M7 



CERVID.E. 



CESTRl'M. 



The weight of the skull and antler* of the ittyacerot in the Museum 

 of the College of Surgeon* in London u 76 Iba., whilst another exinU 

 in Dublin which weigh* 87 Ibs. The average weight of the skull, 

 without the horn* or lower jaw, U 5J Ibs. From this fact we may 

 form tome idea, of the enormous sue of the antlers, which aeem to 

 hare obeyed the aame periodical law u those of all existing deer. \V I 

 it i* raooUected that all the matter of these antlers must have been 

 drawn from the blood carried to the head by the carotid arteries in 

 the course of a few months, our wonder may well be excited at the 

 special activity of the capillary circulation of these parts. 



The question has been somewhat eagerly discussed, as to whether 

 the Meyatrrot existed within the historical period. Oil this point 

 Professor Owen has the following remarks : 



" Is there any evidence, it may be asked, that the Megacerot co- 

 existed with the human race, or that iU extinction was the result of 

 man's hostility f Dr. Molvneux (' PhiL Trans., 1 xix. p. 490) says that 

 ita extinction in Ireland has occurred ' so many ages past, as there 

 remains among us not the least record in writing, or any manner of 

 tradition, that makes so much as mention of its name ; as that most 

 laborious inquirer into the pretended ancient but certainly fabulous 

 history of this country, Mr. Roger O' Flaherty, the author of ' Ogygia,' 

 has lately informed me.' 



" The term Shelch, in the romance of the ' Niebelungen,' written in 

 the 13th century, and there applied to one of the beasts slain in a 

 great hunt a few hundred years before that time in Germany, has 

 been cited by Qoldfuss, and subsequently by other naturalists, as 

 probably signifying the Megacerot, just as the Halb-Wolf of the same 

 Lied ' has been conjectured to be the Hyaena. 



" The total silence of Caesar and Tacitus respecting such remarkable 

 jnimnU, renders their existence and subsequent extirpation by the 

 savage natives a matter of the highest improbability ; and it hag been 

 well observed by Dr. Buckland, that 'the authority of the same 

 romance would equally establish the actual existence of giants, dwarfs, 

 and pigmies, of magic turn-cap^ the using of which would make the 

 wearer become invisible and of fire-dragons, whose blood rendered 

 the akin of him who bathed in it of a horny consistence, which no 

 iword or other weapon could penetrate.' 



" Some appearances in the bones themselves of the Megacerot, and 

 perhaps an undue confidence in the vague statements of their discovery 

 with remains of the existing deer, hog, and sheep, in peat-bogs, have 

 led to the opinion that the Oigantic Deer existed within the time of 

 man. Dr. Hart cites the fact of the discovery of a human body in 

 gravel, under eleven feet of peat, soaked in the bog-water, which was 

 in good preservation, and completely clothed in antique garment* of 

 hair, which it had been conjectured might be that of our fossil animal 

 But if any Megacerot had perished, and left it* body under the like 

 circumstances, ita hide and hair ought equally to have been preserved. 

 Except however the solitary instance of fat or adipocire in the shaft 

 of one of the bones discovered by Archdeacon Maunscll, not a particle 

 of the soft parts of the animal seems ever to have been found. Dr. 

 Hart conceives that ' more conclusive evidence on this question is 

 derived from the appearance exhibited by a rib, in which he discovered 

 an oval opening near its lower edge, with the margin depressed on the 

 outer, and raised on the inner surface, round which there is an irre- 

 gular effusion of callus. This opening,' he says, ' appears evidently 

 to have been produced by a sharp-pointed instrument which did not 

 penetrate so deep as to cause the animal's death, but which probably 

 remained fixed in the opening for some length of time afterwards ; in 

 fact, such an effect as would be produced by the head of an arrow 

 remaining in a wound after the shaft was broken off.' (Op. cit, p. 29.) 

