cu>: 



A I.. \\I1TKS. 



711 



The species are numerous, and hare the general characters of tin- 

 order. [I'AlTACEJt] 



CADKICK. rAl>i>lS.WORM, or CAD-BAIT, the comm..ii name 

 for the larvn of the species of Pkryyanea, which reaide iu the 

 in cases which they form <>f various substances, such as Lit - ft" -t u 1. 

 grain* of -Mod, Htuall stone*, shells, ftc., which are held to^-tln-i- t>y a 

 silken thread secreted in their bodies in the same manner an in tl- 

 silk-worm. The case acts as a protection to the larva, and it i- e.ip.il.li- 

 of drawing in iU head or putting it out, according to circumstance*. 



' U (MIL'S!. [QRUNOCKITE.J 



V l.l'l MA, a genus of plants belonging to the tribe Catnar, 

 of the natural order Lryuminuttr, and especially distinguished by the 

 lowermost of iu sepals being arched, the uppermost of its stalked 

 petals being the shortest, its stamens all perfect with shaggy bases, 

 and the fruit a compressed bivalved pod. The species are trees or 

 shrubs, found in both the East and West Indies, with showy yellow 

 flowers, abruptly pinnated leaves, and sterna which are usually more 

 or less prickly. The Brazil-Wood of commerce is said to be furnished 

 by two of its species. 



One of these, 6'. BratHienti*, is a West Indian rather than a Bra- 

 zilian tree, without prickles, downy flower-stalks, panicled flowers, 

 smooth obtuse oblong leaflets. The other, C. echinata, which is really 

 a Brazilian plant, is a prickly tree, with yellow and red blossoms, 

 smelling deliciously like lilies of the valley, prickly pods, and oval 

 blunt leaflets. Both these species undoubtedly yield a red wood, but 

 it is by no means clear that they exclusively furnish the Brazil-Wood 

 of commerce, as is commonly stated. According to Dr. Bancroft, 

 this article is obtained from a tree with a large crooked knotty stem, 

 the bark of which is so thick that a tree as large as a man's body with 

 the bark, will not be so thick as the leg when peeled ; and he calk 

 this species C. Bratiletto, a name unknown to botanists : he however 

 states that it is called by the natives Ibiripitanga. Now, that is the 

 name given by Marcgraaf to the C. echinata, but this author says 

 nothing about the peculiarity in the bark. One authority however 

 ascribes a particularly thick alburnum to C. echinata, but says nothing 

 of the bark. Malte-Brun says there are three kinds of Mirim, or 

 Brazil- Wood found in Brazil ; but he includes with them the C. Bra- 

 nlientu, which there is no good authority for considering a native of 

 that country. Fi ; e again refers the sappan wood of the East Incites 

 (Catalpinia Sapjtan) to one of the Brazil-Woods of the merchants. 

 Upon the whole it appears that we have no good testimony as to what 

 the tree is that yields it ; but it is probable that it is the produce of 

 many species, and possibly of more than one genus, for De Candolle 

 and Sprengel doubt whether the Catalpinia echinata is not rather a 

 (luilandina. The best Brazil-Wood is said to come from Pernambuco, 

 where it is called Pao da Rainha, or Queen's Wood, on account of its 

 being a royal monopoly. The Bukkum or Sappan Wood of commerce 

 is yielded by C. Sappan. A substance known in the markets under 

 the name of Dividivi or Libidibi has lately become important on 

 account of the tannin it contains. It is the fruit or pods of C. coriaria. 

 They are not used in medicine, but in dyeing and tanning. 



CAFFER-BKEAD. [ENCEPHA.LARTOS.] 



CAKILE, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Crueiftrte, 

 to the sub-order Lomenta&xe, and the tribe Catilinea. In addition to 

 the accumbent cotyledons of the tribe, it has an angular pouch com- 

 posed of two 1 -seeded indehiscent joints, the upper joint deciduous, 

 with an erect seed, the lower one persistent, seedless, or with a pendent 

 seed. The species are annual branched herbs, smooth, fleshy, glaucous, 

 with pinnatifid or toothed leaves ; racemes of flowers opposite the 

 leaves, and terminal with filiform bractless pedicles. 



