between two tiers of scales, which form a protection, and probably give strength to the basal portion of the fin-rays. These fins extend the whole length of the body; the head and teeth are nearly the same as in the true Coryphene; the scales are large.

P. ocella'us (Cuv) is about 4 inches in length, and of a silvery hue; the pectoral and caudal fins are yellowish; the others are bluish-gray, and the dorsal fin has a large blue spot near its highest part.

Eyes rather distant, borne upon large peduncles, which are nearly cylindrical, and somewhat short. Anterior feet (chelæ) large, equal, twice as long as the body, and nearly cylindrical in the males; in the females, of about the length of the body, and compressed, especially towards the hand (manus). The other feet terminated by an elongated nail or claw, which is straight, pointed, and channeled longitudinally. Carapace oblong-oval, terminated by a rostrum anteriorly truncated and bordered posteriorly. The regions but slightly indicated, with the exception of the cordial region, the branchial or lateral regions being very much elongated.

Pteraclis ocellatus.

CORYPHODON, a genus of Fossil Animals belonging to the family of Tapirs. The remains of this genus have been found in this country; and although closely allied to the genus Lophiodon of Cuvier, Professor Owen regards its differences as of sufficient importance to constitute a new type. The specimen on which this genus was established is unique, and was dredged up from the bottom of the sea between St. Osyth and Harwich on the Essex coast, and now forms part of the collection of John Brown, Esq., of Hanway Green, near Colchester. This specimen is petrified, containing metallic salts, and having the appearance of fossils from the London Clay. There can be little doubt that it was originally imbedded in the Eocene Tertiary Formation of the Harwich coast. It consists of the right branch of the lower jaw, containing the last and part of the penultimate molar teeth of the lower jaw. Although this fragment resembles the same bone in the genus Lophiodon, yet a close examination of the crown of the last molar tooth exhibits a smaller antero-posterior diameter in proportion to its transverse diameter, as compared with the corresponding tooth in that genus. It also differs from the teeth of Anthracotherium, to which it has some resemblance. Professor Owen infers from this and other characters of these teeth that "the whole dental series of the extinct Eocene Pachyderms offered modifications of the Lophiodont type of dentition, which led towards that of the Anthracotherium, more especially of the smaller species from Garonne and Valery. From the closer resemblance which the fossil presents to the true Lophiodons, it must be regarded as a member of the same family of Tapiroid Pachyderms; indicating therein a distinct subgenus, characterised by the want of parallelism of the two principal transverse riges, and by the rudimental state of the posterior talon in the last molar tooth of the lower jaw. The name Coryphodon, which I have proposed for this sub-genus, is derived from xopuph, a point, and odoùs, a tooth; and is significative of the development of the ridges into points. The broad ridged and pointed grinding surface of the tooth indicates its adaptation to comminute the coarser kinds of vegetable substances; and it is very probable that the habits and food of the Tapir, which is the nearest existing analogue of the Coryphodon, are not very dissimilar from those which characterised of old the present extinct species and the true Lophiodons."

Professor Owen gives the species the name of Coryphodon Eocanus. He also describes a tooth found in digging.for a well at Camberwell, at a depth of 160 feet in the Plastic Clay. After describing this tooth, Mr. Owen says, "From its close resemblance in the essential characters of its form to the canines of the great extinct Tapiroid Pachyderms, and the apparent specific distinctions from any of the known species of Lophiodon, I strongly suspect it to have belonged to a Coryphodon." (Owen, British Fossil Mammals and Birds.)

CORYSTES, a genus of Brachyurous or Short-Tailed Crustacea. The species have the following characters:-Exterior antennæ longer than the body, setaceous, with two rows of cilia. Jaw-feet (piedsmachoires) having their third joint longer than the second, straight, terminated by an obtuse point, with a notch upon its internal border.

forwards on each side. The male has but five abdominal pieces; but, as M. Latreille observes, the vestiges of the separation of the two others may be clearly remarked upon the intermediate or third piece, which is the largest of all.

It is found on the coasts of England and France. The specimens figured by Pennant were dredged up from deep water near Holyhead and Red Wharf, Anglesey.

M. Desmarest is of opinion that the natural relations of his crustacean approximate it to Atelecyclus, Thia, and Leucosia, of which M. Latreille forms his Orbicular Tribe (Les Orbiculaires). Dr. Leach, he adds, in his method, placed them near the first two of the above-mentioned genera, solely because they have the same number of abdominal articulations. The Leucosia, in which the number of those articulations is less considerable, are removed to a distance.

