033 



CHA5L.ELEDON. 



CHAMELEONS. 



031 



is between Aateracece and Conibretacece, near to Myrtacece. (Lindley, 

 Vegetable Kingdom.) 



CHASLSLE'DON, a genus of plants belonging to the natural 

 order Ericace<p. C. procumbcns is a beautiful little alpine bush, 

 formerly referred to Azalea, from which it differs essentially both in 

 habit and botanical characters. It is a small evergreen creeping 

 shrub, found on the mountains of Europe and North America. The 

 leaves are leathery, shining, turned back at their edge, and about half 

 an inch long. The flowers are minute, and grow in terminal umbels 

 of a light flesh-colour. The calyx is 5-parted ; the corolla campanu- 

 late and regularly 5-cleft, the anthers rounded and opening longi- 

 tudinally. It is occasionally seen in gardens, but it is rather impatient 

 of cultivation. 



CHAM^ELEONIDoE. [CHAMELEONS.] 



CHAM^EPELIA. [COLCMBIDJ:.] 



CHAM^E'ROPS, a genus of Palm-Trees, in which is comprehended 

 the most northern species of those remarkable vegetable productions 

 whose home is so frequently in the tropics. It is characterised by 

 its flabelliform leaves, polygamous flowers, which are sometimes even 

 dioecious, and triple monospermous drupes, with ruminated albumen. 

 Ckamceropt humilis, the European species, grows in hot-houses to the 

 height of 15 feet ; but in Spaiu and Barbary it is not more than 4 or 

 5 feet high, and in Italy it is much dwarfer. It is common upon the 

 hills near Algiers. It occurs in many places in the southern parts of : 

 Italy, and reaches its northern limits in the vicinity of Nice. The 

 trunk of this plant is 5 or 6 inches in diameter, and closely covered 

 with triangular hard scales, which are the bases of the old leaves. 

 The new leaves grow in a tuft at the top of the stem, and have smooth 

 flat stalks, with rigid spines proceeding from the edge ; the blade is 

 deeply palmate, with from 12 to 15 narrow sword-shaped divisions, 

 which are slightly glaucous and downy. The flowers grow within 

 compressed spathes, which are downy at the edge, and from C to 8 

 inches long, and upon a short compressed spadix, which is closely 

 covered over. The drupes are blackish-brown, and round, with a 

 fibrous dry spongy flesh. The young underground parts of the stem 

 and the young roots are said by Desfontaines to be eatable. 



<'IIAM.i;/A, a genus of Birds belonging to the family Mtrulida of 

 Vigors. [Ainu I.III.K.] 



< HAMKCK. [ATELEB.] 



< HAMKI.KONS, CHAMKLKON-TIUBK, CHAM.KI.KOXID.K, 

 the name for a well-defined family of Saurian* (Lizard-like Reptiles), 

 whose differential and essential characters may be summed up as 

 existing in the form of their feet, the toes of which are joim, I ,,, l,..iin.l 



111 two packets or bundles opposed to each citlirr in tln-ir 

 D -in their prehensile tail and iu their extensile and 

 retractile vermiform tongue. 



Organisation. Skeleton. The more striking peculiarities consist 

 in the elevated and pyramidal form of the occiput; the absence of a 

 true sternum ; and in certain apophyses of the vertebral column, espe- 

 cially about the tail, where they are placed en chevron, so as to leave 

 at their base a space where the caudal artery, a prolongation of the 

 pelvic, is protected somewhat in the same way as the spinal cord is 

 by the bony case above it, when the prehensile tail would otherwise 

 subject it to pressure in grasping boughs of trees or other solid bodies 

 with its lower surface. The transverse apophyses of the tail are but 

 little developed. The glenoid cavity is supported upon a short 

 pedicle. The majority of Sauriaus have eight cervical vertebra, but the 

 Chameleons have only five. The first ribs are joined to the mesial 

 line, which performs the office of a sternum, and the following ribs 

 are united to each other by their cartilaginous prolongations towards 

 the mesial line of the belly, so as to protect the abdomen by an entire 

 bony circle. There are, as Schneider has observed, but two shoulder- 

 bones, of which the coracoid is very small, the clavicle being entirely 

 absent. Cuvier remarked the singular disposition of the wrist. The 

 two carpal bones which come next to those of the fore-arm are articu- 

 lated upon one large central piece, which receives the five bones which 

 correspond to the metacarpal, three of these being for the external 

 toes and two for the internal, thus forming two opposeable prehensile 

 instruments, the two bundles being bound up in the integuments and 

 skin to the very claws. In the pelvis, the ilia are long and slender 

 and directed towards the sacrum, with which they partially unite, 

 but are prolonged by a cartilage. The hind as well as the fore toes 

 are five, and disposed in the same manner as those of the anterior 

 extremities. The trunk, which has a compressed appearance, is 

 mounted high o_n the legs, forming an exception to the majority of 

 reptiles, whose belly touches the ground. 



Skull of Chamrrlea'^ijidui. 



Organs of Respiration.- Cuvier observes that their lung is so large 

 that when it is filled with air it imparts a transparency to the body, 

 which made the ancients say that it lived upon air ; and he inclined 

 to think that to its size the Chameleon owed the property of changing 

 its colour. But with regard to this last speculation he was in error, 

 as we shall presently see. 



Organs of Nutrition and Digestion. The teeth, as in the great 

 majority of Saurians, have no true roots : their crowns, which are 

 trilobated, seem to be soldered as it were upon the edge of the upper 

 border of a groove hollowed in the maxillary bone ; they are con- 

 nected to the osseous portion and also to each other, so as to present 

 the appearance of an enamelled and denticulated portion of the edge 

 of the bone. But it is the vermiform extensile and retractile tongue 

 which is the chief organ for taking the insects on which the chame- 

 leon lives. By a curious mechanism, of which the os hyoides (tongue- 

 bone) is a principal agent, the Chameleon can protrude this cylindrical 

 tongue, which is terminated by a dilated and somewhat tubular tip 

 covered with a glutinous secretion, from the sheath at the lower part 

 of the mouth (where the whole of the tongue, with the exception of 

 the dilated tip, remains when at rest) to the length of six inches. When 

 the Chameleon is about to seize an insect it rolls round its extraor- 

 dinary eyeballs so as to bring them to bear on the devoted object : as 

 soon as it arrives within range of the tongue, that organ is projected 

 with unerring precision, and returns into the mouth with the prey 

 adhering to the viscous tip. 



Chameleon taking his prej'. 



There is not much difference between the oesophagus and stomach, 

 which latter is small and bent back upon itself. There is no true 

 pylorus, although there exists, at the point where it should be, a sort 

 of contraction in the membranes, which are there thickened. 



Organs of Sense. Touch. On the under surface of the tail and 

 toes are granulated papilla;, probably for the purpose of conveying 

 to the sensorium the nature of the body grasped. The tongue must 

 have a considerable share of the sense of touch ; whether it has any 



