817 



CENTROPHORUS. 



CEPHALOPODA. 



SIS 



CENTROPHORUS. [SQUALID^.] 



CENTROPO'MUS, a genus of Fishes belonging to the section 

 Acanthopterygii, to the division Thoracic-Perches, and the family 

 Percidw. In this genus the muzzle is compressed, as in the pike, 

 and the head, when viewed from the side, is much pointed ; the lower 

 jaw projects beyond the upper ; the pre-operculum and operculum 

 are covered with scales ; the former is dentated, and the latter 

 unarmed. There are two dorsal fins with a distinct intervening 

 space ; the anterior one has eight rays, and the posterior eleven ; the 

 teeth are very minute and crowded ; the ventral fins are under the 

 pectorals. 



C. undecimalix, so named from its having eleven rays to the 

 posterior dorsal fin, is common throughout South America, where it 

 forms a considerable article of consumption, and is known by the 

 name of the Sea-Pike ; it frequents the mouths of great rivers, and 

 sometimes extends its course up as far as the fresh water. 



The Sea-Pike grows to a considerable size, and weighs sometimes 

 as much as 25 Ibs. The body is of rather a more elongate form than 

 the common perch ; its colour is greenish-brown above and silvery 

 beneath ; the anterior dorsal fin is gray ; the other fins are yellowish, 

 and finely dotted with black on the edges ; the lateral line is black. 

 This species is the only one of the genus known, and is the Kcitena 

 undecimalis of Bloch. 



CENTROPRI'STES (Cuvier), a genus of Fishes belonging to the 

 section Acanthopteryyii, and to the family Percidrc, and belonging to 

 the division with ' seven branchial rays and a single dorsal fin." This 

 genus is distinguished chiefly by the species having all the teeth 

 fine, rather strong and recurved, and closely set : the pre-operculum 

 is serrated ; and the operculum is spined. 



C. nvfricant, the Black Perch or Black Bass, is abundant in the 

 rivers of the United States, and is much esteemed for the table. It 

 is of a deep olive-green colour above, and pinkish on the under parts ; 

 the dorsal fin is bluish, with pale transverse bands ; the other fins 

 are of a deeper hue ; the tail and anal fins are spotted. 



Black Perch (Centropriitct nigricant). 



This species is remarkable for having the tail doubly notched, the 

 control and two outer parts projecting. This character however is 

 not so distinct in old individuals. The young arc marked with 

 clouded transverse bands. 



There are some few other species found on the American coast. 

 The one above described is the Percn raria of Mitchell. 



(Transaction* of the Literary und Philosophical Society of New York.) 



CENTROPUS (Illiger), a genus of Birds belonging to the order 

 8canore. The species are natives of India and Africa. They have 

 a long pointed thumb-nail, the same as the larks. Their plumage is 

 rigid and spinous. They build their neste in the holes of trees, and 

 lay white eggs. They feed chiefly on grasshoppers, and dwell amongst 

 reeds ami other herbage, and do not often take to wing. Their flesh 

 is not pleasant eating. 



- CBNTU'NCULUS, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order 

 Primulacea. It has a 4-parted calyx, corolla with a subglobose inflated 

 tube and patent 4-parted limb, 4 stamens inserted in the throat of the 

 corolla; the capsule many-seeded, opening all round transversely. 

 The only species of this genus, C. minimus, is a native of Qreat 

 Britain. It is a very minute plant with a prostrate stem, the leaves 

 alternate, ovate, acute ; the flowers pale rose-colour, subsessile, without 

 glands at the base. It grows in damp, sandy, and gravelly places, 

 and is known by the common name of Bastard Pimpernel. (Babington, 

 Manual of Brit. Sot.) 



('KI'HAE'LIS, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Cin- 

 clumacece. The species are remarkable among other things for their 

 flowers growing in close heads, and being surrounded by involucrating 

 bracts, which are sometimes richly coloured. They are chiefly interest- 

 ing from comprehending the plant which yields the Ipecacuanha Root 

 of the druggists. This species is the Cephaelit Ipecacuanlta, and is a 

 native of the forests of Brazil, growing in close damp shaded places, 

 and flowering in the months of January and February. It was also 

 met with by Homboldt and Bonpland in the mountains of New 

 Granada. It is a perennial plant, with a weak stem not above 2 or 

 3 feet long, and usually lying almost prostrate. Its roots are con- 

 torted, from 4 to 6 inches long, about as thick as a goose-quill, and 

 separating into rings which are about half as thick as the whole 

 diameter of the root. The leaves collect about the end of the stem 

 or its branches, are of an oblong ovate figure, slightly hairy, from 

 3 to 4 inches long, and connected by deeply-lobed fringe-like stipules. 



HAT. H:ST. DIV. VOL. I. 



The flower-heads are very small, surrounded by green bracts, and 

 placed upon the end of a long peduncle ; when in flower they are 

 said to be erect, but they are represented as being pendulous in that 

 state as well as when in fruit. The flowers are small and white, and 

 are succeeded by little purple berries. The Puri and Coroado Indians 

 chiefly collect this drug, which furnishes them with a valuable means 

 of barter with Europeans. They gather it at all seasons of the year, 

 principally however in January, February, and March ; and the only 

 care they take is to separate the roots from the stem, to lay them up 

 in bundles, and to dry them in the sun. 



