CAR 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



CAS 



2'HS 



not often unsophisticated. The culinary uses of Cloves are 

 almost innumerable. 



Caryota ; a genus of the class Monoecia, order Polyandria. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Male Flowers. Calix: spathe uni- 

 versal, compound ; spadix ramose. Corolla : tripartite ; petals 

 lanceolate, concave. Stamina: filamenta very numerous, 

 almost longer than the corolla ; anther linear. Female 

 Flowers, in the same spadix with the males. Calix: com- 

 mon with the males. Corolla: tripartite ; petals acuminate, 

 very small. Pistil : germen roundish ; style acuminate ; 

 stigma simple. Pericarp : berry roundish, unilocular. Seeds : 

 two, large, oblong, roundish on one side, flat on the other. 

 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Male. Calix : common. Corolla .- 

 tripartite. Stamina : very many. Female. Cafo.- as in the 

 male. Corolla: tripartite. Pistil .-one. Berry : dispermous. 

 The species are, 



1. Caryota Urens ; Burning Caryota. Fronds bipinnate ; 

 leaflets sessile; berry two-seeded. This palm becomes a 

 lofty tree ; the trunk is frequently so large as scarcely to be 

 embraced by two men : it is covered with a sort of cinereous 

 crust, which is quite smooth ; leaves or fronds large, forming 

 an ample head, twice winged; pinnules small with respect to 

 the size of the leaf, wedge-shaped; spathe many-leafed, axil- 

 lary within the lowest leaf ; the corolla, which is sometimes 

 bipartite, but commonly tripartite, is at first green, then red 

 or purple, and finally yellow : the fruit is a succulent globular 

 berry, a little flatted, terminated by a triangular twin stigma ; 

 at first it is hard and green, next yellow, then red, and, when 

 quite ripe, dark red, (almost black) and shining : the rind is 

 thin, and the pulp is soft and red, very sharp and acrid : within 

 are two stones or seeds, (sometimes only one) hard, roundish 

 or oblong, convex on one side, flat on the other, wrinkled ; 

 they are of a dark red or blackish colour on the outside. 

 The Ceylonese know this tree by the name ofkettule; it yields 

 a sort of liquor, which they call tellegie, sweet and pleasing 

 to the palate, wholesome, and not stronger than water : it is 

 taken from the tree twice, and sometimes thrice a day, and 

 the quantity obtained is three or four gallons ; they boil this 

 liquor, and thus make a kind of brown sugar, called Raggery, 

 of it ; but if they manage it skilfully, can make it as white 

 as the second-best sugar. When the tree is come to matu- 

 rity, there comes out a bud from the top, which if it be 

 suffered to grow, will bear the fruit, but this is only fit to set 

 for increase; this bud is cut and prepared, by putting salt, 

 pepper, lemons, garlic, leaves, &c. upon it, which keep it 

 from ripening : they then daily cut off a thin slice from the 

 end, and the liquor drops into a vessel which they set to 

 catch it. This tree bears a leaf like that of the Betel-nut 

 tree, which is fastened to a skin as that is, only this skin is 

 hard and stubborn like a piece of board ; the skin is all full 

 of strings as strong as wire, and is used for making ropes. 

 While the tree grow,s, the leaves shed ; but when it is come to 

 its full growth, they remain many years before they fall. As 

 the top bud withers, other buds come out lower and lower 

 every year, till they come to the bottom of the boughs, and 

 then, having done bearing, may stand seven or ten years, 

 when it dies. The wood is not above three inches thick, very 

 strong and hard, but apt to split ; being very heavy, they 

 make pestles of it to beat their rice with ; the colour is black, 

 but it looks as if it were composed of several pieces. The 

 buds of this tree, like those of the Cocoa and Betel-nut tree, 

 are excellently well tasted, resembling walnuts or almonds. 