COSCINO'PORA, a genus of Fossil Corals proposed by Goldfuss. C. infundibuliformis occurs in the Chalk of Ireland.

CO'SSONUS (Clairville), a genus of Coleopterous Insects belonging to the family Curculionida. It has the following characters :Antennæ short, rather thick; funiculus 7-jointed, the basal joints longer than the following; club large and of an oval form; rostrum rather long, thickened at the apex; thorax truncated before and behind, and somewhat depressed above; elytra elongate, moderately convex above, and covering the abdomen; tibiæ dilated towards the apex, where there is a large hook; tarsi rather slender, the penultimate joint bilobed.

About seventeen species of this genus are known, of which Schönherr selects C. linearis as the type. This species is not uncommon in England, and has been found in Boleti and in old trees. It is about a quarter of an inch in length, and of a narrow elongated form, and black or brown colour; the elytra are punctate-striated. C. tardus is another British species which closely resembles the last, but is of a larger size, being nearly half an inch in length.

COSSUS (Fabricius), a genus of Insects belonging to the section Lepidoptera nocturna, Moths, and the family Hepialida (Stephens). The species have the following characters :-Antennæ long, rather slender. furnished on the inner edge with a series of transverse elevated ridges (which when viewed from the side resemble the teeth of a saw); two distinct palpi, thickly clothed with scales, and each 3-jointed; head very small; upper wings longer and larger than the lower; body large. Larva lignivorous. Pupa inclosed in a

cocoon.

C. ligniperda (Fab.), the Goat-Moth, is one of the largest of the British moths, measuring from tip to tip of the wings when expanded from 3 to 3 inches. It is of a gray colour; the upper wings are mottled with white, and adorned with numerous irregular black lines; the under wings are almost of a uniform brownish ash colour; the anterior part of the thorax is of a buff colour, and there is a transverse dark mark towards the posterior part; the body is of a dark brownish-gray colour, with rings of a silver-like hue.

The larva, or caterpillar, is about three inches in length when fullgrown, and of a yellowish colour; the upper part of the body is ink, the head is black, and the first segment of the body (or that joining the head) has two irregular black patches above.

This caterpillar emits a very strong and disagreeable odour, and if touched with the hands the scent cannot be discharged from them for some considerable time, although they may be frequently washed. It resides in and feeds upon the wood of the poplar, oak, and aspen; but old pollard willows appear to be its most favourite haunts. These we frequently see perforated with numerous oval holes large enough to admit the finger, and when the caterpillars are abundant the trees attacked eventually fall a sacrifice to their ravages. It is three years before attaining maturity, at which time it incloses itself in a tough cocoon, formed of pieces of wood joined together by a glutinous web. The moth is common in various parts of the south of England, and the name Goat Moth has probably been applied to it from the property of emitting a disagreeable odour having been transferred from the caterpillar to the moth.

A detailed history of the C. ligniperda will be found in the 'Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire des Insectes,' by De Geer; and for its anatomy we refer our readers to the 'Recherches sur l'Anatomie et les Métamorphoses de différentes Espèces d'Insectes,' by L. L. Lyonet. This latter author has also published a substantial quarto work, with numerous beautiful plates engraved and drawn by himself, which is entirely devoted to the anatomy of the caterpillar above mentioned. This work, which was the labour of years, must ever stand as a monument of the great skill and perseverance of its author, who boasts of having destroyed but one caterpillar for its completion. It is entitled Traité Anatomique de la Chenille qui ronge le Bois de Saule,' &c.

CO'SSYPHUS (Ölivier), a genus of Coleopterous Insects of the section Heteromera and sub-section Taxicornes. The principal character of this genus consists in the dilated and flattened sides to the thorax and elytra-a structure also found in many of the Nitidule and in the Cassida. These insects, if it were not for the dilated portions of the thorax and elytra, would be of a long narrow form, but with these parts they present an oval outline. The thorax is nearly semicircular, and its dilated margins as well as those of the elytra are semitransparent. The antennæ are 11-jointed; the last four joints

are considerably thicker than the preceding, and rather flattened; the terminal joint of the maxillary palpus is dilated, and of a somewhat triangular form; the head is completely hidden by the anterior part of the thorax.

These insects inhabit the south of Europe and the northern parts of Africa and India. About ten species are known.

C. Hoffmansegii is nearly half au inch in length, and of a dark brown colour; the parts of the thorax and elytra which extend beyond the insect itself are of a paler hue. It is difficult to give an accurate idea of this curious insect, which appears as if it were an ordinary shaped beetle pressed against the under side of a little oval scale of wax, so that its impression is distinctly visible above, being convex, whereas the scale itself is concave.

