Id.

Id.

As are most known to youth and liberty. Adoption strives with nature, and choice breeds A native slip to us from foreign seeds. I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, Straining upon the start. Id. Henry V. In large wounds a single knot first; over this a little linen compress, on which is another single knot and then a slipknot, which may be loosened upon inflammation. Shakspeare.

When they fall, as being slippery standers, The love that leaned on them, as slippery too, Doth one pluck down another, and together Die in the fast.

Id. Troilus and Cressida.

You are not now to think what's best to do, As in beginnings; but what must be done, Being thus entered; and slip no advantage That may secure you. Ben Jonson's Catiline. Of the promise there made, our master hath failed us, by slip of memory, or injury of time.

Wotton's Architecture. The slips of their vines have been brought into Spain. Abbot.

God is said to harden the heart permissively, but not operatively, nor effectively; as he who only lets loose a greyhound out of the slip, is said to hound him at the hare. Bramhall.

Thrice around his neck his arms he threw, And thrice the flitting shadow slipped away, Like winds or empty dreams that fly the day. Id. The' impatient greyhound, slipt from far, Bounds o'er the glebe to course the fearful hare. Alonzo, mark the characters; And if the' impostor's pen have made a slip That shews it counterfeit, mark that and save me.

Beauty, like ice, our footing does betray; Who can tread sure on the smooth slippery way? I'll slip down out of my lodging.

ld.

Id.

Id.

Id. Don Sebastian. One ill man may not think of the mischief he could do, or slip the occasion. L'Estrange.

One casual slip is enough to weigh down the faithful service of a long life. Id.

One sure trick is better than a hundred slippery

ones.

Id.

The daw did not like his companion, and gave him the slip, and away into the woods. Id. For watching occasions to correct others in their discourse, and not to slip any opportunity of shewing their talents, scholars are most blamed. Locke.

Lighting upon a very easy slip I have made, in putting one seemingly indifferent word for another, that discovery opened to me this present view. Id. Their explications are not yours, and will give you the slip.

Id.

They are propagated not only by the seed, but many also by the root, and some by slips or cuttings. Ray on the Creation. They trim their feathers, which makes them oily and slippery, that the water may slip off them.

Mortimer.

The runners spread from the master-roots, and have little sprouts or roots to them, which, being cut four or five inches long, make excellent sets: the branches also may be slipped and planted. Id. Husbandry. They draw off so much line as is necessary, and fasten the rest upon the line-rowl with a slipknot, that no more line turn off. Moron's Mechanical Exercises.

If he went abroad too much, she'd use To give him slippers, and lock up his shoes. King. When a corn slips out of their paws, they take hold of it again. Addison's Spectator. The mathematician proceeds upon propositions he has once demonstrated; and, though the demonstration may have slipt out of his memory, he builds upon the truth. Addison.

Any little slip is more conspicuous and observable in a good man's conduct than in another's, as it is not of a piece with his character. Id. Spectator. Between these eastern and western mountains lies a slip of lower ground, which runs across the island. Addison.

If a man walks over a narrow bridge when he is drunk, it is no wonder that he forgets his caution while he overlooks his danger; but he who is sober, and views that nice separation between himself and the devouring deep, so that, if he should slip, he sees his grave gaping under him, surely must needs take every step with horror and the utmost caution.

South.

Prior.

If after some distinguished leap He drops his pole, and seems to slip, Straight gathering all his active strength, He rises higher half his length. We do not only fall by the slipperiness of our tongues, but we deliberately discipline them to mis. Government of the Tongue.

chief.

bone slips out again.

Wiseman.

The schirrus may be distinguished by its want of inflammation in the skin, its smoothness, and slipperiness deep in the breast. Sharp's Surgery.

Some mistakes may have slipt into it; but others will be prevented. Pope.

