CARUNA. 



CARNIVORA. 



IM 



that ho has often found in the stomach the remains of other Carinariir, 

 which satinfies hint Uut tlie specie* in mutually destructive. 



Dalle Chiaie, who ban placed the animal in it* proper position with 

 relation to the brain, ban given a careful and detailed account of it* 

 organisation in bin ' ICemorie lulla Storia e Notomia degli Aninmli 

 senza Vertebre del Regno di Napoli,' vol. ii. p. 214, illustrated in his 

 plate* 14 and 15. Delle Chiaje makes the spermatic canals rise at the 

 posterior bane or insertion of the ventral fin and proceed to the genital 

 organ, near the origin of what we have termed the rudder-fin ; but he 

 fives no external view of the apparatus so conspicuous in M. Verany's 

 figure. 



Carinaria has never yet been taken in any other than warm lati- 

 tude*. Thtve species, C. ritna, C. fragilii, and C. Medittiranea, are 



arck's C. c 



recorded without reckoning Lamar 



. cymlium. 



The above is copied from the Icouographie of Cuvier's ' Animal 

 Kingdom,' and represent* the L'arinaria with its back uppermost. It 

 is denominated Carinaria cymbium, but there can be no doubt that it 

 is Carinaria iledittrranea. 

 CARUNA. [THISTLE.] 



CARNATION, a kind of Dianthus or Pink, a variety of the 

 IXanthu* CaryojAylltu of botanists, much esteemed by florists for the 

 beautiful colours of its sweet-scented double flowers. It ia usually 

 grown in rich light loamy soil, in which sand enough is mixed to 

 prevent water stagnating, and is propagated either by cuttings or 

 layering. A great many varieties are cultivated, the most esteemed 

 of which are those with a strong tall stem about 3 feet high, and 

 regularly formed flowers, with the stripes or markings clear, well 

 defined, and broadest near the end of the petals. From their colours 

 they are technically distinguished into Flakes, which hare but one 

 colour, disposed in stripes upon a white ground ; Bizards, which have 

 stripes of two colours ; and Picotees or Piquettees, which have petals 

 notched at the edges, and spotted instead of striped upon a ground 

 that is moet commonly pale-yellow. 

 CARNELIAN. [AGATE.] 



CARNI'VORA, a term generally applicable to any creatures that 

 feed on flesh or animal substances, but definitely applied to that order 

 of the Mbmmalia which prey upon other animals. 



The forms of this order are varied, and the number of species 

 considerable. Furnished like Man and the Quadrumana with three 

 sorts of teeth, and nails or claws on the feet, they entirely differ from 

 those two orders in never having the thumbs of the anterior extremity 

 capable of being opposed to the other fingers. The greater or less 

 development of their molar teeth as cutting or lacerating instruments 

 seems to determine the kind of animal food fitted for their support. 

 Those Camirora which have their molars totally or partially tuber- 

 culated partake of a diet in which vegetables form a greater or less 

 proportion, and those which have them serrated as it were with points 

 live principally on insects. There are other modifications of these 

 molars, fitting them for crushing bones or dividing animal muscle, 

 according to the exigency of the animal ; but in all, as a general rule, 

 the articulation of the jaw does not permit of horizontal movement, 

 the power being simply that of opening and shutting, upwards and 

 downwards, like a pair of shears. 



In their general organisation the prevailing feature of the skull ia 

 the great development of the zygomatic arch, affording room for the 

 action of the powerful muscles that work the trenchant jaw ; the 

 orbit is not separated from the temporal fossa. The articulation of 

 the bones of the fore-arm in most of the Camirnra is so constructed 

 as to allow of free motion, though in a degree inferior to that 

 bestowed on the Quadrumann. The brain (cerebrum) is considerable 

 in bulk, well marked, but without a third lobe, and does not cover 

 the cent" llui,i. Of all the senses that of smelling seems to be in tlio 

 highi-xt perfection, the pituitary membrane being extended over a 

 manifulil labyrinth of l>ny plates. The intestines are comparatively 

 short, the nature of their food requiring less elaboration than that 

 necessary for the extraction of nourishment from vegetables. 



Cuvier gives the name of Carnamera (Flesh-Eaters) to the order, and 

 divides it into the following families : 



I ' 'heiroplera. 