The present genus, with two others (Helous and Nilio), form, according to Latreille, the second tribe of the family Taxicornes, and are included under the head Cosyphenes. COTINGA. [CORACINA.]

COTON EASTER, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order Rosacea, and to the tribe Pomeœ. The segments of the calyx 5; the petals 5; the styles 2-5; the fruit turbinate, its nuts adhering to the sides of the calyx, but not cohering at the centre; the stamens erect, as long as the teeth of the calyx. The species are shrubs, with simple entire leaves, woolly beneath. This genus was separated from Mespilus by Lindley.

C. vulgaris, the Common Cotoneaster. It has roundish ovate leaves, rounded at the base, flower-stalks and margins of the calyx downy; the petals are rose-coloured. It is a native of Europe, and is found in North Wales upon the cliffs at the Great Ormeshead. Previous to its having been discovered to be a British plant it had been cultivated in this country. Several varieties are met with both in a wild state and in gardens.

C. tomentosa has its peduncles and calyxes woolly. It is a shrub like the preceding, and is found wild on the rocks of the Jura and other parts of the Alps of Switzerland.

C. laciflora has its flowers in panicled cymes, and its calyxes quite smooth. It has the same general appearance as C. vulgaris, and is probably a variety.

C. frigida is an East Indian species. It is a native of the higher mountains in the northern region of Nepaul.

C. affinis was brought from Chittong, a town of Lower Nepaul, and is similar in general appearance to the last species. C. acuminata and C. nummularia are likewise species from Nepaul.

C. rotundifolia and C. microphylla are probably varieties of the same species. They are both from the north of Hin lustan.

All the species are adapted for shrubberies, and many of them are very commonly cultivated in Europe. They are easily propagated by laying down the branches, or by cuttings, which should be placed in a sheltered situation under a hand-glass. They may be also increased by dividing their roots, and by seeds.

(Lindley, Linnean Transactions; Loulon, Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum.)

COTTON, a word derived from Kutn, or Ku'un, one of the narnes given by the Arabs to this substance, is a filamentous matter produced by the surface of the seeds of various species of Gossypium. [GossYPIUM.] It consists of vegetable hairs, of considerable length, springing from the surface of the seed-coat, and filling up the cavity of the seed-vessel in which the seeds lie. Hairs are extremely common on the surface of plants; frequently however they are unobserved, in consequence of their small number and minuteness; while on the other hand in some cases they give plants, such as the Mullein for instance, a remarkable hoary appearance. On the surface of seeds they are uncommon; and yet in the Malvacea and their allies, to which the cotton plants belong, they not only exist abundantly on the seeds of that genus, but in several other species. Vegetable hairs are one of the many forms in which the cellular substance of vegetation is developed, and they consequently partake of two of the great characteristics of that form of tissue, namely, thinness and transparency. In the cotton they are long weak tubes, which, when immersed in water and examined under the microscope by transmitted light, look like flat narrow transparent ribands, all entirely distinct from each other, and with a perfectly even surface and uniform breadth. At certain distances along the hair, an interruption occurs, which looks as if it proceeded from the turning round or twisting of the hair during its growth. On each side opposite these interruptions a slight indentation is observed. Sometimes a slight trace of fine grains is discernible in the interior, but more frequently the hairs seem empty. If strained singly they have little strength and readily break, and it is only when many are entangled together that they acquire any appreciable degree of strength. In all these points cotton differs from the vegetable matter that constitutes linen; the latter consists of woody tissue, in the state of long tubes, but is at once distinguished by the tubes adhering in bundles, which it is difficult under a microscope to break up into their component parts; the tubes are thick-sided, and will not acquire a riband-like appearance when viewed in water, but rather resemble extremely minute thermometer tubes. When they are jointed together the articulation is oblique, the ends of the tubes being pointed and overlying each other; and finally, in each particular tube of the woody tissue, delicate as it may be, there is a sufficiently appreciable degree of

toughness when an attempt is made to break it. In short, cotton is a development of cellular tissue. Linen is a form of vascular tissue. Hence it is easy to distinguish with certainty linen from cotton manufactured articles, in cases of doubt; and hence also the wellknown superiority of linen to cotton in strength: the latter is manufactured from the most delicate part of plants, the former from the toughe t. [TISSUES, VEGETABLE.] Cotton is produced by many different species and varieties of the genus Gossypium, which consists of herbaceous or nearly herbaceous plants, varying in height from 3 or 4 to 15 or 20 feet, according to the sort. Sometimes the branches become woody, but they always partake very much of the herbaceous character. The leaves are downy and more or less lobed, being sometimes however near the top of the stem undivided; at their base is seated a pair of awlshaped stipules. The flowers are either yellow or dull purple, and have the ordinary structure of the Malvaceous Family; each is surrounded by three heart-shaped bracts, which are more or less lacerated. The calyx is a bluntly 5-toothed cup. The seed-vessel is a capsule opening into from 3 to 5 lobes, and then exposing many seeds enveloped in cotton, which sometimes adheres to them so firmly that it is separated with difficulty; sometimes it parts freely from them; in some sorts it is long and in others comparatively short, giving rise to the commercial names of Long Staple and Short Staple.