 " But a conical arrow-head, with a base one inch in diameter, 

 ticking in a rib, with its point in the chest, must have pierced the 

 contiguous viscera, and rankling there have excited rapid and fatal 

 inflammation. The evidence of the healing process in the bone would 

 rather show that the instrument which pierced the rib had not been 

 left there to impede the operations of the ' vis medicatrix nature:.' 

 A formidable branch of the formidable antler is as well suited to 

 inflict such a wound as the hypothetical arrow ; and if the combative 

 instinct* of the rutting stag rightly indicate the circumstances under 

 which the wound of the Meyaceroi was inflicted, they would be those 

 which best accord with the actual evidence of recovery from it." 



Although the remains of this animal have been found principally 

 in Ireland, they have also been dug up in the Isle of Man, in Scotland 

 and found in several of the ossiferous caverns of England. Thii 

 discovery is interesting, u from the position in which the remains o: 

 the iftgacerta have been found, it establishes the comtemporanoity o 

 this animal with the Mammoth, Rhinoceros, and other extinct Mam 

 malia of the period of the formation of the newest tertiary fresh-water 

 foasiliferous strata. 



In the cavern of Kent's Hole, near Torquay, the base of an antler 

 fossil, and partly gnawed, has been found. It does not belong to 

 Meyacerot ; and Professor Owen has referred it to a genus and species 

 which he calls Stronyylocerot tipdatu, Oigantic Rouud-Antlered Deer 

 " If the trunk and limbs bore the same proportions to the head and 

 antlers as in the Wapiti and Red Deer, as most probably they did 

 the species indicated by this remarkable fragment of antler must have 

 been the most gigantic of our extinct English Cervine animals.' 

 (Owen.) 



Besides these, the remains of C. Elaphut, the Red Deer, ('. Tnrandiu, 

 he Rein-Deer, Dana rulyarit, the Fallow-Deer, Capreolut Copnra, 

 he Roe-Buck, have all been found in various porta of the Hriti-li 

 stands. Amongst the bones f.mn.1 in Kirkdale are those of a small 

 leer, which Professor Owen calls Cerrui Buci-landi. 



Remains of Deer occur in other ossiferous caverns besides those of 



Jreat Britain, as in the Muggendorf caverns, the Qrotte d'Echenox, 



and that on the banks of the Mouse, at Chockier ; as well OH in the 



osseous breccias of Gibraltar, Cette, Nice, Corsica, and Antibea. 



4. Bertrand de Doue found, among the bones entombed in and 



beneath volcanic matter near St. Privat d'Allier (Velay), a large 



iroportion of remains, referrible to ' at least four undetermined 



peciee of CVrri, in company with Khinocerot leptorhitnu and llyirna 



tptkra ; and M. Robert extracted from the ferruginous beds at Cussac 



Haute-Loire) the bones of seven species of deer (to two of which be 



assigns the names of Ccrvtu Solilhacut, and C. damn Polignaciu), 



accompanied by the bones of the antelope, Hot I'rui and B. Vilauniu, 



;wo species of horse, Elrpkat primigeniut, JUiinocrrta Itptorkintu, and 



Tapir Arrerntntit. Among the fossil species enumerated we find, 



under section a, Cerrut ylyantciu, C. eiuycerot, and C. A mericanut ; 



inder section /3*, C. Guettardi ; and under ** C. J/ibernui and 



Somonentit. , 



Captain P. Cautley, in his paper ' On the Remains of Mammalia 

 'mud in the Sewolik Mountains, at the southern foot of the Him.v 

 ayas, between the Sutluj and the Ganges,' enumerates, among the 

 ine collection of bones found by him, those of the elk and several 

 v.ii'irt ii-.s of deer. In the district between the Jumna and the Ganges 

 le obtained the remains of more species of deer than one in the marl 

 or clay conglomerate, described as consisting of fragments of indurated 

 clay, cemented by clay, sand, and carbonate of lime. Professor Kaup 

 discovered the bones of the following deer : Cerrut anvccrus, C. 

