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are not agreed. Some take them to have been grottos, derivingtheir name from the statues of the nymphs with which they wereadorned ; but that they were considerable works appears fromtheir being executed by the emperors, (see Ammian, Victor, andCapitolinus;) or by the city-prefects. In an inscription, theterm is written nymsium. None of all these nymphs-a have last-ed down to our tipie, except one, discovered some years ago be-tween Naples and Vesuvius . It is a square building, with onlyone entrance, and some steps that went down to it. On the righthand, in entering towards the head, there is a fountain of the purestwater; along which is laid a naked Arethusa of the whitest mar-ble ; the bottom or ground is of variegated marble, and encom-passed with a canal fed by the water from the fountain.

Nvmphjea, the Wate,r-Lily ; in botany, a genus of the mo-nogynia order, and polvandria class of plants; natural order, Mis-cellanea:. Calyx four, five, or six-leaved ; corolla many-petal-cd ; berry many-celled, truncated. There are six species.

N. Lotus, the Egyptian Lotus, with heart-shaped toothedIpaves, thought to be peculiar to Egypt , is thus mentioned byHerodotus : “ When the river Nile is become full, and all thegrounds round it are a perfect sea, there grows a vast quantity oflilies, which the Egyptians call lotus, in the water. After theyhave cut them, they dry them in the sun; then, having parchedthe seed within the lotus, which is most like the poppy, they makebread of it, baking it with fire. The root also of the lotus is eat-able, easily becoming sweet, being round, and of the size of anapple.” M. Savarv mentions it as growing in the rivulets andon the sides of the lakes ; and there are two sorts or varietiesof the plant, the one with a white, the other with a bluishflower.

N. Lutea, the Yellow Water-Lily, is a native of Britain ,growing in lakes and ditches. Linjixus tells us, that the sw ineare fond of the leaves and roots, and that the smoke of it willdrive away crickets and blattx, or cock-roaches, out of houses.

NYMPlLl'.UM, in ancient geography, a sacred place near

! Apollonia in Illyricum, sending forth continually fire in detached! streams from a green valley and verdant meadows. Dion Cassius adds, that the lire neither hums up nor parches the earth, but thatherbs and trees grow and thrive near it, and therefore the place iscalled nymphxum : near which was an oracle of such a nature,that the tire, to shew that the wish was granted, consumed thefrankincense thrown into it: but repelled it, in case the desire wasrejected.

NYMPII-ISANK, a great fishing bank in the Irish sea, situat-! ed about ten leagues off the coast of the county of Waterford,

■ and province of Munster , eleven leagues S. S. E. of the high headI of Dungarvon.

’ NYON, a considerable town of Switzerland , in the canton of• Bern , and capital of bailiwick so named. It stands delightfully1 upon the edge of the lake of Geneva, in the very pointI where it begins to widen, and in a very pleasant country tom-i monly called Pays de Vand. It was formerly called ColoniaEquestris Naiodunum, and, as a proof of its antiquity, severalRoman inscriptions, and other ancient remains, have been fro-i quentlv discovered in the outskirts of the town. Lon. 5. 15. E. Lat.4i. 2 fi.'N.

NYSA, or NYSSA, in ancient geography, a town of Ethio-pia , S. of Egypt.

NYSLO'I, a strong town of Russia , in Livonia, witli a cas-tle ; seated on the Narva . Lon. 26. 55. E. Lat. 58. 46. N.

NYSSA, in botany, a genus of the order diiccia, and poly-gamia class of plants; natural order, Hnloracea’. Calyx, five-parted ; corolla none : male, stamens ten : hermaphrodite, sta-mens five; pistil one; drupe inferior, 'there are two species,viz. N. integrifolia, inountain-tupelo ; and N. denticuiata, waler-tupelo ; the former of which grows naturally in Pennsylvania ,rising to the height of thirty or forty feet, and nearly two in dia-meter, sending ofif many horizontal and often depending branches.

NYSTED, a town of Denmark , in Lalancl, jy miles S. E. ofNaskow. Lon. 11.40. E. Lat. 54. 45. N.

o.

O oi O, the fourteenth letter, and fourth vowel of our alpha-j bet, pronounced as in the words nose, rose, See. It isusually denoted long by a servile a subjoined ; as, moan, or by eat the end of the syllable; as, bone; when these vowels are notappended, it is generally short, except before ll; as, droll, scroll,and even then sometimes short; as, loll. Its sound is often so softas to require it double, and that chiefly in the middle of words;as goose, reproof, Se c. And in some words this oo is pronouncedI ke u short, as in flood, blood, Sec. The Greeks had two O’s ;viz. omicron, o, and omega w ; the first pronounced on the tip oithe lips with a sharper sound ; the second in the middle of themouth, with a fuller sound, equal to two oo in our language. Thelong and short pronunciation of our O are equivalent to the twoGreek ones; the first, as in suppose ; the second as in obey. Asa numeral, O was sometimes used for 11 among the ancients ; andwith a dash over it thus, o, for 11,000. In modern arithmetic, itis used for the cypher and represents nothing, by which thatscience and all others connected with it have been brought totheir present state of perfection. As an abbreviation, in notes olthe ancients, O. CON. is read opus conductum ; O. C. Q. operaconsilioque ; O. D. M. opera: donum munus; and 0. LO. opuslocatum. Among the Irish , the letter O, at the beginning of thename of a family, is said to be a character of dignity annexed togreat houses. Thus, in the history of Ireland , we frequently meetwith the 0 Neals, O Carrots, Sec. considerable houses in thatisland. Cambden observes, that it is the custom of the lords of

Ireland to prefix an O to thei' - names to distinguish them from thecommonalty. But we rather suspect the O prefixed to Irish names to be a Patronymic syllable signifying grandson, as Oy stilldoes in the old .Scottish dialect, used m a similar manner withMac, in the Gaelic , which, every body knows signifies son. Inmusic, the ancients used O as a mark of triple time ; from a no-tion that the ternary, or number 3, was the most perfect of num-bers, and therefore properly expressed by a circle, the most per-fect of figures. It is not, strictly speaking, the letter O, but thefigure of a circle O, or double C 3 , by which they used to ex-press what they called tempo perfccto, or triple time. Hence theItalians call it circolo.

OAK, in botany. The oak has been long known amongmen by the title of monarch of the woods. The ancient druidshad a most profound veneration for oak-trees: and some derivetheir very name from the old British word dm, an oak. SeeDruids . The bark, leaves, and saw-dust, are used in tanning,and dyeing, for manure, and for medical purposes. SeeQuercus .

OAKHAM. See Okeham.

OAKHAMPTON, a town of Devonshire , on the Oke, 24miles W. of Exeter . Lon. 4. 5. W. Lat. 50. 48. N.

OAKINGIIAM, or WOKINGHAM, a town of Berkshire ,near Wilts, 7 miles E. S. E. of.Reading, and 32 W. of Lon-don .

OAKUM, old ropes untwisted, and pulled out into loose

7 hemp,