These, as he observe*, have still some affinities with the Qtiadru- 

 unto, as is manifested by the pendulous genital organ of the male, 

 and the position of the teats of the female on the breast. Their 

 distinguinhing character consists of a fold of the skin, which rising at 

 the side of the neck is extended between the fore feet and the Angers 



or toes, so as to suspend the animal in the air, and in those genera 

 which have the bones of the hand sufficiently developed to spread a 

 sufficient extent of this membranous skin, there is a power of executing 

 all the evolutions required for flight. Strong calvicles and large 

 shoulder-blades were required for this feat, and we accordingly find 

 great strength and solidity thrown into those part* ; but as the rotctory 

 motion of the fore-arm would have been 

 worse than useless, inasmuch as it w.r.M 

 have weakened the force of the impulse 

 of the membranous wing, and would 

 have consequently lessened the power of 

 flying, we find it almost entirely : 

 Four great canine teeth are found in nil 

 Skull of rttrojxa Kerauirrniiu. the genera of this large family ; but the 

 number of their incisors varies. Some 



idea will be formed of the arrangement of the teeth in the Cheiroptera 

 from the annexed cut. 



In the Cheiroptera, as we have seen, the teats are pectoral, but in 

 all the rest of the families they are ventral. 

 The next family in Cuvier's arrangement is 



II. / 



The lateral membranes with which the Cheiroptera are furnished 

 are no longer to be found in the fntectirora. which still have clavicles; 

 and their molars like those of the first family are serrated with conical 

 points. In their dental system the position and relative pro] 

 of their incitors and canine teeth vary. Some have long incisors in 

 front, followed by other incisors and canines lower than the molars, a 

 scale of dentition to be found among some of the Quail r 

 (Tartiui), and approaching in a degree the dental system of the 

 Rtxtrntia. Others have large and widely-separated canines, between 

 which are small incisors, the most ordinary disposition of the teeth 

 in the Quadrumana and Carntrora. The feet are short, and their 

 motions comparatively feeble; the male organ is furnished with a 

 sheath, and the teats are ventral There is no csecal appendage, and 

 the entire sole of the foot is applied to the ground in walking. Tlirir 

 habits, resembling in a degree those of the Cheiroptera, are frequently 

 nocturnal and subterranean. Insects 

 form their principal nourishment, and 

 many of them, especially in cold coun- 

 tries, pass the winter in a dormant state. 

 Hitherto we have Been the carnivorous 

 organisation in a comparatively mitigated 

 state, but we now approach Cuvier's 

 third family, the Camirora, properly so 

 called, which have every part of their 

 frame, in the cats especially, formed for the destruction of other 

 animals. In two of the tribes, but more particularly in one, namely, 

 the Plantigrade*, the carnivorous form is indeed somewhat modified ; 

 but among these three tribes we find the greatest harmony of parts, 

 fitted for keeping down the numbers of the granivorous and phyto- 

 phagous animals, to be anywhere observed among the Mammalia. 



III. Camirora. 



In this family we have the thirst for blood at its highest degree of 

 development, and with it the power and the instruments for gratifying 

 the appetite. Four large, long, and distant canines, separated by the 

 intervention of six incisors in each jaw (the root of the second of the 

 lower incisors being a little deeper planted than the others) molars, 

 either formed entirely with cutting edges, or constructed partly with 

 blunt tubercles ; these, with the powerful mechanism of the jaw in 

 which they are set, present a most formidable apparatus for finishing 

 the bloody task which the rest of the frame of the Carnirom is so 

 nicely adapted for commencing and continuing. The more compli t.-ly 

 trenchant these molars are, the more completely carnivorous are the 

 habits of the animal, and the different gradations may be in gem-nil 

 safely traced by observing the proportional extent of surface, con- 

 sidered with reference to its tubercular or cutting shape. The Bears, 

 which, taken as a whole, may be said to be capable of M>|>|n.rtiuK 

 themselves entirely on vegetables, have nearly all their molar teeth 

 tuberculated. [lit: AH.] 



The anterior molars have the most cutting edges, and then comes 

 a molar larger than the rest, with a tuberculated heel or process more 

 or less developed, and behind it one or two small teeth almost cut in-ly 

 flat. With these small teeth the dogs, as Baron Cmier hns nl,.-ei-\ed, 

 masticate the grass whieh they occasionally s\vall..\v for medicinal 

 purposes: he also agrees with M. Frederie Cmier in naming the 

 great molar above and its antagonist below ' carnassiercit,' or ilesh- 

 eutters; the anterior pointed molars, false molars; and the po 

 blunt molars, ' tuberculeuses,' or tuberculated molars. 



By observing these differences !' dental form, the genera of 

 Carnivora are most surely established, and it may be laid down as a 

 general rule, that those carnivorous animals which have the shortest 

 jaw and the least development of the ialse molars are those in which 

 the sanguinary propensity and the destructive power co-exist in the 



I !-. I ill- !-.-. 



Many of the genera apply the whole mile of the foot (particularly 

 "f tin- hinder one) to the ground in walking, ami this sole is generally 

 destitute of hair. These are called Plaiitiijrada. 



Skull of common Hedgehog 

 (Erinacria Europrcut). 



