nipadites

[Mod. Lat. nipa, gen it. nipa d(is); suff. -ites ( Palæont.).] Palæobot.: A genus of fo il fruits, believed by Brongniart to approach those of Pandanus, but which Bower bank considers yet more akin to those of Nipa (q. v.). They have four, five, or six irregular surfaces, and the base torn. They are so abundant on the beach at Sheppey that the women and children have given them a name, calling them "figs." They were washed from the London Clay. They were believed by Bower bank to have floated in the estuary of a great river which probably flowed, in Eocene times, from near the Equator and fell into the sea near Sheppey. He described and figured thirteen species: Nipadites umbonatus , N. ellip tic us, N. cra us, N. cordiform is, N. pruniformis , N. acutus , N. clavatus , N. lanceolatus , N. parkin son is , N. turgid us , N. giganteus , N. semi teres , and N. pyramidal is. (Bower bank: Fo ils of the London Clay , pp. 1-25.) Hooker combines N. turgid us and N. giganteus into a single species, which he calls N. burtini . Brongniart's specimens were from Belgium. *nip-cheese, s. [Eng. nip , v., and cheese .] A very miserly or parsimonious person; a skinflint. *nip-far-thing, s. [Eng. nip , v., and farthing .] A niggardly person; a skinflint. "I would thee not a nip farthing, Nor yet a niggard have." Drant: Horace, Sat. 1.