C A I' 



41 r 



CAP 



calcareous, and the strata accord with those of the 



( ' Sorrentine mountains on the Continent, from which 

 tin- island appears to have 1 .iat' -d by some 



great convulsion. Mr Swinburne bupposes, that 

 " the lower tracts of land in Capri have been thrown 

 up by lire in the midst of limestone mountains, in the 

 same manner as the plain of Sorrento." The dis- 

 trict of Anacapri, which is separated by rocks from 

 the rest of the island, lies on a declivity inclining to 

 the north, and hounded by a high and rocky shore. 

 The communication between this and the other part 

 of the island is kept up by a long flight of rude steps, 

 winding up a cliil of tremendous height ; and though 

 the steps are very slippery, yet loaded asses are able 

 to ascend and descend with safety. The southern and 

 eastern sides of the island are flanked with rocky pre- 

 cipices of enormous height. The principal places in 

 the island are Capri and Anacapri. Capri is situated 

 in a low but fertile spot of land, between two rugged 

 eminences of great height, which form the extremi- 

 ties of the island. At a distance its cupolas and 

 buildings give it the appearance of a considerable 

 place, though it is only a small village. Anacapri is 

 a small town, composed of a few streets and scattered 

 houses, with a nunnery and a parish church, em- 

 bosomed in groves of fruit trees, and encircled with 

 luxuriant and well kept gardens. 



At the chapel of Santa Maria, now inhabited by a 

 simple unlettered Anchoret, stood the summer palace 

 of Tiberius, who spent the greater part of ten years 

 in this delightful retreat, abandoned to the most un- 

 hallowed debaucheries. See TIBERIUS. This em- 

 peror built twelve villas, in different situations, and 

 dedicated them to the twelve greater gods. Exten- 

 sive vaults and reservoirs at Santa Maria ; the ruins 

 of a lighthouse, and two broken columns, are almost 

 the only remains of these ancient villas. 



The winter residence of Tiberius at La Marina is 

 still indicated by columns and fragments scattered on 

 the sand. The conduit, from which the palace was 

 supplied with water, is still to be seen ; and Mr Swin- 

 burne is of opinion, that a semicircular recess of net- 

 work, the opus rcticHlatmn of Vitruvius, which is 

 raised against the cliff, once formed a part of the 

 theatre. " In an adjacent vineyard," says that travel- 

 ler, " some peasants were removing a pavement of 

 black and white mosaic. The ruins stretch far into 

 the sea, and that element has now resumed the terri- 

 tory from which it had formerly been expelled by the 

 force of terraces and piers. The palace was built of 

 this stone (tufa,) but in its coarser parts, such as 

 abutments and back walls, are inserted large pieces of 

 lava in a rough state of torrefaction, like that of the 

 crust of Vesuvian streams when cooled." 



On the southern shore the Carthusians have a very 

 spacious convent, founded in the reign of King Ro- 

 bert, by James Capri, a veteran commander. Ter- 

 races, supported by vaults, called Botteghe, or the 

 shops of the ancients, are cut in the opposite hill, and 

 tufts of caper bushes, laden with purple and white 

 flowers, mingle most happily with the ruined arcades. 



The island of Capri abounds with various birds of 

 passage, bi't particularly with quails. The greatest 

 part of the bishop's income is derived from the taking 



VOL V. PART If. 



of these, and of other kinds of game, and hence Capricorn 

 the island has been called the Bishopric of Quails. , I. 

 '* Across every track in the woods," says Swinburne, ^* 

 " or chasm in the hills, rows of nets are placed to in- ~~ ~" 

 tercept stock doves and quails in their annual flights ; 

 the quantity taken of each sort, especially the latter, is 

 almost incredible. i have the best authority for 

 saying, that even in bad years, the number of quails 

 caught in Capri amounts to 12,000; in good years 

 it exceeds 60,000 ; and in one remarkable year, one 

 hundred and sixty thousand were netted ; eight years 

 ago, in the month of May, 4-5,000 were taken in the 

 course of a single day." East Long. 14 10*, North 

 Lat. 40 32'. See Swinburne's Travels in the Two 

 .V/V/7/t'.v, 2il edit. vol. iii. p. 1 12 ; and Nitwa Guida 

 de Foreslieri per I'antichita Curiosissiwe di Pozzuoli, 

 dell' isnle aHjncenti d' Ischia, Procir/a, Nicida, Capri, 

 &c. Naples, 1751, 12mo. (*) 



CAPRICORN, or the GOAT, is the name of one 

 of the 12 signs of the zodiac. As the sun when it en- 

 ters this sign ascends towards the north, like the goat 

 when it climbs the sides of mountains, some authors 

 have ascribed the origin of the name to this fanciful 

 resemblance. In Ptolemy's catalogue this constella- 

 tion contains 28 stars ; in Tycho's 28 ; in Hevelius' 

 29 ; in Flamstead's 51 ; and in the catalogue printed 

 in the article ASTRONOMY, p. 770, we have given the 

 position of 54- of the principal stars. (n>) 



CAPRIFICATION, the name of a method of 

 ripening the fruit of the domestic fig-tree, by means 

 of the cynips, or fig fly, practised in the islands of 

 the Grecian Archipelago. Those insects which are 

 produced from the winter figs of the capsificuS) or 

 wild fig-tree, are gathered by the peasants in the 

 months of May and July, and are deposited on the 

 fruit of the garden fig-trees. They enter the fruit 

 by the eye ; and the worms produced from the eggs 

 which they lay, puncture the fruit, and not only ac- 

 celerate the maturation of the fruit, but render it of 

 a much larger size. Olivier, who resided long in the 

 Archipelago, considers all this as founded on a vulgar 

 error ; and maintains that the practice is discontinued 

 in several of the Grecian islands. In a subsequent 

 part of our work, we shall have occasion to resume 

 this subject at greater length. See Tournefort's 

 Voyage an Levant, and the Nouveau Dictionnaire 

 d 'Histoire Naturelle. ( * ) 



CAPRIFOL1A. See BOTANY, p. 79. col. 2. 



CAPSICUM, a genus of plants of the class Pen- 

 tandria, and order Monogynia. See BOTANY, p. 144. 



CAPSTAN. See CRANE. 



CAPSULE. See BOTANY, p. 44-, col. 2. 



CAPTION, in the law of England, is a certifi- 

 cate subscribed by commissioners, declaring when 

 and where the commission was executed. These cap- 

 tions relate chiefly to business of three kinds : to 

 commissions to take fines of land, to take answers in 

 chancery, and depositions of witnesses. All these 

 captions, and the execution of the commissions, must 

 now be in English, by the statute 4 Geo. II. Ja- 

 cob's Law Diet. 



Caption, in the law of Scotland, is a letter run- 

 ning in the king's name, and under his signet, con- 

 taining a command to messengers and to magistrate* 

 3o 