The qualities of these hairs most valued by the manufacturer are length of staple, strength, and silkiness. In these respects cotton differs very much, and it is when these three properties are combined in the highest degree that the cotton obtains the highest prices in the markets.

Cotton-plants are found wild in both the Old and New World. Herodotus and Arrian speak of the cotton-plant as indigenous in India, and the cloth found in Peruvian tombs sufficiently attests its having existed in that country long before it could possibly have been carried to America by eastern intercourse. In fact the wild American cotton-plants are cifically different from those of the Old World; but at the present day the cotton of the West is cultivated in Asia and Africa, while that of the East has long since been introduced to the American plantations.

The situations in which cotton-plants have been advantageously cultivated are included between Egypt and the Cape of Good Hope in the eastern, and between the southern banks of the Chesapeake Bay and the south of Brazil, in the western hemisphere. It has not been found to succeed beyond the parallels that limit those countries. In the equinoctial parts of America Humboldt found it at 9000 feet elevation above the sea; in Mexico as high as 5500 feet; and Professor Royle saw it at the elevation of 4000 feet on the Himalayas. It seems generally to prefer the vicinity of the sea in dry countries, and the interior districts of naturally damp climates. Thus, while the best cotton is procured in India from the coast of Coromandel, or other maritime districts, and in the southern states of the American Union from certain coast-islands, the coast cotton of Pernambuco is inferior to what is produced in the interior of that country. These facts lead to the inference that it is not merely temperature by which the quality of cotton is affected, but a peculiar combination of heat, light, and moisture; the most favourable instance of which may be assumed to be the coast of Georgia and the Carolinas, and the worst to be Java and the coast of Brazil.

That this should be so would, in the absence of positive evidence, be probable, considering the nature of cotton. We have seen that it is a hairy development of the surface of the seed; and nothing in the organisation of plants is more affected by the situation they live in than their hairs: thus many water-plants which have scarcely any hairs, when transferred to a dry exposed station are closely covered with such organs, and vice versa. The quantity of hair is also affected in an extraordinary degree by local circumstances. The Venetian sumach-plant, when in flower, has its flower-stalks nearly naked; a large proportion of the flower stalks has no fruit, and becomes covered with very copious long hairs, whence the French call this plant Arbre à Perruque; but those flower-stalks which do bear fruit remain hairless. In this case the local cause is probably the abundant food thrown by the system of the sumach-plant into the flower-stalks for the nourishment of the fruit; and the fruit not forming, the food intended for it is expended in the formation of hairs upon the surface of the flower-stalk. This is only an accident, but local circumstances conducive to the formation of cotton in excess may be permanent, and derived from the situations in which the plants grow. In a damp cloudy climate the food procured from the soil may not be concentrated upon the surface of the seed, but may be expended in the production of excessive quantities of leaves, and of proportionally few flowers; or it may pass off into the atmosphere in the form of a mere exhalation, a small proportion only being consolidated; or in a dry climate the soil may not be able to furnish food enough to the plant out of which to form more cotton than it is absolutely its specific property to produce under any circumstances. Or, lastly, there may be a mean where the powers of vegetation are called into their utmost activity by warmth and abundant food, and where, nevertheless, the dryness of the atmosphere and the brightness of the sun, constantly acting upon the surface of the cotton pods (seed-vessels), may drive back the juices from the surface of the latter to that of the seeds, and

thus augment the quantity and improve the quality of the cotton itself: this may explain the action of climate upon this substance. The question is however rather more complicated; the different specific qualities of different varieties of the cotton-plant must be also taken into account. A considerable number of varieties of cotton is certainly cultivated, although little is correctly known about them. In some of them the cotton is long, in others it is short; this has it white, that nankeen-coloured: one may be cultivated advantageously where the mean winter temperature does not exceed 46° or 48°, and another may require the climate of the tropics. This is just what happens with all cultivated plants. Some vines will produce only sweet wine, others only hard dry wine, and some are suited only to the table; some potatoes are destroyed by a temperature of 32°, while others will bear an average English winter; only one kind of wheat produces the straw from which the fine Leghorn plait for bonnets is prepared. But to multiply such instances is unnecessary. There can then be no doubt that the quantity and quality of cotton will depend partly upon climate and partly upon the specific properties of particular varieties.