 nocerut, C. dicranoceritt, and U. curtocerut in the sand resting upon 

 the calcoire groggier in Rhenish Hesae, iu company with Dinothcrium, 

 tc. tc. Deer therefore may be considered to have existed in the 

 second and third tertiary periods, namely, the Miocene and Pliocene 

 periods of LyelL 

 CKIiVfS. [CEnviDJi] 



CESTRA'CK^E, or CESTRI'N.E, a natural order of plants belonging 

 to the class of Mouopetalous Exogeus. It is nearly related to 

 Solanacea, and is sometimes made to form a tribe of that order. It 

 bos the following characters: Limb of corolla plicate, valvate or 

 induplicate in -.estivation ; calyx 5-toothed ; corolla funnel-shaped, 

 5-lobed, regular ; tube elongated, limb usually spreading : stamens S ; 

 anthers dehiscing lengthwise ; ovarium seated on a cupulate disc ; 

 pericarp capsular or baccate; placentas aduate to the dissepiment; 

 embryo nearly straight, with a cylindrical radicle, and roundish leafy 

 cotyledons. It embraces the genera Cettrum, Dunalia, Meyenia, 

 />artus, Ytitia, Lenta, Fabiana, Laurtriu, Lamarkia. In the seeond 

 edition of the ' Natural System,' Dr. Lindley recognises the order 

 Calraceit, and odds, " I do not attempt to characterise this assemblage 

 of plants, being uncertain what its real peculiarity is. According to 

 Schlechtendahl, it has all the characters of SiJanacetr, except that 

 the embryo is nearly straight, and the cotyledons foliaceous. To this 

 however it is possible that the valvate aestivation of the corolla ought 

 to be added ; but I am by no means sure that the species of 

 Periphragmot of the ' Flora Peruviana,' with winged seeds, ought not 

 to be included, although, as they have on imbricated aestivation, and a 

 tricarpellary fruit, they are placed in Polemoniace<e. These plants, 

 which are very different from those of Jussieu's Cantata, especially 

 C. r/uercifvlia, have much the habit of Lycium as well as \\itia. If 

 they really do belong to Polemoniacea, they must be considered a 

 connecting link between that order and Ceitracea." The genera 

 then recognised by Lindley were, Cettrum, Yettia, Lettea, Fabiana. 

 In the 'Vegetable Kingdom,' Dr. Lindley has dropped the order 

 Catracea. 



The genus Cettrum has a tubular calyx, terete, very short, obsoletely 

 5-toothed ; corolla funnel-shaped, with a long slender cylindrical tube ; 

 a roundish throat and a flat limb, with ovate equal segments ; filaments 

 the length of the tube; anthers inclosed, being roundish, 2-celled, 

 many seeded. C. vcnmatum is a large woody bush which grows at 

 the Cape of Good Hope, in Houtinqua Land, and elsewhere. The 

 flowers are arranged in axillary clusters ; the corolla has a reddish 

 tube and a white limb, and emits a perfume resembling J.. 

 flowers. A decoction of the bark reduced to an extract by evaporat ion 

 is employed by the Hottentots to poison their arrows. It is said to 

 be a speedy poison, and is also employed to destroy wild beasts by 

 mixing with their food. C. macrophyllum and C. nocluum. have similar 

 properties. C. Jlediunda and C. l ;uv febrifuge, and are 



applied extensively as astringents in Peru. About 50 species of 



('I'ritm have been described. They are all of them natives of 



North and South America, and the West India Islands, and nre 

 known by the common name of Bastard Jasmines. They are easily 

 cultivated, and will grow iu any rich light soil, and are cosily propa- 

 gated by cuttings, which should be placed under a hand-glass iu heat 



The species of the allied genera require the same treatment 



(Don, Gardener"! Dictionary; Liudley, Flora Medica ; Lindley, 



Vegetable Kinadom.) 



CESTRUM. [CE3TIUCE.K.] 



