Comes dancing from the East, and leads with her Id. Id. The nomination of persons to those places being so prime and inseparable a flower of his crown, he would reserve to himself. Clarendon. Then laughs the childish year with flowerets crowned, And lavishly perfumes the fields around; The French monarchy is exhausted of its bravest subjects the flower of the nation is consumed in its Addison. moderately blown, and on a clear day before noon; for conserves, roses must be taken in the bud. Flowers were in great request at the entertainments of the ancients, being provided by the master of the feast, and brought in before the second course; or, as some think, at the beginning of the entertainment. They not only adorned their heads, necks, and breasts, with flowers, but often bestrewed the beds whereon they lay, and all parts of the room with them. But the head was chiefly regarded. See GARLAND. Flowers were likewise used in bedecking tombs. A method of preserving flowers in their natural beauty through the whole year has been much sought after. Some have attempted it by gathering them when dry and not too much opened, and burying them in dry sand; but this, though it preserves their figure well, takes off from the liveliness of their color. 1. Muntingius prefers the following method to all others. Gather the flowers, when they are not yet thoroughly open in the middle of a dry day; put them into a good earthen vessel glazed within; fill the vessel up to the top with them; and when full sprinkle them over with some good French wine, with a little salt in it: then set them in a cellar, tying down the mouth of the pot. After this they may be taken out at pleasure; and, on setting them in the sun, or within reach of the fire, they will open as if growing naturally; and not only the color, but the smell also will be preserved. The flowers of plants are by much the most difficult parts of them to preserve in any tolerable degree of perfection; of which we have instances in all the horti sicci, or collections of dr.ed plants. In these the leaves, stalks, roos, and seeds of the plants appear very well preserved; the strong texture of these parts making If the blossom of the plant be of most importance, color in many species naturally remaining. But them always retain their natural form, and the wars. Alas! young man, your days can ne'er be long : In flower of age you perish for a song. Pope. O'er his fair limbs a flowery vest he threw. Id. Beauty That transitory flower: even while it lasts we call it a flower; such are daisies, tulips, and car- But man, associated and leagued with man Bow their white heads, admire the changing clime, Darwin. where these fade, the plant is little worse for use as to the knowing the species by it. But it is very much otherwise in regard to flowers; these are naturally by much the most beautiful parts of the plants to which they belong: but they are so much injured in the common way of drying, that they not only lose, but change their colors one into another, by which means they occasion nany errors; and they usually also wither up, so as to lose their very form and natural shape. The primrose and cowslip afford remarkable instances of the change of colors in the flowers of dried specimens: for those of this class of plants easily dry in their natural shape; but they lose their yellow, and, instead of it, acquire a fine green color, much superior to that of the leaves in their most perfect state. The flowers of all the violet kind lose their beautiful blue, and become of a dead white: so that in dried specimens there is no difference between the blue-flowered violet and the white-flowered. 2. Another method of preserving both flowers and fruit found throughout the whole year, is also given by the same author. Take of salt-petre one pound, armenian bole two pounds, clean common sand three pounds; mix all well together; then gather fruit of any kind that is not fully ripe, with the stalk to each; put these in, one by one, into wide-mouthed glass, laying them in good order: te over the top with an oil cloth, and carry them into a dry cellar, and set the whole upon a bed of the prepared matter, of two inches thick, in a box. Fill up the remainder of the box with the same preparation; and let it be four inches thick all over the top of the glass, and all round its sides. Flowers are to be preserved in the same sort of glasses, and in the same manner; and they may be taken up after a whole year as plump and fair as when they were buried. FLOWERS, in chemistry, generally imply dry bodies reduced into very fine parts, either spontaneously, or by some operation of art; but the terin is chiefly applied to volatile solid substances, reduced into a kind of fine meal by sublimation. Some flowers are nothing else than the bodies themselves, which are sublimed entire, without suffering any alteration or decomposition; others are some of the constituent parts of the body subjected to sublimation. FLOWERING OF BULBOUS PLANTS IN WATER. That these plants will grow and flower in water alone, without any earth, is evident from daily observation; but