The Cotton-Plant, or Gossypium, must not be confounded with the Cotton-Tree, Bombar, or Eriodendron. The latter has also cottony seeds, but they cannot be manufactured into cloth. For further information see COTTON MANUFACTURE, in ARTS AND Sc. Div.

(Royle, Illustrations of the Botany and other Branches of the Natural History of the Himalayan Mountains, and of the Flora of Cachmere, article Malvaceæ.')

COʻTTUS (Linnæus), a genus of Fishes belonging to the section Acanthopterygii and family Loricati (Jenyns). The species have the following characters:-Head large, depressed, furnished more or less with spines or tubercles; teeth in front of the vomer and in both jaws, none on the palatines; two dorsal fins; ventral fin small; body without scales; branchiostegous rays six.

C. gobio, (Linn.), the River Bull-Head, Miller's Thumb, or TommyLogge, affords an example of this genus. This little fish, which is found in almost all the fresh-water streams throughout Europe, is from 3 to 4 inches in length, and of a browish colour above, more or less mottled and spotted, and whitish beneath. The head is very large in proportion to the body, and without spines; the pre-oper cul has a single curved spine on the posterior part: the eyes are smali, and directed upwards. The number of fin-rays are-anterior dorsal 6 to 9, posterior 17 or 18; pectoral 15; ventral 3; anal 13; caudal 11. The name Bull-Head is given these fishes on account of the large size of their heads. These fish more particularly frequent these streams in which pebbles abound. They feed upon aquatic insects, &c. It is found in the brooks and streams of Great Britain.

The remaining British species of this genus inhabit the salt water, and together with others of the same habits, are distinguished from the fresh-water species by having the head armed with numerous spines. C. scorpius (Bloch), the Sea-Scorpion, or Short-Spined Cottus, is very common on our coasts, and is found very frequently under stones or sea-weeds, in the little pools left by the retiring tide. It is thus described by Mr. Yarrell. "The head large, more elevated than that of the River Bull-Head; upper jaw rather the longer; teeth small and sharp; eyes large, situated about half-way between the point of the nose and the occiput; irides yellow, pupils bluish-black; one pair of spines above the nostrils, with an elevated ridge between them; the inner edges of the orbits elevated, with a hollow depression above, but no occipital spines; pre-operculum with three spines; the upper one the longest; operculum with two spines, the upper one also the longest, the lower one pointing downwards; there is besides a scapular and a clavicular spine on each side; gill-openings large; the body tapers off rapidly, and is mottled over with dark purplebrown, occasionally varied with a rich red-brown; the belly white; the first dorsal fin slightly connected with the second by an extension of the membrane; lateral line smooth; the ventral fins attached posteriorly by a membrane to the belly." Length rarely exceeding 8 or 9 inches.

This fish feeds upon small crustacea and the fry of other fishes. C. bubalis (Euphrasen), the Father-Lasher, or Long-Spined Cottus, is about the same size, and resembles the last both in appearance and habits; the two species however are seldom found in the same immediate neighbourhood. This species is distinguished from the last by its more perfectly armed head, the spines of which are longer in proportion, the space between the eyes is less, the crest above the eyes is more elevated, and the ventral fins are destitute of the connecting membrane observed in the Short-Spined Cottus. Both these and the last species are remarkable for the length of time they will live out of the water. Hence Mr. Yarrell concludes that it is not a large gillaperture, as has been supposed, which hastens the death of certain kinds of fish, as these have very large heads and gill-apertures.

C. quadricornis (Linn.), the Four-Horned Father-Lasher, or Cottus, another species also found off the British coast, though less abundantly than either of the foregoing maritime species, may be distinguished, as its name implies, by the four tubercles which are situated on the top of the head, two on the nape, and two near the eyes; the pre-operculum is furnished with three spines, and the operculum with one; length from 10 to 12 inches.

Aspidophorus, Lacépède, is considered by Cuvier as a sub-genus of Cottus. This genus, or sub-genus, is thus characterised :-Head large and depressed, more or less armed with spines and tubercles; both jaws furnished with teeth, none on the vomer; body attenuated posteriorly, covered with angular plates; ventrals small; branchiostegous rays six.

