CARDIOSPERMUM. 



CAREX. 



773 



explain its other common English names. Till recently it retained a 

 place in the London and Dublin Pharmacopoeias. At one time it had 

 the reputation of being a diuretic and antispasmodic, and a drachm of 

 the flowers was administered as a dose in hysteria, chorea, epilepsy, 

 and other nervous affections. It is a native of Europe, Asia, and 

 America, and is abundant throughout Great Britain. 



Babington describes four other species of Cardamine as natives of 

 Great Britain, C. impatiens, C. sylvatica, C. hirsuta, C. amara : with the 

 exception of the last they are common plants. C. bdlidifolia has been 

 figured in the ' English Botany ' as a British plant, but no station for 

 it is known. The leaves of C. hirsiUa, when ripe and laid upon the 

 ground, put forth buds which produce a new plant. It is extensively 

 propagated in this way in moist soils. It is said that other species 

 have the same property. C. impatieia is so named from its pods 

 when fully ripened expanding suddenly with force when touched, and 

 throwing the seeds to a distance. 



(Don, Gard. Diet. ; Loudon, Encyc. of Plants; Babington, Manual 

 of Britiih Botany.) 



CARDIOSPERMUM, a genus of plants belonging to the natural 

 order Sapindacece. The root of one of the species, C. Halicacabum, is 

 said to be diuretic, diaphoretic, and aperient. In the Moluccas the 

 leaves are cooked and eaten. 



CARDIUM, a genus of Bivalve Mollusca belonging to the Ace- 

 phalous Lametlibranchiata. It is the type of the family Cardiada, 

 and the species are known by the common name of Cockle. The 

 shell is equivalve, more or less cordiform, oblong or transversely 

 ovate, usually inflated, closed or gaping posteriorly, longitudinally 

 ribbed or furrowed in radiating fashion from the prominent beaks, 

 rarely smooth ; ribs often scaly or spiny ; margin almost always 

 crenulated. Hinge composed of two oblique primary teeth in each 

 valve and two remote lateral ones (in certain exotic forms, the teeth 

 become partially or wholly obsolete). The ligament short, external, 

 conspicuous ; pallia! impression simple. The animal is suborbicular, 

 tumid, its mantle freely opening in front with plain or less frequently 

 fringed edtjes, conspicuously fimbriated in the neighbourhood of the 

 two very short slightly-separated siphons, the branchial one of which is 

 always fringed at the orifice. Foot very large, cylindrical, geniculated. 

 Branchial leaflets unequal, labial palps rather long and triangular. 

 (Forbes and Hanley.) 



The shells belonging to this genus are very widely distributed, and 

 many of them are remarkable for the elegance of their form and 

 colouring. The species are about 200 in number. " We find," say 

 the authors of the ' History of British Mollusca,' " the great 

 assemblage of Cockles in the Indian Ocean, a region where about a 

 third of the species are congregated. Around this centre the number 

 of specific forms diminishes, though found in every sea. They are 

 moat plentiful everywhere within the tropics, and diminish as we 

 proceed northward and southward ; but some of the forms most 

 prolific in individuals and most gregarious in habit are present in 

 cold climates, and make up by abundance for the absence of variety. 

 Of these several are valuable articles of food ; and it may be said of 

 all the Cardia that they hold a high rank among Molltuca, both 

 for nutritive qualities and excellence of flavour. The genus contains 

 several remarkable abnormal forma ; some of the most singular are 

 to be found in the Caspian and other relics of the great Aralo-Caspian 

 Sea the demonstration of which mighty inland ocean is among the 

 finest discoveries of Sir Roderick Murchison. 



" The geological distribution of this interesting group corresponds 

 in extent with the geographical. Even in Palaeozoic Strata we find 

 the fossilised remains of Mollusks closely allied if not belonging to 

 Cardfum. In the Secondary Rocks, even in their oldest members, 

 well-marked forms of C'ardium are not unfrequent, often singularly 

 similating those of existing times. During the later part of the 

 Secondary epoch and the beginning of the Tertiary a group of half- 

 ribbed cockles seemed to have been developed at the expense of 

 ordinary forms, and to have dwindled away as they came near our 

 own epoch, when but two or three allies of them are found." (VoL 

 ii. ,,. 3, 4.) 



Cockles inhabit all parts of the ocean. Some species are constantly 

 met with between high and low water marks, and they have presented 

 themselves from the deepest sea-beds. Each species has however a very 

 definite range. They lie buried in sand or sandy mud, often occurring 

 in prodigious quantities. According to the researches of Dr. W. B. 

 Carpenter, the shell of the genus Cardium has a very definite 

 elementary structure. Externally it presents a tubular structure, 

 but internally there is little development of organic structure. 



C. edule (Linmeus), the Common or Eatable Cockle, is known by the 

 following characters : It is neither triangular nor porcelain-white. 

 It has radiating ribs, which are neither armed with spines nor 

 tubercles. This bivalve assumes a variety of appearances, and the 

 adult especially differs from the young. Forbes and Hanley include 

 under this the following species of other writers : C. vulgare, Da Costa; 

 6*. crenulatum, Lamarck ; C. pectinatum, Lamarck ; C. areuatum, Reeve ; 

 C. zonatuin, Brown ; C. obliquum, Woodward ; 0. nuticum, Chemnitz ; 

 C. glaucum, Brugiere ; C. Lamarckii, Reeve ; C. Belticum, Reeve. 



This species is met with in most parts of the British Islands, and 

 is almost everywhere regarded as a pleasant article of diet. The 

 ordinary run of examples are from four-fifths of an inch to one inch 



in length, but on the coast of Devon, and especially at Linipstoue 

 on the mouth of the Ex, where they are cultivated in beds, they 

 attain a much greater size. It is a gregarious animal, inhabiting the 

 sands at low water, especially where there are large tracts of sand in 

 the neighbourhood of actuaries. 