it has been generally confined to single roots. The elegant appearance that these make, however, may be greatly increased by causing several roots to grow in the same vessel; and that even in a common garden pot. Stop the hole at the bottom of the pot with a cork, and lute it with putty so as no water can get through; fit a board to the top of the pot, with a number of holes, proportioned to its size, bored in it for the bulbs, and as many smaller ones to receive sticks for supporting the flowers. Fill up the pot with water to the board, and place tulips, jonquils, narcissuses, and the like plants, in the root upon the holes, so that the bottom of the roots may touch the water: thus they will all flower early in the season, and be much more beautiful than any pot of gathered flowers; and will last many weeks in their full perfection. When the season of flowering is over, the roots will gradually sink through the holes of the board, and get loose into the water; where, instead of spoiling, they will soon increase in size, so that they cannot return through the holes, but will produce several offsets. From this it has been tried to keep the roots under water all the time of their blowing, which has succeeded very well, the flower being stronger and more beautiful than those growing from the ground. In a room properly regulated, as to heat, flowers may thus be kept in blow from before Christmas till March or April. But in this last method, as it is difficult to keep the board under water, a piece of sheet lead (four pounds to the foot) may be substituted for the board, and, besides the piece for the top, it will be necessary to have another plate of lead fitted to the bottom of the pot, with holes for the sticks corresponding with those in the upper plate, so that the sticks being put through both holes will be kept perfectly steady. Each of the leads should have a notch in the edge, for the free ascent and descent of the water. The roots thus kept under water will flower in the most vigorous and beautiful manner. To add to the virtues of the water some have tried the putting in small quantities of nitre, and others have tried earth and sand at the bottom; but the flowers always succeed better without any addition. Instead of earthen pots, some use glass jars with the leads; in which the flowers not only succeed as well, but the progress of the roots is visible, and the supply of water is better managed. Dried bulbs have been found, by repeated experiments, to succeed in this way better than those taken fresh out of the ground; the latter, being full of moisture, are long of imbibing nourishment from their new element, the fibres they struck in the ground rot, and new ones shoot out, before they produce flowers. Narcissuses and hyacinths do well together; as also tulips and jonquils, and crocuses and snow-drops. One species of hyacinth, called Keyser's jewel, seldom or never produces seed vessels in the common way flowering in the ground; but it will often produce some pods when blown in water. Ranunculus and anemone roots have been found to shoot up their stalks very well in this way; but the flowers are usually blasted, probably for want of free air. Pinks will flower very well in this manner; and auriculas may, with care, be brought to flower, but not strongly. Roses, jessamines, and honey-suckles, may also be made to flower in this way, and will thrive and send out suckers: the best pieces to plant are suckers cut off about three inches under ground, without any fibres. Some succulent plants may also be raised in this way; for instance, the opuntia or Indian fig. If a fragment of a leaf of this plant be cut and laid by to dry for a month, till it is an absolute skin, as soon as it is put in this manner into water, it begins to plump up, and soon sends out fibrous roots, and produces new leaves as quickly as it would do in the ground. This is the more remarkable in these sorts of plants, because in their natural state in the ground, they cannot bear much water. The growing of plants in water is, however, not peculiar to those with bulbous roots, for others may be thus raised, even from seed. A bean or a pea set in this manner, will grow up to its proper standard, produce pods and ripen seed. Smaller seeds may also be raised, if sown upon a piece of woollen cloth spread on the surface of the water. Though no vegetable transplanted out of the earth into water will thrive kindly, any plant, whether raised from the root or seed in water, may be transplanted to the earth, and will succeed very well. This method of raising plants in the water, would therefore suggest an improvement upon the usual practice in raising some roots in the earth which are subject to rot there; such as anemonies, ranunculuses, and hyacinths. A bulb acidentally dropped upon the ground, will strike out both stronger and more numerous fibres than those planted in the usual way; and from this it would seem to be proper to take out the earth of the bed where the bulbs are designed to stand, to such a depth as they are to be placed under it, when set for flowering. The bulbs should