CHEIRACANTHUS. 



CHEIROMTS. 



938 



surface is also sprinkled with small black dots. The remaining species 

 are also small, and most of them are of a red colour ; a few have been 

 found off the coast of Australia, but most of them frequent the 

 Indian seas. 



CHEIRACA'NTHUS, a genus of Fossil Fishes from the Old Red- 

 Sandstone of Gamrie in Forfarshire and the Orkneys. (Agassiz.) 



CHEIRANTHUS, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order 

 Crucifera;. This genus is known by possessing square or compressed 

 siliques ; a 2-lobed or capitate stigma ; a calyx bi-saccate at the base ; 

 ovate compressed seeds in one series. The species are biennial or 

 perennial herbs, or under-shrubs. The leaves are oblong, lanceolate, 

 entire, or toothed. The flowers are arranged in racemes, and are of 

 various colours yellow, white, purple, or parti-coloured. Many of 

 the species exhale a delicious odour, and are great favourites in 

 gardens. 



C. Cheiri, the common Wall-Flower, has lanceolate entire leaves, 

 which are either smooth or covered with 2-parted appressed hairs ; 

 linear pods, and recurved lobes of the stigma. It is found wild 

 throughout Europe, on old walls and in stony places, and almost 

 constantly amongst the ruins of old castles. On this account it is a 

 great favourite with poets, and is popularly regarded as an emblem 

 of faithfulness in adversity. The general colour is a brown yellow, 

 or, as a poet has called it, the " yellow wall-flower stained with iron- 

 brown." It is however subject to considerable varieties of colour even 

 in its wild state, and these are much increased by cultivation. On 

 account of its scent it has been transferred from ruined walls to the 

 flower-borders of gardens, and there, by the doubling of its flowers 

 and the variations of its colours, a number of distinct varieties have 

 been recorded. The following is a list of the most remarkable 

 varieties found in gardens : - 



a. fort simplici. Single Yellow. 



P. fore plena. Double Yellow. 



y. maximta. Large-Flowered Yellow. 



J. terraitu. Large Yellow, saw-leaved. 



(. pnlulant. I) ,uble Yellow, spreading. 



(. ferragineut. Double Rosy. 



t. varitu. I >< mble, variegated with purple and yellow. 



i. Jlaveceni. Large Double, pale yellow. 



K. thyrtoidfta. Bunch-Flowered, yellow. 



A. yynantherui. Flowers with anthers changed into carpels. 



/. lui iiniiitliii.*. Single and Double, bloody-flowered. 



The Wall-Flower is a common wild plant in Great Britain. It 

 possesses the slight acridity of the order to which it belongs, and it 

 has been recommended to sow it in pastures for the purpose of pre- 

 venting rot in sheep. The wild flower has by some botanists been 

 distinguished from the cultivated plant by the name of C. fruticulosiu, 

 but they are both the same. 



Several other species of this genus hare been described, and are 

 occasionally found in collections in gardens in this country. In their 

 cultivation the hardy shrubby species, such as the common Wall- 

 Flower, may be propagated by cuttings, which soon strike root when 

 planted under a hand-glass. Other perennial species will permit of 

 growth by dividing the roots. The annual species may be sown in 

 the open border or on rock-work, where they will flourish, and most 

 of them will survive the winter in such a situation. 



CHEIROGALEUS. [LKMURID*.] 



CHEIRO'LEPIS, a genus of Fossil Fishes from the Old Red-Sand- 

 stone of the Orkney Islands and Morayshire. The scales are very 

 minute. (Agassiz.) 



< H EJROMKLES. [CHEIROPTERA.] 



CHEI'ROMYS, one of the generic names given the Aye-Aye (which 

 must not be confounded with the Ai, or Sloth [BRADYPUS], from which 

 it very strongly differs in organisation), an animal discovered by 

 Sonnerat at Madagascar, and described by him in the second volume 

 of his ' Voyage aux Indes.' The name Aye-Aye it appears is an 

 exclamation of the natives ; and it is conjectured that it was given to 

 this animal in consequence of a supposed resemblance to its cry. 

 Sonnini, who formed the genus, censures Gmelin for denominating it 

 Sciuriu Madayatcarlentit (Madagascar Squirrel), because a quadruped 

 of the latter genus really exists in Madagascar. Cuvier places the 

 form next to the Flying Squirrels, Polatouches (Pteromyi), and 

 immediately before the Rats (Mut, Linn.), remarking that the lower 

 incisors are much more compressed, and especially more extended 

 from before backwards, than those of the squirrels, and resemble 

 ploughshares (socs de charrue). The feet, he adds, have all five toes, 

 of which four of those on each anterior extremity are elongated, the 

 middle toe Ijeing much more slender than the others ; in the hind 

 feet, the great toe is opposeable to the others, so that in this respect 

 the animal is among the Rodents what the Opossums (Sarigues) are 

 among the Carnassiera. The structure of the head, he continues, is 

 very different from that of the other Rodents, and has more relation 

 to the Quadrumana. 



Dental formula : incisors,-^ ; molars, is 

 ' 2 ' '3 a" 18 ' 



Sonnerat gays that the Aye-Aye, which is found chiefly if not 

 exclusively on the western part of the island, does not approach any 

 genus, but that it leans towards the Maki, the Squirrel, and the Ape. 



Its large and flat ears, he observes, resemble much those of a bat ; 

 and states that its principal character, and a very singular one it is, 

 is the middle toe or finger of the fore foot, the two last joints of which 

 are very long, slender, and denuded of hair. This member, he adds, 



Skull of Aye-Aye (Cheiromys Sfadagascarifnais). 



is useful to it in drawing worms out of holes in the trees, and that it 

 seems also to be of service in holding on to the branches of trees. He 

 says that it appears to be a subterranean animal, and does not see 

 during the day, and that its eye resembles in colour that of the owl. 

 He describes it as being very slothful, but good tempered, remaining 

 always at rest, and requiring a good deal of shaking to make it move. 

 The subject of his observations lived two months upon no other 

 nourishment than cooked rice, and it fed itself with its two fingers like 

 the Chinese with their chopsticks. All the time M. Sonnerat had this 

 animal alive, he never saw it carry its tail elevated like the squirrel. 

 It always dragged. 



Buffon describes the colour as a musk -brown mixed with black and 

 gray -ash. On the head, round the eyes, on the body, thighs and legs, 

 the colour was deep musk, in which nevertheless black predominated 

 upon the back and many parts of the body and legs. The tail was 

 entirely black : the sides of the head, the neck, the jaw, and the belly 

 were grayish. There were woolly hairs of this gray colour below the 

 great black or white hairs, of two or three inches long, which were 

 on the body and legs ; but the legs and thighs were of a reddish-brown. 

 Black predominated at the approach of the feet, which were covered 

 with small hairs of that colour. The head was like that of a squirrel, 

 and the ears large, naked, erect, and round at their extremities, with 

 a wide opening. It is about the size of a common hare. 



Ayc-Avc (Cheiromtfs Jfadagnscaricnsit). 



This animal is the Aye-Aye Squirrel of Pennant, Shaw considered 

 it to be a species of Lemur, and Schrcber named it Lemur psilo- 

 dactylut, a name adopted by Shaw. 



