most fatal enemies of the whale tribe. Its strength is so great that it is said to have pervaded with its snout, or sword, the plank of an East Indiaman; and a plank and snout in attestation of this circumstance, the latter closely driven into the former, are to be seen in the British Museum, having been communicated to Sir Joseph Banks by an East India Captain, of honour and veracity. When young this fish is used for food, but after it exceeds four or five feet in length. XIPHIDIUM, in botany, a genus of the Triandria Monogynia class and order. Na tural order of Ensatæ. Irides, Jussieu. Essential character: corolla six-petalled, equal; capsule superior, three-celled, many-seeded, There are two species, viz. X. album and X. cæruleum.

XYLOCARPUS, in botany, a genus of the Octandria Monogynia class and order. Essential character: calyx four-toothed; corolla four-petalled; nectary eight-cleft; filaments inserted into the nectary; drupe juiceless, large, four or five-grooved; nuts eight or ten, difform. There is but one species, viz. X. granatum, a native of the East Indies.

XYLOMELUM, in botany, a genus of the Tetrandria Monogynia class and order. Natural order of Proteæ, Jussieu. Essential character: ament with a simple scale; petals four, staminiferous; stigma clubshaped, obtuse. This is one of twenty new genera from the South Seas; the characters of which are given by Dr. Smith.

XYLON. See GoSSYPIUM.

XYLOPHYLLA, in botany, sea-side laurel, a genus of the Pentandria Trigynia class and order. Natural order of Tricoecæ. Euphorbiæ, Jussieu. Essential character: calyx five-parted, coloured; corolla none; stigmas jagged; capsule threecelled; seeds two. There are seven species.

XYLOPIA, in botany, bitter-wood, a gems of the Polyandria Polygynia class and order. Natural order of Coadunatæ. Anonæ, Jussieu. Essential character: calyx three-leaved; petals six; capsule one or twoseeded, four-cornered, two-valved; seeds arilled. There are three species.

XYLOSMA, in botany, a genus of the Dioecia Polyandria class and order. Es sential character: calyx four or five-parted; corolla none, but a small annular crenulate nectary surrounding the stamens : male, stamens twenty to fifty: female, style scarcely any; stigma trifid; berry dry, subbilocular; seeds two, three-sided. There are two species, viz. X, suaveolens and X. orbiculatum.

XYRIS, in botany, a genus of the Triandria Monogynia class and order. Natural order of Ensatæ. Junci, Jussieu. Essential character: corolla three-petalled, eqnal, crenate; glumes two-valved in a head; cap sule superior. There are four species.

Y, Ory, the twenty-third letter of our

alphabet: its sound is formed by expressing the breath with a sudden expansion of the lips from that configuration by which we express the vowel u. It is a consonant in the beginning of words, and placed before all vowels, as in yard, yield, young, &c. but before no consonant. At the end of words it is a vowel, and is substituted for the sound of i, as in try, descry, &c. In the middle of words it is not used so frequently as i is, unless in words derived from the Greek, as in chyle, empyreal, &c. though

it is admitted into the middle of some pare English words, as in dying, flying, &c. Y is also a numeral, signifying 150, or, according to Baronius, 159; and with a dash atop, as Y, it signified 150,000.

YACHT, or YATCH, a vessel with one deck, carrying from four to twelve guns.

YARD, a measure of length used in England and Spain, chiefly to measure cloth, stuffs, &c. See MEASURE,

YARD land is taken to signify a certain quantity of land, in some counties being fifteen acres, and in others twenty; in some

twenty-four, and in others thirty and forty

acres.

YARDS of a ship, are those long pieces of timber which are made a little tapering at each end, and are fitted each athwart its proper mast, with the sails made fast to them, so as to be hoisted up, or lowered down, as occasion serves. They have their names from the masts to which they belong.

There are several sea-terms relating to the management of the yards; as, square the yards; that is, see that they hang right across the ship, and no yard arm traversed more than another: top the yards, that is, make them stand even. To top the main and fore yards, the clew-lines are the most proper; but when the top-sails are stowed, then the top-sail-sheets will top them.

YARD arm is that half of the yard that is on either side of the mast, when it lies athwart the ship.

YARDS also denotes places belonging to the navy, where the ships of war, &c. are laid up in harbour. There are, belonging to his Majesty's navy, six great yards, viz. Chatham, Deptford, Woolwich, Portsmouth, Sheerness, and Plymouth; these yards are fitted with several docks, wharfs, launches, and graving places, for the building, repairing, and cleaning of his Majesty's ships; and therein are lodged great quantities of timber, masts, planks, anchors, and other materials: there are also convenient store-houses in each yard, in which are laid up vast quantities of cables, rigging, sails, blocks, and all other sorts of stores, needful for the royal navy.

YARE, among sailors, implies ready or quick; as, be yare at the helm; that is, be quick, ready, and expeditious at the helm. It is sometimes also used for bright by seamen: as, to keep his arms yare; that is, to keep them clean and bright.

YARN, wool or flax spun into thread, of which they weave cloth.

YEAR, the time that the sun takes to go through the twelve signs of the zodiac. See CHRONOLOGY.

YEAR and DAY, is a time that determines a right in many cases; and, in some, works an usurpation, and in others a prescription; as in case of an estray, if the owner, proclamation being made, challenge it not within the time, it is forfeited.