C. marilima, Purple Sea-Rocket, has the joints of the pouch 2-edged, 

 the upper one with two teeth at the base, the leaves fleshy, pinnatifid, 

 somewhat toothed. The flowers are of a purplish colour. It is a 

 native of Europe, along the sea-coast from Sweden and Lapland to 

 Gibraltar ; it is also found on both sides of the Mediterranean. It is 

 a native of Great Britain, on the sea-coast. This plant had at one 

 time a reputation as a cathartic, but it is not employed at the present 

 day. There are three other species of Cattle, named C. *Kii<, 

 C. Americana, C. equal it. They are all pretty annuals, and may be 

 easily cultivated. The seeds may be sown in spring or autumn, and 

 they should be treated as other hardy annuals. 



(liabington, Manual ; Don, Gardener'* Dictionary.) 



CALABASH, a name given in the West Indies to the fruit of the 

 tree called Crcicentia Cujete by botanists. [CRE8CKNTIA.] 



CALA'DIUM, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order 

 Aroidetr, and to the tribe Calailietf. The flowers are monoecious, and 

 the calyx and corolla are absent ; the male flowers have many-celled 

 peltate anthers, disposed in a spike at the end of the spadix ; the 

 female flowers have the ovaries inserted at the base of the spadix, no 

 style ; the fruit is a 1-celled berry with many seeds. A great number 

 of species of this genus have been described. They are frequently 

 cultivated in this country for the sake of their spotted stems and neat 

 green leaves, which are rarely disfigured by any of the accidents which 

 affect other stove-plants. They have the same general appearance an 

 the species of Arum, and also resemble them in physical and chemical 

 properties. 



luinuiH, Dumb-Cane, is a caulescent suberect plant with ol,l..,, ; . 

 cuspidate leaven, and the ipadix shorter than the oblong spathe. This 



plant is a native of South America and the West Indies. It grows to 

 a height of five or six feet It secretes an acrid poison, so that when 

 any part of the plant is chewed the tongue swells an. 1 tip- ]> 

 speech is lost It is on this account called ' Dumb-Cane.' Sir William 

 Hooker, in his ' Exotic Flora,' relates the case of a gardener who 

 incautiously bit a piece of Dumb-Cane : " His tongue swelled t> 

 a degree that he could not move it ; he became utterly incapable of 

 speaking, and was confined to the house for some days in th. 

 excruciating torments." The juice is stated to impart an indelible 

 stain to linen. Notwithstanding its poisonous nature, P. 11 1 

 says that, in common with the A rain oral urn, its stalk is used to bring 

 sugar to a good grain when it is too viscid, and cannot be made to 

 granulate with lime alone. In the districts where it grows the natives 

 use a decoction of the stem as a bath and fomentation in dropsy, and 

 the rootstock is used in obstinate constipation and in long-standing 

 gout The negroes use it as an anti-aphrodisiac. 



C. tayittifulium, Brazil Cabbage, is stemless, with sagittate acumi- 

 nate leaves, the spadix shorter than the spathe, which is ovate-cucullate. 

 This plant is a native of the West Indies, and is called by the French 

 Chou-de-Bresil, and by the Germans Easbar Arum. In appearance 

 it resembles Arum colocaria, and is used for the same purposes. Both 

 the leaves and rootstock of this plant are eaten. The leaves are 

 boiled and eaten as cole worts ; the rootatock is not considered so great 

 a delicacy as the leaves. Of all the eatable Aroidea, this appears to 

 be the most extensively cultivated. It is found in the East and West 

 Indies, in China, Japan, New Zealand, and the South Sea Islands. 

 When raw the rootstock contains a certain amount of the poisonous 

 secretion of the family, and like the potato has an acrid unpleasant 

 flavour, which entirely dixappears in cooking. Th. . 

 soft and glaucous, from being covered with a fine silky hair, and in 

 many places are used instead of plates and dishes. 



