syagrus

[Named from Syagrus, who first wrote the history of the Trojan War in verse.] Bot.: A genus of unarmed Cocoese, closely akin to Cocos itself. Flower spike enveloped in a double spathe; fruit like that of the cocoanut, but with a channel running from each of the three pores to the apex of the fruit. Known species five or six, chiefly from Brazil. *sy-al-ite, s. [Malabar syalita .] Bot.: Dillenia indica . Syb-ar-īte, subst . [Latin Sybarites , from Greek Sybarites a Sybarite, an inhabitant of Sybaris.] Originally an inhabitant of Sybaris, an ancient Greek town in southern Italy, noted for the effemi nacy and voluptuousne of its inhabitants; hence an effeminate person; a person devoted to luxury and pleasure. Syb-ar-it-Ic, Syb-ar-it-ic-al, a. [SYBARITE.] Effeminate, luxurious, wanton. "Like most Trent fishermen, evidently had a supreme contempt for the Sybaritic vehicle of the Thames angler." -Field, Dec. 26, 1886. Syb-ar-it-işm, subst . [Eng. Sybarit(e); -ism.] Effeminacy, wantonne , voluptuousne . "Sufficient to elevate to the seventh heaven of Sybarit . ism an amateur of oysters."-London Daily Telegraph . 3968 "Returning one day in a temporary fit of nostalgia to his old University, he was twitted with his subotic tenden- cies, was advised to edit Theocritus, and was asked what a scholar and a gentleman could po ibly see in a fat hog." -London Daily Telegraph. *sy-bot-ism, subst . [Eng.sybot(ic); -ism.] The tending of swine. ( London Daily Telegraph .) syc-a-mine, s. [Gr. sykaminos .] [SYCOMORE.] 1. Ordinary Language and Botany: (1) The woodbine (?). "The hegge also, that yede in compas And closed in all the green herbere, With sycamour was set, and eglatere." Chaucer: Flower and Leaf, 54. (2) Acer pseudo - platan us , an umbrageous tree, forty to sixty feet high; with spreading branches; large, five-lobed, coarsely and unequally serrate leaves, glaucous and downy on the veins beneath; pendulous racemes of greenish flowers, and glabrous fruit furnished with two long, membranous wings. It flowers in May and June. The wood is used for bowls, trenchers, and other turnery. The sap is sacchariferous. It grows wild in Switz erland, Germany, Austria, Italy, and western Asia. It is a hardy tree, flourishing in spite of high winds or sea spray. When the leaves first appear (in April) they are covered with a clammy juice containing about one part in eleven of sugar, attract ive to insects, by which they are perforated and disfigured. The name is also applied to the plane tree or buttonwood of America, and the fig mulberry of Egypt and Syria. [SYCOMORE.] 2. Entom.: A European night-moth, Acronycta acer is, so called because the caterpillar-which, when alarmed, rolls itself up like a millepede feeds chiefly on the sycamore, though also on the horse-chestnut and the oak. 3. Script.: [SYCOMORE.] sycamore-fig, s. Bot.: Ficus sycomorus .