COCin.Ni: \i. 



COCKADE 



319- 



front April to October, when it rains almost every 

 da\. tiiul the dry, from Octolier to April, when no 

 rain fulls. The temperature rises in tne dry season 

 to 95 F. by day anu 62" by night, and in the wet 

 season varies between 68 and 83. Of all hot 

 cliiniitt'ri tluit of ('(H-liiii-Cliina shows perhaps the 

 least considerable variations. The climate is 

 trying, but its insalubrity has been much cx- 

 axx-i.it."l. The soil, mostly alluvial, is exceed- 

 ingly fertile, producing the best rice in the world. 

 Sugar-cane, tobacco, cotton, arachis, mulberry, 

 Indigo, maize, tea, betel, hemp, are raised on a 

 small scale ; and coffee, cacao, and vanilla have 

 also l>een introduced. The province of Bien-hoa 

 and the north of Saigon do not yield to the finest 

 lands of India in the luxuriance of their vegetation 

 and the beauty and variety of their fauna. The 

 province of Vinhlong owes its Annamite name of 

 < IK', a i/ ( ' garden ' ) to the abundance, variety, and 

 exquisite taste of its fruits. 



The population in 1891 was estimated at 2,034,- 

 453, of which al>out 2500 were Europeans (French), 

 1,500,000 Annamites, 120,000 Cambojans, 60,000 

 Chinese, 5000 Malays, and the balance savages 

 (Mo'is, Chams, &c.). The colony is divided into 

 four provinces. The total exports in 1892 (chiefly 

 rice to China and Europe) amounted in value to 

 81,464,560 francs, the imports to 38,255,664 francs. 

 A railway of 44 miles between Saigon and Mytho 

 has been in operation since 1885, while Sai'gon 

 and Cholon are also united by a steam-tramway. 

 There arc in the colony 51 miles of railway. In 

 1892 the lines of telegraph wire in Cochin-China 

 measured 1840 miles; and Cape St Jacques is 



Bined by telegraph to Singapore, Tonkin, and 

 ong-kong. Though not yet paying its expenses, 

 the colony of Cochin-China has improved financi- 

 ally, and with the development of its resources its 

 ultimate profit to France is considered assured. 

 For an account of the natives and history, see 

 ANNAM ; for a map, BURMA ; and for fowls, 

 POULTRY. 



Cochineal* a dyestuff employed in dyeing 

 scarlet and crimson, and in the preparation of the 

 pigments Carmine and Lake (q.v. ). 



Cochineal consists simply of the bodies of the 

 females of a species of Coccus (q.v.), called C. cacti, 

 because it feeds upon plants of the Cactus family, 



Cochineal (Coccut cacti) : 

 a, living on cactus (Opuntia ) ; b, male ; e, female. 



particularly on one, therefore designated the coch- 

 ineal plant, but known in Mexico as the Nopal 

 (Opuntia coccinellifera), figured in the article 



CACTE.*. This plant is nearly allied to the 

 prickly pear, and assumes a somewhat tree-like 

 form. The insect as well as the cactus are natives 

 of Mexico and other warm parts of America, but 

 they are now cultivated chiefly in Guatemala. 

 This cultivation was carried on by the Mexicans 

 long before the country was known to Europeans. 

 The insect is not uncommon on wild cacti in Texas 

 and Florida. Both plant and insect have been suc- 

 cessfully introduced into the Canary Islands, Algeria, 

 Java, and Australia. But the attempt to produce 

 cochineal in India has been practically a failure. 



The cochineal insect is a small creature, a pound 

 of cochineal being calculated to contain 70,000 in a 

 dried state. The male is of a deep-red colonr, and 

 has white wings. The female, which is wingless, 

 is of a deep-brown colour, covered with a white 

 waxy powder ; fiat beneath, convex above. 



In some parts of Guatemala large plantations of 

 Nopal exist for the cultivation of the C. cacti. 

 Before the rainy season commences, branches of 

 this cactus plant covered with these insects are cut- 

 off and stored in buildings to protect them from the 

 weather. When the wet season is over, four or five- 

 months afterwards (October), the plantations are 

 again stocked from these supplies. Little ' nests ' 

 of some vegetable fibre, each containing about a 

 dozen females, are placed on the spines of the cacti. 

 The eggs are soon deposited, and when the young 

 females are developed, they spread over the plants, 

 attaching themselves to the leaves, and looking 

 more like vegetable excrescences than insects. They 

 become covered with a cottony substance. The 

 first crop of pregnant females, only these being 

 valuable for cochineal, is gathered in December, 

 and several more crops are obtained till the follow- 

 ing May.. 



In the Canary Islands the insects are reared in 

 winter and put out on the cactus leaves from May 

 to July. Small gauze bags containing pregnant 

 females are hung on the cactus plants, from which 

 the young when developed spread over the leaves. 

 In August and September, just before the females 

 are ready to deposit their eggs, they are collected 

 in trays, and those gathered in one day are placed 

 in the evening in an oven heated to 150 F. They 

 are afterwards more thoroughly dried in the sun. 

 Hot iron and boiling water are also used in killing 

 the insects. According to the way the insect is 

 killed and dried, the cochineal is known in com- 

 merce as silver or black ; an inferior kind being 

 sometimes called foxy. The colouring principle 

 of cochineal is called cochinealin or carminic acid, 

 and the insects scarcely yield more than 10 per 

 cent, of pure dye, although the amount is generally 

 supposed to be much greater. Carmine has also- 

 been demonstrated in other kinds of coccus and in 

 aphides. 



The cochineal industry has suffered very much 

 through the introduction of aniline dyes. To see 

 to what extent this is the case, it need only be 

 stated that the amount of cochineal exported from 

 the Canary Islands, where it is produced in by far 

 the largest quantity, amounted in 1869 to 6,310,600 

 lb., which was valued at 842,921, while in 1885-95 

 the annual export from these islands only reached 

 about 1,500,000 lb., valued at 80,000. Meanwhile 

 the price has fallen from eighteen or twenty shil- 

 lings per lb. to about two shillings ( 1895). 



Cochlea. See EAR. 



CochlParia. See SCURVY GRASS. 



Cochrane, LORD. See DUNDONALD. 



Cockade (Fr. cocarde, or coquarde), an orna- 

 ment or knot of ribbon or rosette of leather, worn 

 either as a military or naval decoration, or as the 

 badge of a political party. Cockades made of 

 ribbons of the national colours were worn by 



