101 



COMFREY. 



COMPOSITE. 



exposed. The fish is about a foot in length, and of a soft greasy 

 texture. It is collected and pressed for oil, but is not eaten. 



COMFREY. [SYMPHYTUM.] 



COMMELYNA. [COMMELYSACE^..] 



COMMELYNA'CE^E, a very small order of Tripetaloideous 

 Endogens, consisting of Plants with sheathing leaves, white or most 

 frequently blue flowers inclosed in a green spathe, and a single 

 3-celled ovary terminated by a single style. They are moreover 

 remarkable for their pulley-shaped (or trochlear) embryo lying in a 

 particular cavity of the albumen. None of the species are European, 

 nor of any known use. Many of them are common Indian weeds ; 

 others are handsome American herbaceous plants. The common 

 Spiderworts are a good type of the order. They are in many respects 

 allied to the Lilies. Brown compares them with Rushes. They may 

 also be compared with Alismads. Lindley places them between 

 IMiacea and Bromeliacea. There are 16 genera of this order and 

 about 260 species. 



Spidcrwort ( Tradttcnntia Virgittinna). 



a, Calyx, stamens, and pistil ; b, stamen magnified ; e, jointed hair from the 

 filaments of the stamen ; rf, pistil ; /, fruit ; p, horizontal section of the seed- 

 Tessel ; A, i, sections of seed ; *, embryo ; /, seed germinating. 



COMMIA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Eupkorbiacccc. It has dioecious flowers. The staminiferous flowers 

 are formed of bracts united into an amentum; the stamens are 

 numerous and united into a single column. The pistiliferous flowers 

 are racemose, the calyx is 3-parte<l, the styles 3, the capsule 3-lobed. 



C. C'ockinchinentit is a small tree with a resinous juice. It has 

 alternate entire smooth leaves. The male flowers are amentaceous, 

 the catkins consisting of imbricated 1-flowered scales, axillary and 

 short ; the female flowers racemose, terminal, and small. This tree 

 yields a gum which possesses emetic and purgative properties. It is 

 recommended in cases of dropsy, but has not been introduced into 

 Knr >|iean practice. It is a native of Cochin China. 



VOMMIN'UTONITE, a Mineral belonging to the Silicate of Iron 

 series. It is a compound of silica, iron, manganese, and soda. 



COMOCLADIA (from n6it.it, hair, and xAiJot, a branch), a genus 

 of Plant* belonging to the natural order Anacardiacecc. It has 

 hermaphrodite or monoecious flowers ; a 3-4-parted permanent calyx, 

 3-4 long petals ; 3-4 short stamens; a single ovary with no style, and 

 a single stigma; an ovate 1 -celled, 1 -seeded drupe ; the seed somewhat 

 pendulous from a curved funiculus originating at the base of the 

 cavity ; no albumen. 



C'. dentata, Tooth-Leaved Maiden-Plum, has pinnated shining leaves, 

 green above, with a round rachis 6 inches long, 6-10 leaflets on each 

 ride, with an odd one oblong, acuminate, spiny-toothed, veiny, and 

 somewhat downy at the back. This plant is a tree reaching a height 

 of about 30 feet. It u a native of the woods of Cuba and St. Domingo, 



where it is called (Juao. It has au erect not much branched stem. 

 A milky juice exudes from it, which is glutinous, and becomes black 

 by exposure to the air. It stains linen and the skin black, which 

 cannot be washed out of the former, and only comes off from the 

 latter by the exfoliation of the cuticle. It is believed by the natives 

 of Cuba that it is death for persons to sleep under this tree, especially 

 if they are fat or of a full habit of body. It is, undoubtedly, a 

 poisonoxis tree, although nothing is recorded of its mode of action on 

 the system. 



C. integnfolia has stalked leaflets, lanceolate, quite entire, smooth. 

 It is a tree 20 feet high, with small scentless deep red flowers. 

 The berries are black and succulent, and may be eaten with impunity, 

 but are not pleasant to the taste. The wood is hard, of a fine grain, 

 and reddish colour. The tree gives out a watery juice, which is 

 slightly glutinous, and grows black on exposure to the air. Like the 

 juice from the last, it stains linen and the skin indelibly. It is a 

 native of Jamaica. 



(Don, Dichlamydeous Plants; Lindley, Flora Mcdica.) 