A. Europaus (Cuvier), the Armed Bull-Head, Pogge, Lyrie, SeaPoacher, Plack, or Noble. This little fish, generally about 4 or 5 inches in length, is frequently caught in the shrimping nets, and is called by the fishermen, in some districts, in addition to its other names, the Hook-Nose. Its general covering is brown above and white beneath there are however most commonly indications, more or less distinct, of several broad dark marks across the back; the nose is furnished with four recurved spines; the upper jaw extends beyond the lower; the infra-orbitals have three blunt tubercles on their lower margin, and a sharp spine directed backwards; the pre-operculum is also armed with a spine; the branchiostegous membrane and chin are each furnished with numerous fleshy filaments; the body is divided longitudinally by eight scaly ridges, those on the upper part being most produced. The number of fin-rays are-dorsal 5 to 7; pectoral 15; ventral 3; anal 7; caudal 11.

The habits of this fish appear in many respects to be the same as those of the C. scorpius, &c. It is very frequent on the southern shores of Great Britain.

COTUNNITE, a Mineral. It is a native Chloride of Lead, occurring on Vesuvius in white acicular crystals.

COTURNIX. [TETRAONIDE.]

COTYLEDON is the leaf of a seed; it is the part prepared by nature to enable the young plant when it first springs into existence, and before it has been able to form organs of digestion and respiration, to perform both those functions. Sometimes the cotyledon performs these functions under ground during the whole period of its activity; but in many cases its subterranean life extends only to a few days or hours, after which it is elevated above the soil, and takes on the ordinary property of the leaves. [GERMINATION.]

The situation of the cotyledon is on one side of the axis, of which the plumule is the apex, and the radicle the base. In the largest number of known seeds there are two cotyledons on opposite sides on the same plane; in a few there are several opposite to each other in a whorl; in a considerable number there is only one; and among the lower plants there appears to be an absence of any distinct organ of this kind. These differences have given rise to the terms Dicotyledons, Polycotyledons, Monocotyledons, and Acotyledons.

The first two and the last of these forms will be readily understood; but the structure of a Monocotyledon is far more puzzling to the student, in consequence of the axis not being found on one side of the cotyledon, as would have been expected. A common monocotyledonous embryo is a nearly cylindrical body, obtuse at each end, as at fig. 4, and its axis of growth is in the interior of the cotyledon, so that it can only be found by cutting the organ open. The following diagram will explain this anomaly. Let the upper line represent four kinds of embryoes seen from the side, and the lower line the plan upon which those embryoes are constructed, the inner circle being always the axis of growth, and the crescent or crescents the cotyledons. Fig. 1 is a common dicotyledonous embryo, with its cotyledons equal; fig. 2 is a rare kind of embryo of the same kind, with one of the cotyledons exceedingly small. If the smaller cotyledon were absolutely deficient, it may easily be conceived that such an embryo as that at fig. 3 would be the result, the angles of the crescent being drawn together round the axis, just as the edges of leaves are drawn together when they roll up in the leaf-bud. If we now suppose that the angles are not only drawn together, but actually united as at fig. 4, the presence of the axis within the cotyledon will no longer appear inexplicable.

It is also a native of Portugal. Although this plant belongs to an order with comparatively inert properties, it has obtained a reputation in the treatment of nervous diseases, especially epilepsy.

C. lutea has the lower leaves somewhat peltate, upper leaves crenate or toothed, the bracts toothed, flowers erect. The flowers are of a bright yellow. It has been found wild in England, but is probably not a native.

Many of the species of this genus have been separated under the genus Umbilicus, the type of which is the first species namel-which is called U. erectus. The species of Umbilicus closely resemble those of Cotyledon. In the cultivation of the species of both gener, they should be placed in pots well drained, with a soil of sandy loam or brick rubbish. They may be propagated by cuttings, which should be laid to dry for a few days after thev have been cut off, before they are planted, as they are apt to rot at the wound if otherwise treated. The best situation for these plants is the shelves of a greenhouse, (Don, Dichlamydeous Plants; Babington, Manual of British Botany.) COUAGGA. [EQUIDE.] COUCH-GRASS. [TRITICUM.] COUCOU. [CUCULIDE.]

COUMAROUNA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order Leguminosa. It has 8 stamens, and the lower segment of the calyx undivided. This genus is also referred to Dipterix.

C. odorata is the plant which yields the sweet-scented Tonga Bean of the perfumers. It is a native of French Guyana, where it forms a large forest-tree, called by the natives Coumarou. The trunk is said to be 60 or 80 feet high, with a diameter of 34 feet, and to bear a large head of tortuous stout limbs and branches. The leaves are pinnated, of two or three pairs of leaflets, without an odd one at the extremity. The flowers appear in axillary branches, and consist of a calyx with two spreading sepals, and five purple petals washed with violet, of which the three upper are the largest and most veiny. The stamens are eight, and monadelphous. The fruit is an oblong hard dry fibrous drupe, containing a single seed; the odour of its kernel is extremely agreeable. The natives string the seeds into necklaces; and the Creoles place them among their linen, both for the sake of their scent and to keep away insects.