CEPHALANTHE'RA, a genus of plants belonging to the natural 

 order Onhidacect, and to the tribe Limodorea. It has a converging 

 perianth, the lip interrupted, the basal division saccate, jointed to the 

 recurved terminal one, the stigma transverse without a rostellum, the 

 anthers terminal, erect, moveable, shortly and thickly stalked, 2-celled, 

 the cells with imperfect septa, the column elongated, the gennen 

 sessile, twisted. Three species of this genus are natives of Great 

 Britain. 



C. grandifiora, with ovate-lanceolate or ovate-pointed leaves, bracts 

 longer than the glabrous germen, lips obtuse, included. It has white 

 flowers, with the lips marked with several elevated longitudinal lines. 

 It is found in dense woods, usually on a calcareous soil. 



C. ensifolia, with lanceolate-pointed leaves, bracts much shorter 

 than the glabrous gennen, lips obtuse, included. The flowers are 

 white, the lips marked with several elevated white lines and a yellow 

 spot in front. It is a rare plant, and found in mountainous woods. 



C. rubra has lanceolate acute leaves, bracts longer than the downy 

 germen, the lip acute, as long as the petal. The flowers are purple, 

 the lip white with a purple margin, marked with numerous wavy 

 longitudinal lines. A very rare plant in mountainous woods. 



(Babington, Manual of Brit. Sot.) 



CEPHALANTHUS, a genus of plants belonging to the natural 

 order Cinehonacea, of which it is one of the most northern represen- 

 tatives. C. occidentalis, the Button-Wood, derives its English name 

 from the round balls of flowers with which it is covered in the 

 month of August. This plant is common in swamps, ponds, and 

 stagnant waters, from Carolina to Canada, forming a shrub from 6 to 

 15 feet in height, with a light spongy wood. The inner bark of its 

 root is an agreeable bitter, and is frequently used as a remedy in 

 obstinate coughs. 



CEPHALA'SPIS, a singular genus of Fossil Placoid Fishes, esta- 

 blished by Agassiz on specimens from the Old Red-Sandstone of 

 Herefordshire, Forfarshire, &c. The head covering is like the anterior 

 part of a Trilobite. Cephalaspit Lyellii, and C. Lloydii are British 

 species. 



CEPHALO'CULUS, Lamarck's name for a genus of Branchiopoda, 

 which he established for the Polyphemus Oeulus of Muller, and which 

 he places next to Cyclopi. [BEANCIIIOPODA.] 



CEPHALG'PODA, MoAiU.a of Aristotle, Mollia of Pliny, Cepha- 

 lophora of De Bhunville, Antlioorachiophora of Gray, a class of 

 Mollusks whose mantle, according to Cuvier, unites beneath the body, 

 and thus forma a muscular sac which envelops all the viscera. This 

 body or trunk is fleshy and soft, varying iu form, being either sub- 

 spherical, sub-plano-elliptical, or elongato-cylindrical, and the sides of 

 the mantle are in many of the species extended into fleshy fins. The 

 head protrudes from the muscular sac, and is distinct from the body ; 

 it is gifted with all the usual senses ; and the eyes in particular, which 

 are either pedunculated or sessile, are large and well developed. The 

 mouth is anterior and terminal, armed with a pair of horny or calca- 

 reous mandibles, which bear a strong resemblance to the bill of a 

 parrot, acting vertically one upon the other. Its situation is the bottom 

 of a subconical cavity formed by the base of the numerous fleshy 

 tentacular appendages which surround it, and which have been 

 termed arms by some naturalists and feet by others. 



These appendages iu the great majority of living species are provided 

 with acetabula suckers or cupping-glass-like instruments by means 

 of which the animal moves at the bottom of the sea, head downwards, 

 or attaches itself to its prey or to foreign bodies. These suckers are 

 either unarmed or armed with a long sharp homy claw, as in 

 Onychoteuthis. In the unarmed acctabulum the mechanism for 

 adhesion is so perfect during life that, as Dr. Roget well observes in 

 his ' Bridgewater Treatise,' " while the muscular fibres continue 

 contracted it is easier to tear away the substance of the limb 

 than to release it from its attachment ; and even in the dead animal 

 the suckers retain a considerable power of adhesion." The same 

 author clearly describes the apparatus by means of which the 

 acetabulum executes its functions : " The circumference of the disc is 

 raised by a soft and tumid margin ; a series of long slender folds of 

 membrane, covering corresponding fasciculi of muscular fibres, con- 

 verge from the circumference towards the centre of the sucker, at a 

 short distance from which they leave a circular aperture ; this opens 

 into a cavity which widens as it descends, and contains a cone of soft 

 substance rising from the bottom of the cavity, like the piston of a 

 syringe. When the sucker is applied to a surface for the purpose of 

 adhesion, the piston, having previously been raised so as to fill the 

 cavity, is retracted, and a vacuum produced, which may be still further 

 increased by the retraction of the plicated central portion of the disc. 

 Here we have an excellent description of the apparatus for ' holding 



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