149 



CORXBRASH. 



CORONILLA. 



150 



highly ornamental, or for their richly-coloured fruit. Benthamia 

 fragifera in particular has its drupes collected in roundish strawberry- 

 like heads, which have a beautiful effect in the south-west of England, 

 where it has been several years introduced from the Himalaya Moun- 

 tains. The bracts of some species of this order are very large, and 

 resemble petals, and being white they are a gay substitute for the 

 flowers themselves, which are small and inconspicuous. This is 

 particularly the case with Cornus herbacea, C. Jiorida, and Benthamia 

 fragifera. Medicinally, Comaceous plants are of great importance. 

 The American physicians estee-n the bark of Cornus Jiorida and 

 C. tericca equal to Cinchona as a febrifuge. 



Formerly the Cornus mat used to be cultivated in gardens for the 

 sake of its fruit, which were called Cornelian Cherries. It is a deci- 

 duous tree, with clusters of small starry yellow flowers, appearing in 

 the spring before the leaves. The leaves are ovate-lanceolate, acute, 

 wavy, and of a dull grayish-green. The fruit consists of oblong 

 drupes of a red or occasionally a yellow colour ; they are excessively 

 austere before ripe, but eventually blet like medlars, and then 

 become eatable. 



This order is allied to Umbelliferos and Hamamdidacea. There 

 are 9 genera and above 40 species. 



CORNBRASH, a thin calcareous member of the Oolitic Formations. 

 It constitutes the uppermost baud of the Bath Oolitic Formation, 

 and is extremely rich in Echinodermala and Conckifera, but somewhat 

 remarkably deficient in Belemnittt. 



CORNCRAKE. [RALLID.E.] 



CORNEA. [EYE.] 



CORNEL-TREE. [CoRjtus.] 



CORNELIAN, or CARNELIAN. [AGATE.] 



CORNELIAN CHERRY. [CORXACB&] 



CORNISH CHOUGH. [CORVID*.] 



CORNISH DAW. [CORVID*.] 



CORNSTONE. The peculiar Limestone, often mottled in colour, 

 of the Old Red-Sandstone of Hereford, Salop, and South Wales, receives 

 this title. (Murchison, Silurian System.) 



CORNU AMMONIS. [AMMONITES.] 



CORNULITES, an obscurely characterised genus (of Polypiaria ?), 

 which occurs in the Silurian Limestones and Sandstones very fre- 

 quently, as at Dudley, Usk, Marloea Bay, Ac. (Murchison, Silurian 

 Syitem, pi. 26, f. 5.) 



CORNUS, a genus of Plants, the type of the natural order Cornacea. 

 It has a calyx with a very small 4-toothed limb ; with 4 oblong 

 sessile petals ; 6 stamens ; 1 style ; a baccate drupe marked with 

 traces of a calyx ; the stone 2-celled, rarely 3-celled ; the seeds 

 solitary, pendulous ; the albumen fleshy ; the radicle of the embryo 

 shorter than the cotyledons. The species are trees, shrubs, or low 

 herbs, with opposite leaves, and white flowers, sometimes yellowish. 



C. languintu, Dog- Wood, Wild Cornel-Tree, has arborescent straight 

 branches ; ovate cuspidate leaves, green on both sides ; the cymes 

 flat, without an involucre. This plant is a shrub, leaching a height 

 of 5 or 6 feet. Its branches are of a reddish colour. It is a native of 

 Ore-it Britain, in hedges and thickets. It also inhabits North America, 

 in Canada and the State of New York ; but was probably introduced 

 there. It has a dark purple fruit, which is very bitter. Matthiolus 

 says that it contains an oil, which is sometimes expressed, and is used 

 for lamps. The wood is used for making charcoal, from which gun- 

 powder is made. The fruits are sometimes mistaken for those of 

 buckthorn, but do not possess the active properties of that plant. 

 The wood is also used for making skewers for butchers. It is called in 

 the country Female Cornel, Prick- Wood, Dogberry-Tree, Hound's- 

 Trt-e, Oaten, and Oaten-Tree. 



C. luecica, Dwarf Cornel, has herbaceous stems, the leaves all oppo- 

 site, sessile, ovate ; the nerves separate almost to the base ; the 

 flowers umbellate, shorter than the 4-leaved petaloid involucre. It is 

 found in high mountain pastures in England and Scotland. It is not 

 so large a plant as the last, and has purple flowers with yellow 

 stamens. The berries are red and sweetish, and are supposed by the 

 Highlanders to create an appetite, of which their name for them, 

 ' Lus-a-Chrasis,' is expressive. 



C. Jiorida has shining branches, ovate acuminated leaves, pale 

 beneath, beset with adpressed hairs ; the flowers umbellate ; the leaves 

 of involucre large, roundish, retuse, the drupes ovate. It is a native 

 of moist forests in the United States, especially on the borders of 

 swamps. Thu bark of this tree is a powerful tonic, astringent, and 

 antiseptic, resembling Cinchona in its action on the system, and much 

 valued by American physicians. The young branches stripped of 

 their bark, when rubbed against the teeth, render them extremely 

 white. The bark of the roots yields a colouring-matter which dyes 

 cloth scarlet. 



C'. icricea, Silky Dogwood, has spreading branches ; woolly branch- 

 lets ; ovate acuminate leaves, clothed with rusty pubescence beneath ; 

 the corymbs depressed, woolly ; the nucleus compressed. It is a 

 native of North America, in moist woods. It has the same properties 

 as the last upvcies, and is used for the cure of intermittent fevers. It 

 is probable that these plants contain an alkaloid identical with quinine, 

 but it has not yet been separated. 