2. Caryota Mitis ; Mild Caryota. Fronds bipinnate ; pe- 

 tioles of the leaflets nodding ; berries one-seeded. The trunk 

 of this palm is fifteen feet high, two inches thick, very straight 

 and regular; fronds four feet long, reclining on roundish un- 



armed stipes. The berry is round, coriaceous, smooth, black, 

 the size of a musket-bullet ; containing one globular pale 

 softish seed; pulp mild. It is a most beautiful palm, and 

 grows in the woods of Cochin-china. 



Cassada, or Cassava. See Jatroplia. 



Cassia ; a genus of the class Decandria, order Monogynia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth pentaphyllous, 

 lax, concave, coloured, deciduous. Corolla : petals five, 

 roundish, concave ; the inferior ones more distant, more 

 spreading, larger. Stamina : filamenta ten, declined ; the 

 three inferior ones longer, the three superior shorter: an- 

 thers, the three inferior very large, arcuate, rostrate, gaping 

 at the tip ; the four lateral ones without the rostrum, gaping ; 

 the three superior ones very small, sterile. Pistil: germeii 

 subcolumnar, long, peduncled ; style very short ; stigma 

 obtuse, ascending. Pericarp: legume oblong; partitions 

 transverse. Seeds: many, roundish, affixed to the superior 

 suture. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: pentaphyllous. 

 Petals: five. The three superior Anther<e sterile ; the three 

 inferior beaked. Fruit : a legume. Many of these plants are 

 preserved in curious gardens, though several of them have little 

 beauty to recommend them. The handsomest are the eighth, 

 fourteenth, thirty-first, thirty-ninth, fortieth, and forty-first 

 species ; these all make a good appearance in the stove when in 

 flower, and, as they retain their leaves all the year, form an 

 agreeable variety in winter. All the species contract their 

 leaves every evening as the sun declines, and open them 

 when he re-appears : the under surface of the leaflets is turned 

 outward, the upper surfaces being clapped close together. 

 Most plants whose under surface is thus turned outward, grow 

 on dry sandy land, where the roots do not find a sufficient 

 supply of moisture ; the lower surface of the leaves being 

 generally covered with a short soft down, detain and imbibe 

 the nightly dews. Those which have the upper surface of 

 the leaves turned outward, do not stand in need of this 

 supply ; and accordingly that surface being smooth, the 

 moisture is cast off, and not imbibed. All the species of this 

 genus are propagated by seeds, which, as they mostly come 

 from very hot climates, must be sown upon a hot-bed in the 

 spring ; and when the plants are fit to remove, they must 

 be each planted in a separate pot, filled with light earth, and 

 plunged into a moderate hot-bed, where they should be 

 shaded until they have taken fresh root ; after which they 

 must have the air admitted to them every day, in pro- 

 portion to the warmth of the season, and should be fre- 

 quently watered. When the plants have filled the pots with 

 their roots, they should be shifted into larger, and if they 

 be too tall to remain in the hot-bed, they must be placed 

 either in the stove, or in a glass-case, where they may be 

 defended from cold, and have plenty of fresh air in warm 

 weather : they will flower in July or August, and perfect 

 their seeds in October, and may be preserved through the 

 winter in a stove, where they will continue flowering a long 

 time. In warm summers they may be placed in the open 

 air, where they will flower very well about the end of June, 

 but will not perfect their seeds, unless they are removed into 

 the stove in autumn. The species are, 



1. Cassia Diphylla; Two-leaved Cassia. Leaves conju- 

 gate ; stipules cordate-lanceolate. A shrub with a round 

 stem. Annual. Native of the West Indies. 



2. Cassia Bacillaris. Leaflets two pairs, ovate, oblique, 

 an obtuse gland between the lowest ; racemes axillary, pe- 

 duncled ; silique round, long. A shrub of twelve feet in 

 height, and very smooth. Native of Surinam. 



3. Cassia Absus ; Four-leaved Cassia. Leaflets two pairs, 

 obovate; glands two, subulate beneath the lowest. A hairy 