3

COTYLE'DON, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order Crassulacea. It has 5 sepals shorter than the tube of the corolla; the petals cohering in a tubular 5-cleft corolla; the stamens 10, inserted on the corolla; 5 hypogynous scales; 5 carpels. The species are succulent shrubs, mostly natives of the Cape of Good Hope.

C. umbilicus, Navel-Wort, has the lower leaves peltate, concave, orbicular; the bracts entire; flowers pendulous. The flowers are of a greenish-yellow colour, and the stem is from 6 to 12 inches high. It is found very commonly on rocks or walls in the west of England. |

Sweet-Scented Tonga (Coumarouna odorata).

1, a ripe drupe; 2, the same cut open; 3, a complete flower; 4, the calyx with a young drupe projecting from it.

COURSER. [CHARADRIADE.] COUZERANITE, a Mineral from the Pyrenees. It has a composition near to that of Labradorite. [LABRADORITE.] COW. [BOVIDE.]

COWBANE, one of the common names for the Water-Hemlock. [CICUTA.]

COW-BUNTING. [MOLOTHRUS.]

COWITCH, or COWAGE, a word of unknown derivation, unless it be a corruption of Al Kooshee, the Bengali name of one of the plants that produces it, consists of the hairs found upon the pods of different species of Mucuna. They are exceedingly slender, brittle, and easily detached, and the fragments readily stick into the skin and produce an intolerable itching; hence they are frequently employed for mischievous purposes. Cowitch is also used medicinally as a vermifuge, by being mixed with syrup till of the consistence of honey, and given in doses of two or three tea-spoonfuls.

The plants that bear these pods are large twining annuals or perennials, with leaves like those of kidney-beans, being dark purple papiliona ceous flowers, with a short standard lying close upon the wings and keel, and diadelphous stamens, half of which have round and half arrow-headed anthers. The pods contain from one to six seeds, and are covered by a very wrinkled shriveled skin, which even stands up in little plates. Before they are ripe and their hairs hardened, the pods are employed as a vegetable, like kidney-beans, and are described as being delicious. The species are found in hedges, thickets, on the banks of rivers, and about watercourses in both the East and West Indies, and America within the tropics. Mucuna urens and M. pruriens usually furnish the substance; but that from M. monosperma, called by the Telingas Enooga dola Gunda, or Elephant's Scratch-Wort, is said to exceed the others in the irritating burning property of its hairs. Dr. Roxburgh states that M. pruriens was one of the plants formerly used in India to poison velis; "it has turned out, however, not to be the poison it was taken for, and it is more than likely that the other plants employed nr the same base ende are fortunately much less dangerous than those who employ them imagine." [MUCUNA.]

Cowitch.

Opened pod of Mucuna monosperma, natural size. COW-PARSLEY, an Umbelliferous Plant (Charophyllum temulum). [CHEROPHYLLUM.]

COW-PARSNEP, an Umbelliferous Plant. [HERACLEUM.] COW-PEN-BIRD. [MOLOTHRUS.] COW-PLANT. [GYMNEMA.] COWRY. [CYPREIDE.] COWSLIP. [PRIMULA.] COW-TREE, a Plant belonging to the natural order Urticacea, and apparently to the genus Brosimum, from which, when wounded, a milky nutritious juice is discharged in such abundance as to render it an important object to the poor natives in whose country it grows. It is described by Humboldt as being peculiar to the Cordilleras of the coast of Caracas, particularly from Barbula to the lake of Maracaybo, near the village of San Mateo, and in the valley of Caucagua, three days' journey east of Caracas. In these places it bears the name of Palo de Vaca, or Arbol de Leche, and forms a fine tree resembling the Star-Apple of the West Indies. "Its oblong pointed leaves, rough and alternate, are marked by lateral ribs, prominent at the lower surface, and parallel; they are, some of them, ten inches long." Its flowers and fruit have not been seen by any botanist. From incisions in its trunk flows a glutinous milk, similar in consistence to the first milk yielded by a cow after calving. It has an agreeable balsamic smell, is eaten by the negroes, who fatten upon it, and has been found by Europeans perfectly innocuous. In chemical characters it is remarkably similar to the milk of animals, throwing down a cheesy

NAT. HIST. DIV. VOL. II.

