HIATUS

(Lat. yawning, gaping.) A word which has pa ed into several modern languages. In Diplomatics and Bibliography, it signifies a deficiency in the text of an author, as from a pa age erased, worn out, . In Grammar and Prosody, it properly signifies the occurrence of a final vowel, followed immediately by the initial vowe of another word, without the suppre ion of either by an apostrophe. This, in Greek and Latin poetry, was only admi ible in certain excepted cases; as where, in Greek, a final long vowel is succeeded by an initial short vowel, and becomes sometimes short by position; or in Latin, where the ccesura {see C^sura) gave an additional force to the first vowel, as in the celebrated line, " Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio O am," which affords an instance of both, the first hiatus being occasioned by the caesura; the second, an imitation of the Greek prosody. In French the hiatus is carefully avoided: in English le so, although by the more accurate poets still regarded as a blemish, except in some instances where a long vowel is followed by a short one. The worst species of hiatus is where the same vowel sound is repeated. HIBISCUS (for Hybriscus; Gr. vQ^i?, haughtine ). A genus of very handsome plants, belonging to the Malvaceous order, with unusually large and showy flowers. They are numerous in the tropics, where they generally form fine trees; but some of the species are only annual. Of the latter H. trionum is a commonly cultivated plant, known in the seed-shops under the name of bladder hatinia. Very few of the species are of any interest. //. Syriacus is the Althcea frutex of shrubberies j H. abeimoschus yields the musk-seed of pharmacy; and H. esculent us, the Gobbo or Ochro of the tropics, bears seed-ve els abounding so much in mucilage as to be a common ingredient in the soups of the hotter climates of the world. H. Rosa sinensis, a Chinese plant, is remarkable for the property po e ed by its flowers of dyeing black. [s. 568]