The Common Cockle has a wide geographical range, extending 

 southward to the Canary Isles. It is also found in the Caspian Sei. 

 It occurs fossil in the Red Crag. 



The other British species enumerated by Forbes and Hanley, are 

 C. aculeatum, C. echinatum, C. rusticum, C. nodosum, C. fasciatum, C. 

 pygmceum, C. Suecicum, and C. Norwegicum. They regard 0. Orcenlan- 

 dicum, C. serratum, C. medium, and C. muricatum, as spurious in th 

 British Fauna. 



CARDOON, a name applied to the blanched leaflets and stems of 

 Cynara Cardunculus. [CYNARA.] 



CARDUELIS, a genus of Birds belonging to the tribe Iiisessores, 

 division Conirostnn, and the family Fringillidce. It has a lengthened 

 conical compressed beak ; the point attenuated and acute ; commissure 

 slightly curved. The nostrils basal, lateral, covered by small incum- 

 bent plumes. Wings lengthened, pointed ; the first, second, and 

 third quills longest, and nearly equal. The tail moderate, slightly 

 forked. Feet with the middle toe longer than -the tarsus, which is 

 equal to the hind toe ; lateral toes short, of equal length ; claws 

 slender, curved, and acute. 



There are two species of this genus indigenous in Great Britain, the 

 Goldfinch and the Siskin. 



C. degan (Frinyilla Cardudis), the Goldfinch, is a well-known bird. 

 It has a gay plumage, lively habits, an agreeable form and song, and 

 a disposition, to become attached to those who feed it. In captivity 

 they can be taught a variety of tricks, such as drawing up water for 

 themselves to drink in a thimble bucket, or opening the lid of their 

 seed-box. They may be often seen performing with canaries in the 

 streets of London. 



The Goldfinch builds a very neat nest, and lays four or five eggs of 

 a pale bluish-white colour, with a few spots and lines of pale purple 

 and brown. It is a very general inhabitant of the British Islands. 

 It is also found in Sweden, and is abundant in Germany, France, 

 Provence, Spain, and Italy. It is found also at Corfu, Sicily, Malta, 

 and Crete. 



The whole length of this bird is 5 inches. It has a whitish horn- 

 colour beak, black at the tip ; the circumference at the base of the 

 beak crimson-red ; cheeks and ear coverts white ; top of the head 

 black ; nape of the neck white ; the back and rump a dusky wood- 

 brown ; the carpal portion of the wing and the smaller wing-coverts 

 black ; the greater wing-coverts and the outer edge of the basal half 

 of each primary brilliant gamboge-yellow ; the remaining portion 

 of the primaries black; under surface of the body dull white. 

 (Yarrell.) 



C. spinui (Pringilla ipintu), the Siskin. [ABERDEVINE.] 



CARDUUS. [THISTLE.] 



CAREX, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Cyper- 

 acece, and the tribe Caricta. The flowers are diclinous, arranged 

 in imbricated spikes, each covered by a glume ; the female flowers 

 have a single urceolate persistent perigoue, in which the nut is 

 completely inclosed ; one style with two or three stigmas ; the male 

 flowers have three stamens without a perianth. The species for the 

 most part are inconspicuous and unattractive plants. They are 

 however exceedingly numerous. Lindley, in London's ' Encyclopaedia 

 of Plants,' describes 105 species, and this is probably not more than 

 half that are now known. Babiugton describes 60 species as natives 

 of Great Britain, being the largest number of species of any genus 

 of phsenogamous plants in this country. Koch, in the * Flora Ger- 

 mauica,' describes 103 species as natives of Germany and Switzerland 

 Although so numerous, they serve directly few of the purposes of 

 man or the higher animals. Their leaves are tough and hard, so that 

 none of them are eaten by cattle except in cases of great necessity. 

 They are for the most part inhabitants of wet and swampy grounds, 

 in bogs, fens, and marshes, in the temperate and northern parts of 

 the world. In the hop-grounds of Great Britain the leaves of some 

 of the species are used for tying the bines of the hops to the poles. 

 In Italy they are used for placing between the staves of wine-casks, 

 are woven over Florence flasks, and occasionally employed for making 

 chair-bottoms. The leaves of the Carex sylvatica, according to 

 Linnaeus, aro combed and dressed, and used as a warm lining for 

 gloves and shoes ; and thus protected, the Laplanders seldom sutler 

 from being frost-bitten. 



C. arenaria has a place in some of the continental Pharmacopoeias ; 

 its root-stock being a reputed diaphoretic and diuretic. It is used 

 under the name of German Sarsaparilla, and is employed in cases of 

 skin-disease, as well as in secondary syphilis. 



The C. hirta and C. disticha are often substituted fraudulently or by 

 mistake for it, but do not, according to Bischoff, possess such active 

 properties. It is not known to the practitioners in medicine of this 

 country. 



C. arenaria grows on the sands of the sea-shore, and is one of the 

 plants which, in conjunction with the Elymut, Arundo, and Ptamma, 

 binds the loose sands, and forms them into solid embankments. 

 Although most of the species are devoid of striking beauty, some of 