C. etculentum resembles the last : its leaves are peltate-cordate, and 

 its spathe ovate-lanceolate. It is also a nati\e ..f Smith America, and 

 is cultivated on account of the starch contained in its rootstoek. It 

 possesses properties similar to the last. 



C. arboracent is a poisonous species, though not so virulent as the 

 Dumb-Cane. Merat says that it was formerly used for wetting the 

 mouths of negroes as a punishment for slight misdemeanours. 



(Loudon, Cyclopcedia, of Plant* ; Lindley, .\ntin-ttl tiyttem ; Burnett, 

 Outline* of Botany ; Bisuholf, McdiciHui:li-/'lii-inti<-culiche fiotantt.) 



CALAMINE. rZna] 



CALAMINT. [CALAMINTIIA.] 



CALAMINTHA, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order 

 ' <r, and the tribe Sat ureiinea. It has the apices of the stamens 

 couuivent under the upper lip of the corolla ; the anther-cells at 

 length divergent, connective, subtriangular ; the upper lip of the 

 corolla straight, nearly flat, the lower patent trifid; the calyx 2-lipped 

 and 1 0-1 3-nerved, throat hairy; the flowers whorled, axillary or spiked. 

 This genus was constituted by Moench, and contains several 

 which were placed under Thymia and ClinojunliiiiH )>y Smith, in 

 Melissa by Bentham, and one in Acinot by Hooker. Koch iu hi- 

 ' Flora Germanica' follows Moench, and also Babington in his ' Manual 

 of British Botany.' There are four species of this genus, common and 

 well-known plants in Great Britain. 



C. Nepeta, Lesser Calamint, Cat-Mint, Balm or Field-Balm, has 

 leaves ovate, obtuse, serrated, pale beneath, shortly stalked ; calyx 

 subcampanulate, obscurely 2-lipped, teeth all nearly the same shape, 

 the upper ones slightly shorter ; nuts roundish, almost smooth ; 

 cymes dichotomous, many-flowered. This is not a common plant, 

 and is found on dry banks. It has a strong aromatic smell not unlike 

 that of penny-royal, and a pungent taste. Cats are said to be fond of 

 the smell, and hence its name cat-mint. An infusion of the leave- is 

 nieuded as a tonic and stimulant in flatulence and colic. This 

 and the other species possess the volatile oil which is found in tln> 

 whole order, and hence they all have a more or less powerful medicinal 

 action. 



C. offlcinali* (Thymu* C'alaminlha, Smith; Molina Calamintha, 

 Bentham), Mountain-Balm, Common Calamint, has broadly ovate, 

 rather acute, slightly serrated leaves, green on both sides, seated on 

 longish stalks; the calyx tubular, ventricose in front, distinctly 

 2-lipped, teeth of the upper lip triangular, of the lower twice as long, 

 and subulate ; nuts roundish, covered with impressed dots ; cymes 

 scarcely dichotomous, few-flowered. 



(.'. Acinot (Acinot rulgarii, Persoon ; Acino* thymoidei, Moench), 

 Basil-Balm, or Basil-Thyme, has ovate subserrate acute leaves with 

 " margins ; tubular gibbous calyx distinctly 2-lipped, tin' 

 upper lip with short triangular teeth, the lower one with subulate 

 teeth, all converging in fruit. It is found in dry gravelly places, and 

 in corn-fields throughout Europe. 



C. Clinopodium (Clinopodium rulgare. Smith), Wild Basil, Bed Foot, 

 has ovate obtuse leaves, rounded below, slightly crenatc ; whorls 

 equal, many-flowered ; bracts setaceous, as long as the calyx. Common 

 in dry bushy places, in Europe ; it is also found in America, but has 

 probably been introduced there. 



(Babington, Manual ; Bentham, Laliatarnm Genera et Specie*.) 



CAI ,.ne of the most I'iv,|ncnt and characteristic j.- 



of fossil plants. It is found abundantly, but not exclusively, in the 

 Carboniferous system of strata, and generally in the sandstones and 