Humboldt supposed the Cow-Tree to belong to the Sapotaceous Order; but, though little has been added to our knowledge of it since his visit to the Caracas, it is at least certain that it is either a species of Brosimum or very nearly related to it, and consequently a member of the Urticaceous Order.

The latter circumstance renders the Cow-Tree still more interesting; for the milky juice of Urticaceous plants is in other cases highly poisonous. But botanists are now acquainted with many instances of innocuous plants in poisonous orders; thus the Hya-Hya Tree of Demerara, for instance, belonging to the deadly Apocynaceous Family, yields a thick rich milky fluid destitute of acrimony: and the Kiriaghuna plant of Ceylon is a sort of East Indian Cow-Plant, notwithstanding it belongs to the Asclepiadaceous Order, which is acrid and dangerous. In the absence of precise information as to the circumstances under which the Cow-Trees are milked, it is impossible to say what is the cause of their harmlessness; but every physiologist will see that it is capable of being explained without difficulty in more ways than one. ČOYPU. [HYSTRICIDE.]

CRAB. [CANCER; CRUSTACEA.]

CRAB-APPLE, or WILD APPLE. [PYRUS.]

CRABRO'NIDE (Leach), Crabronites (Latreille), a family of Hymenopterous Insects of the section Aculeata and sub-section Fossores. The species have the following characters :-Head large, and appearing almost square when viewed from above; body oval or elliptical, narrowed more or less at the base, and joined to the thorax by a peduncle; antennæ short, and generally thickened towards the apex. According to Latreille, the following genera are included in this family:-Tripoxylon, Gorytes, Crabro, Stigmus, Pemphredon, Meilinus, Alyson, Psen, Philanthus, and Cerceris.

The species of Tripoxylon provision their nests with small spiders. The species of Gorytes are parasitic.

The species of the genus Crabro are chiefly distinguished by their having but one perfect cubital cell to the anterior wing; the mandibles terminating in a bifid point, and the antennæ being distinctly geniculated, they are sometimes filiform, and sometimes slightly serrated. The palpi are short, and almost equal. The clypeus is frequently clothed with a fine down of a glossy silver-like hue.

These insects are extremely active in their movements, and may be frequently seen settling on the flowers of umbelliferous plants, on palings, or on the leaves of plants when the sun is shining upon them, lying wait in such situations for the approach of other insects, which they seize and carry to their nests for the purpose of feeding their larvæ. The larger species of this country are mostly of yellow and black colours, the body being adorned with rings of the former colour, the smaller species are for the most part black.

Crabro cephalotes is upwards of half an inch in length; black; the body is adorned with five yellow rings; the basal joint of the antennæ and the tibiæ and tarsi are also yellow.

Crabro patellatus (Panzer), and several other species of this genus, are remarkable in having a large appendage attached to the external part of the anterior tibiæ; this is a thin plate of a somewhat rounded form, convex above and concave beneath, and is undoubtedly used in removing the soil whilst these insects are forming their burrows in the ground. Each burrow is stored with flies or other insects (depending upon the species of Crabro to which it belongs); the eggs are then deposited with these flies, which constitute the food of the larvæ when hatched. Many species of Crabro form their cells in rotten trees or posts. Much that relates to the habits of these insects however remains to be discovered.

CRA'CIDE (Vigors), a family of Rasorial or Gallinaceous Birds (Rasores). Mr. Vigors regarded this family as connected with the Struthious Birds, Struthionida (Ostrich Family), by means of the Dodo [DODO], generally supposed to be now extinct, the foot of which, he observes, has a strong hind toe, and which, with the exception of its being more robust, in which character it still adheres to the Struthionida, corresponds exactly with the Linnæan genus Crax. "The bird," says Mr. Vigors, "thus becomes osculant, and forms a strong point of junction between these two conterminous groups, which, though evidently approaching each other in general points of similitude, would not exhibit that intimate bond of connection which we have seen to prevail almost uniformly throughout the neighbouring subdivisions of nature, were it not for the intervention of this important genus."

"The family of Cracida," says Mr. Vigors, "thus connected with the Struthionida, are separated from the typical groups of the order by the length and robustness of the hinder toe, and by its being situated more nearly on a level with those in front. These birds, placed in this manner at the extreme of the present order, assume more of the habits and appearance of the preceding order of Perchers than the other Rasores, with the exception of the family of Columbida. They are found most frequently to make their abode in trees, and to resort to the neighbourhood of forests: in the lesser number of their tail-feathers they evince an equal deviation from their more typical congeners, and they never possess a spur. This family contains the

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