then be set in their places, on the surface of this low ground; to stand there till they have shot out their fibres and their head; after which the earth should be added over them by degrees, till they are covered . as high above the head as in the usual manner of planting them. Thus they would be preserved from the danger of rotting; their fibres would be much stronger, and consequently they would draw more nourishment, and flower better than in the common way. The ordinary method of planting these roots renders them liable to be destroyed by either extreme of a wet or dry season: in the former case, they immediately rot by the superabundant moisture; and, in the latter, they become as dry as a stick and mouldy, so that the first rain that falls afterwards infallibly rots them. FLOWER DE LUCE, n.s. From Fr. fleur de lis. A bulbous iris. Cropped are the flower de luces in your arms : Of England's coat one half is cut away. Shakspeare. As the greatest part of my estate has hitherto been of an unsteady and volatile nature, either tossed upon seas, or fluctuating in funds, it is now fixed and settled in substantial acres and tenements. Addison The fluctuating fields of liquid air, With all the curious meteors hovering there, And the wide regions of the land, proclaim The Power Divine, that raised the mighty frame. Blackmore. FLUDD (Robert), the son of Sir Thomas Fludd, was born at Milgate in Kent, in 1574. He was educated at St. John's College, Oxford, where he took his degrees in arts, after which he travelled abroad. He returned to England in 1605, took the degree of M. D. and became fellow of the college of physicians in London. He was a most voluminous writer; doated greatly on the wonders of alchemy; was a zealous brother of the Rosicrucian order; and his books, which are mostly in Latin, are as dark and mysterious in their language as in their matter. A word of which I know not The iris is the flower de luce. Carew. FLOWK'WORT, n. s. The name of a plant. FLOWN, participle of fly. Gone away; puffed; inflated; elate. For those, Appointed to sit there, had left their charge, The herb speedwell. Amongst these the flowk, sole, and plaice, follow the etymology, says Dr. Johnson, unless it be the tide up into the fresh waters. derived from flew of fly. Mr. Todd suggests the Fr. l'ouverte, an opening: Mr. Thomson, with more probability, the Lat. flatus; a puff or blast as its origin. A small pipe or chimney to convey air, heat, or smoke. Soft down or fur, such as may fly in the wind. FLU'ELLIN, n. s. FLU'ENCY, n. s. Lat. fluens, fluo; à FLUENT, adj. & n. s. Gr. Bvw. The adjecFLUENTLY, adv. tive is the etymon; and literally signifies flowing, liquid; the motion of water in flux: thus it is also applied to whatever is ready; copious; voluble. The noun signifies the quality of flowing; smoothness; freedom from harshness or asperity; affluence; abundance: but the latter sense is obsolete. Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons Id. Where, my deluded sense! was reason flown? Where the high majesty of David's throne ? Prior. Is this a bridal or a friendly feast? The Tempter, but with shew of zeal and love Milton's Paradise Lost. Fluctuations are but motions subservient, which winds, storms, shores, shelves, and every interjacency irregulates. Browne. Even the influence of superstition is fluctuating and precarious; and the slave whose reason is subdued, will often be delivered by his avarice or pride. Gibbon. It will not hinder it from making a proselyte of a person, that loves fluctuation of judgment little enough to be willing to be eased of it by any thing but errour. Boyle. To be longing for this thing to-day, and for that thing to-morrow; to change likings for loathings, and to stand wishing and hankering at a venture, how is it possible for any man to be at rest in this fluctuant wandering humour and opinion? L'Estrange. Fluency of numbers, and most expressive figures for the poet, morals for the serious, and pleasantries for admirers of points of wit. Garth. The common fluency of speech in many men, and most women, is owing to a scarcity of matter, and a scarcity of words; for whoever is master of language, and hath a mind full of ideas, will be apt, in speaking, to hesitate upon the choice of both. Swift. Lat. fluo, fluidus. See FLUENCY. Fr. fluide, That which, FLUID, adj. & n. ɛ. FLUIDNESS, n. s. Sfluidité. from its nature, flows; that quality in bodies which is opposite to solidity and stability; any thing not solid. FLUIDS, ELASTIC. See AEROLOGY, AIR, FIXED AIR, GAS, VAPOR, &c. FLUIDS, LAWS AND PROPERTIES OF. HYDROSTATICS. See with as much force as concentrated sulphuric acid, and appears to operate by the production of water; for, while it carbonises these subtances, they may be touched without any risk of burning. Exposed to a high temperature, it is not decomposed; and is condensed by cold without changing its form. When it is put in contact with oxygen, or air, either at a high or low temperature, it experiences no change, except seizing, at ordinary temperatures, the moisture which these gases contain. It may hence be employed with