Thrice rung the bell, the slipper knocked the
ground,

And the pressed watch returned a silver sound. Id.
I will impute no defect to those two years which
have slipped by since.
Swift to Pope.
Forced to alight, my horse slipped his bridle, and
Swift.
The slipshod 'prentice from his master's door
Had pared the dirt, and sprinkled round the floor.

ran away.

Id.

To rise at noon, sit slipshod and undressed, To read the news, or fiddle, as seems best, Till half the world comes rattling at his door, To fill the dull vacuity till four; And, just when evening turns the blue vault gray, To spend two hours in dressing for the day.

İd.

SLIP, in ship-building, is a place lying with a gradual descent on the banks of a river, convenient for SHIP-BUILDING; which see.

SLIPS, in horticulture, such portions of plants as are slipped off from the stems or branches for the purpose of being planted out as sets. A great number of plants, both of the woody and herbaceous kinds, is propagated by slips, which is effected in the woody kinds by slipping off small young shoots from the sides of the branches, &c., with the thumb and finger, instead of cutting them off with a knife; but there is no material difference, in the success or future growth, between slips and cuttings, only the former in small young shoots is more proper to be slipped off by the hand, which, in numerous small shrubby plants, will grow; but it is more commonly practised in the lower ligneous plants, such as sage, winter-savory, hyssop, thyme, southernwood, rosemary, rue, lavender, and others of VOL. XX.

slow shrubby growths. The best season of the year for effecting the work is generally the spring and beginning of summer, though many sorts will grow if planted at almost any time, from the spring to the latter end of the summer, as shown in speaking of their culture. In performing the work of slipping, in these sorts, the young shoots of but one year's growth, and in many sorts the shoots of the year, should be chosen as growing the most readily, even when to plant the same summer they are produced, especially the hard-wooded kinds: but, in the more soft-wooded plants, the slips of one year's growth will also often readily grow; being careful always to choose the moderately-growing sideshoots situated on the outward part of the plants, from three to six or eight inches long, slipping them off close to the branches, and clearing off the lower leaves; then planting them in a shady border, if in summer, and watered, or so as they can be occasionally shaded in hot sunny weather, especially small slips, inserting the whole two parts of three into the ground, giving occasional water in dry warm weather, till properly rooted; and then towards autumn, or in the spring following, transplanting them where they are to remain: but, in planting slips of the shoots of tender shrubby exotics of the greenhouse and stove, many sorts require the aid of a hot-bed or bark-bed, to promote their emitting roots more effectually, as shown in their respective culture; but some others of the shrubby kinds, such as geraniums, will root freely in the natural earth in summer; and many of the herbaceous tribe, producing bottom-rooted offsets for slips, as aloes, &c., also readily grow, either with or without a hot-bed; but, where there is the convenience of hot-beds in which to plunge the pots of slips of tender plants, it runs them off more expeditiously; and most hot-house plants in particular require that assistance. But many shrubby plants, growing into large bunches from the root of the small under-shrubby kinds, as thyme, savory, hyssop, sage, &c., as well as those of larger growth, as roses, spiræas, raspberries, and numerous other sorts, may be slipped quite to the bottom into separate plants, each furnished with roots, and planted either in nursery rows, or at once where they are to remain.

As to the slipping of herbaceous plants, various sorts multiply by the roots, &c., into large bunches, which may be slipped into many separate plants, by slipping off the increased suckers or offsets of the root, and in some sorts by the offsets from the sides of the head of the plants, and in a few sorts by slips of their bottom shoots, as well as of the stalks and branches in plants of bushy growth; but the greater part by slipping the roots, as in many of the bulbous-rooted tribe, and numerous fibrous-rooted kinds of plants. The slipping of the bulbous plants is performed in summer when their leaves decay, the roots being then taken up, slipping off all the small offsets from the main bulb, which are generally soon planted again in nursery-beds for a year or two. In the fibrous-rooted sorts, the slipping should generally be performed in the spring or early part of autumn, which may be effected either by slipping the outside offsets with roots, as the

2 I

plants stand in the ground; or more effectually, by taking the whole bunch of plants up, and slipping them into several separate parts, each slip being furnished also with roots, planting them, if small, in nursery-rows for a year, to gain strength; or such as are strong may be planted at once where they are to remain. See the culture of the different sorts under their respective heads.

