Lindens, but differing in having fringed petals, and A.D. 218. Elagabalus having entered Antioch, wrote a anthers opening by two pores at the apex. The species letter to the senate professing to take for his model Marcus have not yet received sufficient attention from botanists, Aurelius Antoninus, a name revered at Rome; Elagabalus especially the few known in South America; and it is also assumed that emperor's name. The senate acknowdoubtful whether this order will not be eventually combined ledged him, and he set off for Rome, but tarried several with Tiliaceæ. months on his way amidst festivals and amusements, and at last stopped at Nicomedia for the winter. In the following year he arrived at Rome, and began a career of debauchery, extravagance, and cruelty, which lasted the remaining three years of his reign, and the disgusting details of which are given by Lampridius, Herodianus, and Dion. Some critics have imagined, especially from the shortness of his reign, that there must be some exaggeration in these accounts, for he could hardly have done in so short a time all the mischief that is attributed to him. That he was extremely dissolute and totally incapable is certain; and this is not to be wondered at, from his previous eastern education, his extreme youth, the corrupt example of his mother, his sudden elevation, and the general profligacy of the times. He surrounded himself with gladiators, actors, and other base favourites, who made an unworthy use of their influence. He married several wives, among others a vestal. imperial palace became a scene of debauch and open prostitution. Elagabalus being attached to the superstitions of the East, raised a temple on the Palatine hill to the Syrian god whose name he bore, and plundered the temples of the Roman gods to enrich his own. He put to death many senators; he established a senate of women, under the presidency of his mother Soæmis, which body decided all questions relative to female dresses, visits, precedence, amusements, &c. He wore his pontifical vest as high priest of the Sun, with a rich tiara on his head. His grandmother Mæsa, seeing his folly, thought of conciliating the Romans by associating with him as Cæsar his younger cousin, Alexander Severus, who soon became a favourite with the people. Elagabalus, who had consented to the association, became afterwards jealous of his cousin, and wished to deprive him of his honours, but he could not obtain the consent of the senate. His next measure was to spread the report of Alexander's death, which produced an insurrection among the prætorians, and Elagabalus having repaired to their camp to quell the mutiny, was murdered together with his mother and favourites, and his body was thrown into the Tiber, March, 222. He was succeeded by Alexander Severus. [SEVERUS.] The coins of Elagabalus bear the names of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, like those of Caracalla, with which they are often confounded. The names of Varius Avitus Bassianus, which he also bore before his elevation to the throne, are not found on his medals. A flowering shoot of Elæocarpus cyaneus. 1. a magnified flower; 2, a petal; 3, the stamens; 4, a ripe fruit, 5, the same cut away to show the wrinkled seed. ELAGABA'LUS, called also HELIOGABA'LUS, was the grandson of Masa, sister to the empress Julia, the wife of Septimius Severus. Masa had two daughters, Sæmis, or Semiamira, the mother of Varius Avitus Bassianus, afterwards called Elagabalus, who was reported to be the illegitimate son of Caracalla and Mammæa, mother of Alexander Severus. Elagabalus was born at Antioch A.D. 204. Masa took care of his infancy and placed him, when five years of age, in the temple of the Sun at Emesa to be educated by the priests; and through her influence he was made, while yet a boy, high priest of the Sun. That divinity was called in Syria Elagabal, which name the boy assumed. After the death of Caracalla and the elevation of Macrinus, the latter having incurred by his severity the dislike of the soldiers, Coin of Elagabalus, British Museum. Actual Size. Copper. Weight, 380 grains. ELAIDINE, a fatty substance produced by the action of nitrous acid upon certain oils, as olive and almond oil, &c. This substance is white, inodorous, insoluble in water, and fusible at 95° Fahr. It is soluble in sulphuric æther, and in 200 times its weight of boiling alcohol; when treated with potash it saponifies, giving rise to glycerin, and a peculiar acid which has been called elaïdic acid. This acid is solid, fusible at 112° Fahr., and is partially distilled by exposure to a strong heat. ELAIN. [OLEIN.] |