636 



CYCLADES 



CYCLING 



leaves. Dioon (Mexico) is characterised by the 

 origin of its ovules on cushion-like modifications of 

 the two parent pinnae, instead of being simply sessile 

 as in the remaining genera, which are merely distin- 

 guished by slight differences in the shape of their 

 cone-leaves. The thirty species of Zamia range 

 from Mexico into the Antilles and far into South 

 America. Ceratozamia is Mexican, and Microcyqas 

 Cuban, while Macrozamia is distributed over 

 Eastern Australia, and Encephalartos is character- 

 istically South-east African. But the widest dis- 

 tribution is that of Cycas itself. The best-known 

 species, C. revoluta of Japan, is not only widely 

 found both wild and in cultivation in many parts 

 of the Old and New World, but C. circinalis of 

 the East Indies, C. media and Normanbyana of 

 Australia, C. Seemani of the Fijis, may also be 

 mentioned as of importance. 



Schimper enumerates no less than thirty-four 

 fossil genera, with 278 species. The group appears 

 to have attained its maximum in Triassic and 

 Jurassic times. They are familiar to English 

 paleontologists in the Lias and Oolite especially. 



The stem of many cycads contains an abundant 

 starchy deposit, which is used as food in many 

 countries. It resembles sago, and so has frequently 

 led to the confusion of cycads with the true Sago- 

 palms (q.v. ). C. revo'.via yields a coarse sago in 

 Japan and elsewhere ; irom Dioon edule a kind of 

 arrowroot is prepared in Mexico, and from Zamia 

 ptimila, &c. in the Antilles arid Florida; while 

 Encephalartos is often called Kafir Bread. 



Cyclades. See ARCHIPELAGO. 



Cyclamen, a genus of Primulaceae, including 

 about eight highly variable species, mostly natives 

 of southern Europe. Their thickened and com- 

 pressed perennial stem half immersed in the 

 ground, tlieir heart-shaped leaves, peculiarly twisted 

 and reflexed corolla-lobes, and spirally reverted 

 fruit-stalks give the genus a peculiar and highly 

 characteristic appearance. They are commonly 

 cultivated on account of the beauty of their flowers ; 

 which mostly appear in spring. U. persicum is the 



Cyclamen persicum. 



one chiefly grown in our conservatories ; C. 

 ettropceum, not uncommon in gardens, flowers in 

 autumn. The turnip-like stem, despite an extreme 

 acridity which long gave it medicinal repute, is 

 largely eaten by swine in southern Europe, espe- 

 cially Sicily ; hence the English name of Sowbread. 

 Cy'cle ( Gr. , ' a circle ' ), in Astronomy and Mathe- 

 matical Chronology, a period or interval of time in 

 which certain phenomena always recur in the same 

 order. There are two great natural cycles, that of 

 the sun and that of the moon. The solar cycle is a 

 period of twenty-eight Julian years, after which 

 the same days of the week recur on the same days 

 of the year. The lunar or Metonic cycle consists of 

 nineteen years or 235 lunations (see CHRONOLOGY), 

 after which the successive new moons happen on 



the same days of the year as during the previous 

 cycle. The number of the year in the cycle of the 

 moon is called the Golden Number (q.v.). The 

 cycle of Indictions (q.v.) is purely arbitrary, its 

 years being fifteen, a conventional number ; and 

 the Julian Period, which combines and har- 

 monises all the three others, might be termed the 

 cycle of cycles. The term ' cycle of eclipses ' is an 

 instance of the more general use of the word, 

 meaning the period of 223 lunations, within which 

 seventy eclipses recur in the same order and magni- 

 tude viz. twenty-nine of the moon and forty-one 

 of the sun. 



Cycling. The early history of cycling in 

 which generic term the use of all classes of rnanu- 

 and pedo-motive carriages is now by general con- 

 sent included is, like that of ancient Britain, 

 involved in obscurity. As long since as 1818 

 something in the nature of a bicycle was intro- 

 duced into England by Baron von Drais, a French- 

 man resident at Mannheim, and was known as the 

 Draisnene or Celerifere; while velocipedes or manu- 

 motive machines with three or more wheels were 

 in occasional use in England even before that date, 

 one of the earliest being an invention of Richard 

 Lovell Edgeworth ( circa 1767 ). The Draisnene con- 

 sisted of two wheels, about 30 inches in diameter, run- 

 ning one in the wake of the other, and connected by 

 a beam of wood, upon which, midway from each end, 

 was placed a saddle or perch. At the fore-end of 

 the beam an 

 arm-rest was 

 secured, and 

 this, roughly, 

 completed 

 the appara- 

 t u s. The 

 mode of pro- 

 pulsion was 

 singularly 

 simple : the 

 rider placed 

 his leg over 

 the beam, 

 got into the 

 saddle, and, 

 resting his 

 arms upon 

 the support 

 referred to, 



pushed the 'dandy-horse' ahead by kicking the 

 ground with his right and left foot alternately; 

 when a certain impetus was attained, he could, 

 were he a skilful rider, cease the kicking process, 

 and allow the machine to proceed until the momen- 

 tum was exhausted, when he had to commence de 

 novo. The satire of Cruikshank and his contem- 

 poraries effectually killed the quaint and comical 

 hobby-horse of 1818. 



The fashioning of the first practical bicycle (circa 

 1846) is currently credited to Gavin Dalzell, a 

 cooper at Lesmahagow in Lanarkshire. It went 

 by the name of the ' wooden horse,' being con- 

 structed chiefly of wood ; the saddle was low, and 

 the pedal movements or 'stirrups,' which moved 

 backwards and forwards alternately, were connected 

 by iron rods with the cranked axie of the driving- 

 wheel. But it seems that Kirkpatrick Macmillau, 

 a blacksmith in the parish of Keir, Dumfriesshire, 

 was six years earlier on'the road with a hobby-horee 

 completely equipped with cranks and levers. 



The next revival of cycling may be said to 

 date from 1867. A few years previous to this it 

 occulted to an inventive genius, one M. Michaux, 

 to jit to the hobby-horse a pair of pedals by 

 which the front wheel might be revolved with 

 the feet. This, of course, meant that the rider 

 must depend for his balance upon some meana 



The 'Dandy-horse.' 