advantage, to show whether or not a gas contains moisture. No combustible body attacks fluoboric gas, if we except potassium and sodium, which, with the aid of heat, burn in this gas, almost as brilliantly as in oxygen. Boron, and fluate of potash, are the products of this decomposition; the fluoboric gas being a compound of fluorine and boron, the potassium unites to the former, giving rise to the fluoride of potassium, while the boron remains disengaged. Fluoboric gas is very soluble in water. According to Dr. John Davy water combines with 700 times its own volume, or twice its weight, at the ordinary temperature and pressure of the air. Water saturated with this gas is limpid, fuming, and very caustic. By heat, about one-fifth of the absorbed gas may be expelled; but it is impossible to abstract more. It then resembles concentrated sulFLUKE-WORM. See FASCIOLA. phuric acid, and boils at a temperature consiFLUMET, a town of France, in the depart- derably above 212°. It afterwards condenses ment of Mont Blanc, ci-devant duchy of Savoy, altogether in striæ, although it contains still a and lordship of Faussigny; seated on the Arly, very large quantity of gas. It unites with the among the mountains, thirty miles north-east of bases, forming salts, called fluoborates, none of Chambery, and thirty-one south-east of Geneva. which have been applied to any use in the arts. FLUM MERY, n. s. A kind of food, made See CHEMISTRY. by coagulation of wheat-flour or oatmeal. Milk and flummery are very fit for children. Locke. FLUMMERY is thus prepared: steep three large handfuls of finely ground oat-meal, for twenty-four hours, in two quarts of fair water: then pour off the clear water, and put two quarts of fresh water to it: strain it through a fine hair sieve, putting in two spoonfuls of orange-flower water and a spoonful of sugar: boil it till it is as thick as a hasty pudding, stirring it continually while it is boiling, that it may be very smooth. FLUMS, a town of Switzerland, in the late county of Sargans, on the Mat, five miles west of Sargans. FLUNG, participle and preterite of fling. Thrown; cast. Several statues the Romans themselves flung into the river, when they would revenge themselves. Addison on Italy. FLUOBORIC ACID. This is a gaseous acid, and may be obtained by heating in a glass retort twelve parts of sulphuric acid with a mixture of one part of fused boracic acid, and two of fluor-spar, reduced to a very fine powder, and it must be received over mercury. Its density is 2-41; it is colorless; its smell is pungent, resembling that of muriatic acid; it cannot be breathed without instant suffocation; it extinguishes combustion; and reddens strongly the tincture of turnsole. It has no manner of action on glass, but attacks vegetable and animal matters FLU'OR, n. s., Lat. A fluid state; catamenia. strongly, and are of such a smallness as renders them Hence silvery selenite her crystal moulds, Darwin. FLUOR, in physics, signifies properly the state of a body that was before hard or solid, but is reduced by fusion or fire into a state of fluidity. FLUOR, OF FLUOR-SPAR, in mineralogy, a genus of calcareous earth, the eleventh of that class in Kirwan's arrangement, the octohedral fluor of Jameson, and flus of Werner. It is divided into three sub-species, viz. compact fluor, foliated fluor, and earthy or sandy fluor. 1. Compact fluor. Colors, greenish-gray and greenish-white. Dull or feebly glimmering. Massive. Fracture even. Fragments sharpedged. Harder than calcareous spar, but not so hard as apatite, the eighth of Kirwan's scale for hardness. Brittle, and easily frangible. Specific gravity 3.17. It is found in veins, associated with sparry fluor, at Stolberg in the Hartz. 2. Foliated fluor. Its colors are very numerous, pure, and greenish-white, or yellowish or reddish-white, or gray or bluish-gray, or light or violet-blue, or grass, leek, or olive-green, or dark red verging to purple, or purple inclining to the strata seen by a microscopical examination of the specimen.' black, or wine or honey yellow, or yellowishbrown. Many of these occur often in spots, blotches, or veins pervading the mass of one and the same specimen. It is found either amorphous, or crystallised; the most usual of the crystallised forms is that of a perfect cube, the angles or edges rarely truncated or bevelled; these last have sometimes concave planes. The octohedral form is also sometimes met with. Its surface mostly smooth, or frosted over with minute crystals. Lustre 2, 3. Transparency 2,3,4. Fracture foliated, generally straight, seldom curved; some parts, however, are found splintery, as if passing into the compact. Fragments tend to the form of triangular or quadrangular pyramids, and present coarse or small-grained, seldom prismatic, distinct concretions. Hardness 8, being harder than calcareous spar, but not so hard as apatite; very brittle. Specific gravity 3.09 to 3:19; that of the specimen, Leske, O. 1613, is 3.154. Before the blow-pipe it generally decrepitates, gradually loses its color and transparency, and melts, without any flux, into a grayish-white glass. When