So is the year and day, given in case of appeal; in case of descent after entry or claim; if no claim upon a fine or writ of right at the common law; so if a villain re.

maining in ancient demesne; of a man sore bruised or wounded; of protections; essoigns in respect of the King's service; of a wreck, and divers other cases.

YEARS, estate for. Tenant for term of years is, where a man letteth lands or tenements to another, for a certain term of years agreed upon between the lessor and lessee; and when the lessee entereth by force of the lease, then he is tenant for term of years.

If tenements be let to a man for term of half a year, or for a quarter of a year, or any less time, this lessee is respected as tenant for years, and is styled so in some legal proceedings, a year being the shortest term which the law in this case takes notice of.

Generally, every estate which must expire at a period certain and prefixed, by whatever words created, is an estate for years, and therefore this estate is frequently called a term, because its duration or continuance is bounded, limited, and determined. For every such estate must have a certain beginning and certain end. If no day of commencement be named in the creation of this estate, it begins from the making or delivery of the lease. A lease for so many years as such an one shall live, is void from the beginning, for it is neither certain, nor can it ever be reduced to a certainty, during the continuance of the lease. And the same doctrine holds, if a parson make a lease of his glebe for so many years as he shall continue parson of such a church, for this is still more uncertain. But a lease for twenty or more years, if the parson shall so long live, or if he shall so long continue parson, is good; for there is a certain period fixed, beyond which it can not last, though it may determine sooner, on the parson's death, or his ceasing to be parson there.

An estate for years, though never SO many, is inferior to an estate for life. For as estate for life, though it be only for the life of another person, is a freehold; but an estate, though it be for a thousand years, is only a chattel, and reckoned part of the personal estate. For no estate of freehold can commence in futuro, because it cannot be created at common law without livery of seisin, or corporal possession of the land; and corporal possession cannot be given of an estate now, which is not to commence now, but hereafter. And because no livery of seisin is necessary for a lease for years, such a lessee is not said to be seised, or to

have true legal seisiu of the lands. Nor, indeed, doth the bare lease vest any estate in the lessee, but only gives him a right of entry on the tenement, which right is called his interest in the term; but when he has actually so entered, and thereby accepted the grant, the estate is then, and not before, vested in him, and he is possessed not properly of the land, but of the term of years, the possession or seisin of the land remaining still in him who has the freehold.

YELLOW earth, named by Werner, gelberde, is of a yellow ochre colour of various degrees of intensity. It is massive, soft and friable: it adheres strongly to the tongue and feels greasy. It occurs in beds with iron-stone in Upper Saxony, and is employed as a yellow pigment.

YELLOW, Naples, a fine pigment so called from the city in which it was long prepared. It has the appearance of an earth, is very friable, heavy, porous, and not altered by exposure to the air. The preparation is kept a secret, but by analysis it is found to be a metallic oxide. A similar pigment may be produced by mixing twelve parts of ceruss: three of diaphoretic antimony, and of alum and sal-ammoniac one part each: heat them for some time to a temperature below redness, and afterwards in a red heat for three hours longer, after which the mass will have acquired a beautiful yellow colour.

YEOMAN, is defined to be one that hath fee land of 408. a year; who was thereby, heretofore, qualified to serve on juries, and can yet vote for knights of the shire, and do any other act where the law requires one that is probus et legalis homo. Below yeomen are ranked tradesmen, artificers, and labourers,

YEST, YEAST, or BARM, a head, or scum rising upon beer or ale, while working or fermenting in the vat. See BREWING, FERMENTATION, &c.

It is used for a leaven or ferment in the baking of bread, as serving to swell or puff it up very considerably in a little time, and to make it much lighter, softer, and more delicate. When there is too much of it, it renders the bread bitter. See BAKING and BREAD.

Yeast consists of gluten, sugar, and m cilage, with some alcohol, and a portion of malic, acetic, and carbonic acids; but the essential parts of yeast are gluten mixed with a vegetable acid, and therefore dried yeast, which must have lost some of its component parts, is fit for fermentation equally with that which is fresh and new. YEW. See TAXUS.

YTTRIA. See ITTRIA.

YUCCA, in botany, Adam's needle, a ge nus of the Hexandria Monogynia class and order. Natural order of Coronaria. Lilia, Jussieu. Essential character: corolla bellshaped, spreading; style none; capsule three-celled. There are four species.

YUNX, the wry-neck, in natural history, a genus of birds of the order Pice. Generic character; bill somewhat round, slightly incurvated and weak; nostrils bare and rather concave; tongue long, slender, and armed at the point; tail, of ten flexible feathers; feet formed for climbing; toes two before and two behind. There is only one species.

Y. torquilla, or the wry-neck, is allied in some respects to the woodpecker, and in others to the cuckow. It is about the size of a lark, and its colours, though not glaring, are mingled with extreme neatness, and even elegance. It makes no nest, but lays eight or ten eggs on the bare wood in hollow trees. In England it is a bird of passage, generally appearing about ten days before the cuckow. Its food consists chiefly of ants, which during incubation the male may be observed carrying to the female. The young on experiencing any annoyance utter a hissing noise, which excites the idea of some venomous reptile, and has frequently proved their security from destruction. At the end of summer the wryneck is extremely plump and fat; and is considered by some as little inferior to the ortolan for the table. It is never seen in flocks, and in pairs only during the spring and summer, after which each individual has its solitary haunt in this country, and withdraws unaccompanied in its flight in its winter migration.