SLIPPING, in rural economy, is a term used among animals to denote abortion in them. Thus mares are said to slip their colts, ewes their lambs, and cows their calves. And it has been suggested that cows in calf, by smelling to any flesh, particularly in a putrescent state, are affected by such a nausea as to stimulate the womb to action, and to eject the fœtus: this is well known in the north of Scotland, where it is

particularly guarded against. It is observed by Mr. Ross, in the twenty-fifth volume of the Annals of Agriculture, that, through the inattention of a game-keeper, there was always horseflesh lying about his yards, and he had many cows which slipped calves. It is supposed, in the Essex Agricultural Report, that bleeding, when one-third or half gone, is a preventative. When it happens, the abortion should be immediately buried, and the cow kept as widely apart as possible from the herd, and not receive the bull that goes with them. It is considered as certainly infectious. In Sussex it has been supposed by some that the slipping of lambs has been caused by too free a use of rape, as one large sheep-farmer, some years since, lost eighty or ninety in this way; which was supposed to arise from feeding the ewes upon it about the end of the year, though it had been made use of before without any bad effect of this kind. The ewes in this instance had been hard kept. Ewes are, from some cause or other, very subject to slip their lambs, and of course require much care and attention in this respect.

SLIT, v. a., pret. and part. slit and slitted. Saxon rhtan; Goth. and Swed. slita. To cut longwise; a long cut or opening.

To make plants medicinable, slit the root, and infuse into it the medicine, as hellebore, opium, scammony, and then bind it up. Bacon's Natural History.

In St. James's fields is a conduit of brick, unto which joineth a low vault, and at the end of that a round house of stone; and in the brick conduit there is a window, and in the round house a slit or rift of some little breadth: if you cry out in the rift, it will make a fearful roaring at the window.

Bacin. The deers of Arginusa had their ears divided, occasioned at first by slitting the ears.

Browne's Vulgar Errours.

SLOANE (Sir Hans), bart., an eminent physician and naturalist, was of Scottish extraction, his father Alexander Sloane being at the head of that colony of Scots which king James VI. settled in the north of Ireland, where our author was born, at Killieagh, on the 16th of April 1660. At a very early period he displayed a strong inclination for natural history; and, this propensity being encouraged by a suitable education, he employed those hours which young people generally lose in trifling amusements in appropriate studies. When about sixteen he was attacked by a spitting of blood, which threatened danger, and interrupted the regular course of his studies for three years. Upon this he laid down for himself a regimen of temperance; by strictly observing which he was enabled to prolong his life beyond the ordinary bounds. On his recovery he resolved to perfect himself in the different branches of medicine, and with this view went to London. On his arrival he became a pupil to the great Stafforth, an excellent chemist, bred under the illustrious Stahl; and soon gained a perfect knowledge of the composition and preparation of the various medicines then in use. He also studied botany at Chelsea, and attended the public lectures on anatomy and physic. His chief merit, however, was his knowledge of natural history; and this introduced him early to the acquaintance of Mr. Boyle and Mr. Ray, two of the most eminent naturalists of that age. His intimacy with these

distinguished characters continued as long as they lived; and, as he communicated to them every object of curiosity that attracted his attention, his observations often excited their admiration. After studying four years in London Mr. Sloane determined to visit foreign countries for improvement. With this view he set out for France in the company of two other students, and, having crossed to Dieppe, proceeded to Paris. In the way thither they were elegantly entertained by the famous M. Lemery the elder; and in return Mr. Sloane presented that eminent chemist with a specimen of four different kinds of phosphorus, o. which, upon the credit of other writers, M. Lemery had treated in his book of chemistry, though he had never seen any of them. See LEMERY. At Paris Mr Sloane attended the hos