two fragments are rubbed together, they become luminous in the dark. When gently heated it phosphoresces with a blue and green light; but, by ignition, loses its phosphorescent property. The violet-blue variety, from Nertschinsky, called chlorophane, when placed on glowing coals, does not decrepitate, but soon throws out a green light. It occurs principally in veins that traverse primitive, transition, and sometimes secondary rocks. It has been found only in four places in Scotland; but occurs much more abundantly in England, being found in all the galena veins that traverse the coal formation in Cumberland and Durham: in secondary or floetz limestone in Derbyshire; and it is the most common veinstone in the copper, tin, and lead veins, that traverse granite, clay-slate, &c., in Cornwall and Devonshire. It is also frequent on the continent of Europe. We need offer no apology for extracting the following account of an experiment, by Dr. Brewster, on the phosphorescence of a specimen of the blue foliated fluor: When a thin slice was cut from this specimen, so as to be transparent, it resembled a leaf with veins inclined to the ridge or central line which divided it into two parts. The central line, and several of the veins were colorless; while some of the veins were of a deep amethyst color, and others of a pale amethyst color.' Upon placing this slice on a hot iron,' says Dr. Brewster, in order to examine its phosphorescence, I was surprised to observe that the phosphorescent matter was arranged in strata or veins, parallel to those of the specimen, and each stratum emitted a phosphoric light peculiar to itself, and differing from that of the other strata either in color or intensity. Some of the veins discharged a purple light; others a yellowish-green light; others a whitish light, and others exhibited no phosphorescence at all. The most singular circumstance, however, was that the different strata of phosphoric light preserved their boundaries sharp and well defined, and were far more minute and numerous than 3. Common sand, or earthy fluor. It is of a light gray color and loose consistence; when strewed on an iron plate, heated a little below redness, it diffuses a blue or pale-yellow phosphoric light. According to the experiments of Klaproth and Gmelin, it contains the fluor acid singly, and not the phosphoric. Mr. Pelletier found 100 parts of it to contain thirty-one of silex, twenty-one of calx, 15.5 argil, 28-5 sparry acid, one of phosphoric acid, and one of iron. In an unconnected substance of this sort, different specimens must undoubtedly contain different proportions of ingredients; among these the silex is evidently adventitious, the phosphoric acid being in such small quantity, may be found in some specimens, and not in others. It occurs in veins along with fluor spar at Beeralstone in Devoushire, in Cumberland, in Saxony, and Norway. It has also been found at Kobola Poiana, in the district of Marmaros, in Hungary. The whole of this genus is nearly insoluble in water. It does not effervesce with any acid, except the concentrated vitriolic acid, and with that but feebly. The nitrous and marine acids, in the common temperature of the atmosphere, are not absolutely inert with respect to it, but scarcely dissolve it without decomposition. It is insoluble in the acetous. In a moderate heat it decrepitates; and, if pulverised, phosphoresces, particularly the blue or purple colored; but, if heated to redness, it will never afterwards phosphoresce. In a heat of 130° of Wedgwood, it melts in clay crucibles, or, but less perfectly, in those of chalk, but on charcoal very imperfectly. By concentrated solar heat, or that given out by pure air, it melts into a button which is generally white and opaque when cold; if that heat be long continued, it becomes less fusible. FLUORIC ACID, in chemistry, is an acid generally supposed among chemists, to be a compound of an unknown radical fluorine and hydrogen. Such, at least, is the opinion expressed by Dr. Henry, Dr. Thomson, and Sir H. Davy. Put one part of fluate of lime, i. e. fluor spar, in coarse powder into a leaden or tin retort, and pour upon it two parts of sulphuric acid. Lute the retort to a leaden receiver, containing one part of water, and apply a gentle heat. The fluoric acid gas disengaged will be absorbed by the water, and form liquid fluoric acid, which must be kept in well-closed leaden or tin bottles, or phials coated within with wax or varnish. If the receiver be cooled with ice, and no water put in it, then the condensed acid is an intensely active liquid, first procured by M. Gay Lussac. It has the appearance of sulphuric acid, but is much more volatile, and sends off white fumes when exposed to the moist air. Its specific gravity is only 1.0609. It must be examined with great caution, for when applied to the skin it instantly disorganises it, and produces very painful wounds; and it instantly corrodes and disorganises glass, flints, &c. Its odor resembles muriatic acid, and its action upon all inflammable substances is very feeble, as it does not afford any oxygen to them. With |