V. mat, Male Cornel, Cornelian Cherry, has smoothish branches ; 

 leaves oval, acuminate, rather pubescent on both surfaces ; flowers 



rising before the leaves; the umbels about equal in length to the 4- 

 leaved involucre ; the fruit elliptic. It is a native throughout the 

 continent of Europe, but is not found in Great Britain. It has yellow 

 flowers, which are succeeded by an elliptical fruit of a bright shining 

 scarlet colour, of the size and form of a small acorn. This plant was 

 formerly cultivated for the sake of its fruit, but it is very inferior to 

 many others that can be more easily produced, so that it is not now 

 often used. The fruit is called Corbet by the Turks, and is used 

 by them in the manufacture of sherbet. The wood is very durable. 



The species of Cornus form good plants for shrubberries, and many 

 of them will grow under the drip of trees, and in spots where other 

 plants will not thrive. They may be propagated by cuttings, layers, 

 or suckers. 



(Don, DiMamydeous Plants ; Lindley, Flora Medica ; Babington, 

 Manual of British Botany.) 



COROLLA, the name given by botanists to the innermost of the 

 envelopes of which the flower is composed. Like the Calyx [CALYX] 

 it is formed of leaves changed from the ordinary state of those parts 

 in consequence of an alteration in the office they have to perform, but 

 liable to resume the state of common leaves if exposed to the effect of 

 any disturbing cause. The corolla is usually thin, delicate, perish- 

 able, and both larger and more richly coloured than the calyx ; hence 

 the older botanists considered those qualities proper to the corolla, 

 and applied the term to all cases in which they existed. But it is now 

 known that the calyx is frequently in the same state, and hence the 

 only distinction that is now made between calyx and corolla is to 

 consider everything calyx which forms the exterior of two or more 

 rows of floral envelopes, everything corolla that belongs to the inner 

 rows, and when there is only one row, to refer that to the calyx, 

 whatever the colour or texture of it may be. 



There is little doubt that when a calyx is green and leafy its busi- 

 ness is principally to protect the corolla ; and that a corolla when 

 large, thin, and brightly coloured, is intended to exercise some special 

 influence upon the fertilising organs of the flower ; for while the 

 respiratory action of the calyx when green is not distinguishable from 

 that of common leaves, the corolla differs most essentially in the want 

 of all power of decomposing carbonic acid ; it absorbs oxygen from 

 the air, but does not part with it again in a pure stat : on the con- 

 trary, it combines it with its carbon, and throws off the carbonic acid 

 thus formed. But although there is this difference between the calyx 

 and corolla in ordinary cases, the functions of the corolla are per- 

 formed by the calyx when it has the appearance of a corolla, and 

 vice vend. The peculiar functions of these parts are therefore 

 performed indifferently by the one or the other according to their 

 structure. 



The leaves of which a corolla is composed are called Petals ; and 

 the endless varieties of its form and structure depend principally 

 upon the different manner in which those parts are united, or upon 

 the proportions they bear to each other. A Monopetalous Corolla, for 

 instance, is composed of several petals joined more or less together by 

 their edges ; Cauipauulate Corollas originate from petals without a 

 claw or unguis ; Tubular Corollas from unguiculate petals. In a 

 regular monopetalous corolla all the petals are of equal size, and are 

 united in the same degree ; in an irregular monopetalous corolla, the 

 petals are unequal in size, and perhaps unequally united. 



The corolla is generally the part of the flower in which grotesque 

 forms are most frequently met with ; such as horns or spurs project- 

 ing from the base ; or a cowled figure, or dark hairy appearances 

 resembling the bodies of insects, as in the Bee-Larkspur, various orchi- 

 daceous plants, &c. The cause of these singular forms is entirely 

 unknown ; they appear to be specific cases of which no explanation 

 can be given. [FLOWER.] 



COROLLIFLOR^E, a subdivision of the class of Exogenous or 

 Dicotyledonous Plants. It embraces those orders in which the petals 

 are united and the stamens are attached to those organs. 



CORONARII. [AMMONITES.] 



CORONILLA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order Legu- 

 minoscf. It has a campanulate calyx, short, 5-toothed, the superior 

 teeth approximated and nearly united. Claws of the petals distinctly 

 longer than the calyx ; keel acute. Stamens diadelphous. Legume 

 tapering, slender, finally separating into oblong 1-seeded joints. Seeds 

 ovate or cylindrical. The species are shrubs or herbaceous plants. 

 Leaves unequally pennated. Peduncles axillary, bearing an umbel 

 of stalked flowers. 



C. Emerui is common all over the South of Europe. It is known 

 by the name of Scorpion Senna, and its leaves are cathartic like those 

 of true Senna, but less so. It is a small bush. Branches deep 

 green, strongly furrowed, quite smooth. Leaflets 2-3 pairs, obovate, 

 retuse or obtuse, when young very downy ; stipules ovate, acute, very 

 much shorter than the first joint of the petiole. Peduncles axillary, 

 2-3-flowered, slender, erect, as long as the leaves. Calyx slightly 

 downy, only half the length of the claws of the petals. Corolla deep 

 bright yellow. Legume a long while before its joints drop in pieces. 



C. varia is an herbaceous plant, with distinct lanceolate petals ; the 

 leaflets 9-13, oblong, elliptic, mucronate, the lower ones approaching 

 the stem; the umbels 18-20-flowered; the legumes angular, very long, 

 straight. It inhabits meadows and waste places in the south of 

 Europe and in the Crimea. The leaves have a diuretic action on the 