COMPO'SIT^E, the largest known natural order of Plants. It 

 consists of Monopetalous Exogens with syngenesious stamens, and an 

 erect solitary ovule in a simple 1-celled inferior ovary, the style of 

 which is divided into two arms ; the flowers are always arranged in 

 dense heads, or capitula, and are surrounded by one or more external 

 rows of bracts forming an involucre. Professor Lindley regards it as 

 an alliance of several natural orders. It consists of herbs, shrubs, or 

 trees, found in all parts of the world, but assuming an arborescent 

 character only in warm latitudes : they occur in every conceivable 

 variety of situation, are often exceedingly similar to each other in 

 appearance, and have always been, from the birth of botany as a 

 systematic science, the puzzle and reproach of systematists. Every 

 succeeding writer, with a few exceptions, rendered the subject more 

 complicated and difficult, till Cassini, a Frenchman, of good powers of 

 observation, much patience in investigation, and a clear head, with 

 the command of the rich materials included in the Paris herbaria, 

 set steadily about a re-formation and re-examination of the whole 

 order. In 1832 Lessing gave the world a synopsis of the genera of 

 Compotita, in which for the first time a clear, compendious, intelligible 

 view of the order was systematically taken. Subsequently De Can- 

 dolle, the celebrated botanist of Geneva, achieved the difficult task of 

 systematising the Composite in an unexceptionable manner in his 

 great work, ' Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis.' 



The old and generally adopted plan of breaking up Compost/a; into 

 primary divisions is that of Jussieu, which may be explained thus : 

 Every head of flowers, or florets, as they are technically named, has a 

 central part, or disc, and a circumference, or ray : of these florets 

 some are regularly tubular, with their limb cut into four or five seg- 

 ments ; others are slit up on one side, opened flat, and turned towards 

 the circumference of the head ; the latter are named ligulate florets. 

 When in a head of flowers all the florets are alike and ligulate, it 

 belonged to the division Cichnracece (fy. a), as in the dandelion ; if 

 the florets of the disc were tubular, and those of the circumference only 

 ligulate, it was referrible to Corymliifera (fig. b), as in the marigold ; 

 and when all the florets ore alike tubular, both in the disc and ray 

 (fig. c), it belonged to Cynarocephala;, provided the involucre was at 

 the same time stiff and ovate, as in the thistle. The latter character 

 was necessary in order to distinguish Cynarocephala from those Corym- 

 biferce in which the ray is not developed, as common groundsel. To 

 these three divisions a fourth has in later times been added under the 

 name of Labiatiflorae, in consequence of the florets having distinctly 

 two lips of unequal size. (Fiys. d and e.) 



These divisions have however been thought objectionable on several 

 accounts, and De Candolle, following Cassini and Lessing, has trusted 

 more to modifications of the style ; the result of which is the follow- 

 ing arrangement of the order in eight tribes : 



* Tubulifiorcf ; namely, with the hermaphrodite floreta regularly 

 tubular, and 5-toothed, seldom 4-toothed. 



Tribe 1, Venwniacea;. Style of the hermaphrodite flowers cylin- 

 drical, its arms usually lengthened and subulate, rarely short and 

 obtuse, always equally hispid in about all the length. The true stigma 

 ending short of the middle of the arms of the style, A part of the 

 rayless Corymbiferce. (Fig. 1.) 



Tribe 2, Eupaloriacece. Style of the hermaphrodite flowers cylin- 

 drical, with long somewhat club-shaped arms, which are covered 

 externally near the end with papillose down. The true stigma but 

 little prominent, and usually ending short of the middle of the arms 

 of the style. A part of the rayless Corymbiferce. (Fig. 2.) 



Tribe 3, Asteroideie. Style of the hermaphrodite flowers cylindrical, 

 with linear arms, rather flat externally, and towards the end equally 

 and finely downy. The true stigma produced about as far as the 

 origin of the external down. A part of Corymbiferce. (Fig. 3.) 



Tribe 4, Senecionidetr. Style of the hermaphrodite flowers cylin- 

 drical, with linear arms having a pencil of hairs at the point ; either 

 truncated, or produced beyond the pencil into a short cone, or a long 

 narrow hispid appendage. The true stigma broad and prominent as 

 far as the pencil. A part of Corymbifenr. (Fig. 4.) 



Tribe 5, Cynarete. Style of the hermaphrodite flowers thickened 

 and knobby towards the upper end, and often pencilled at the knob,. 



