270 



C E D 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



C E L 



valves deciduous. Seeds: numerous, fleshy, imbricate down 

 wards, terminated by a membranaceous wing ; receptacle 

 woody, five-angled, free. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix 

 withering. Corolla: five-petalled, funnel -form, fastened bj 

 the base to the receptacle to one-third of its length. Cap- 

 sule: woody, five-celled, five-valved. Seeds: imbricate 

 downwards, with a membranaceous wing. The only spe- 

 cies known is, 



1. Cedrela Odorata; Barbadoes Bastard Cedar. Flowers 

 panicled. This tree rises with a straight stem, to the height 

 of seventy or eighty feet : while young, the bark is smooth, 

 and of an ash-colour, but becomes rougher and darker by age ; 

 leaves near three feet long, winged with 16 or 18 pairs of leaf- 

 lets without an odd one ; corollas whitish, flesh-coloured, 

 liliaceous, resembling that of the hyacinth. The fruit is oval, 

 about the size of a partridge's egg, smooth, of a very dark 

 colour, and opens in five parts, having a five-cornered column 

 standing in the middle, between the angles of which the 

 winged seeds are closely placed, lapping over each other like 

 the scales of fish. The trunk is covered with a rough bark, 

 marked with longitudinal fissures, and, as well as the berries 

 and leaves, has a smell like assafoetida when fresh ; the wood 

 has, notwithstanding, a pleasant smell. This tree is com- 

 monly known under the name of Cedar, in the British West 

 India islands : the trunk is so largo, that the natives hollow 

 it out into canoes and periaguas, for which purpose it is ex- 

 tremely well adapted, the wood being so soft that it may be 

 cut out with great facility, and so light that it will carry a 

 great weight upon the water. There are canoes in the West 

 Indies, which have been formed out of these trunks, forty 

 feet long, and six broad : the wood is of a brown colour, and 

 has a fragrant odour, whence the title of Cedar has been 

 given to it : it is frequently cut into shingles for covering 

 houses, and is found very durable ; but as the worms are apt 

 to eat this wood, it is not proper for building ships, though 

 it is often used for that purpose, as well as for sheathing 

 them : it is often used for wainscotingof rooms, and to make 

 chests, because vermin do not so frequently breed in it, 

 as in many other sorts of wood, owing to its very bitter 

 taste, which is communicated to whatever is put into the 

 chests, especially when the wood is fresh ; for which reason 

 it is never made into casks, because spirituous liquors will 

 dissolve part of the resin, and thereby acquire a very bitter 

 taste : it yields a fine essential oil, and a spirit not inferior 

 to that which is drawn from Rosemary. It is propagated by 

 seeds, which may be easily procured from the West Indies : 

 they must be sown upon a hot-bed in the spring, and the 

 plants treated in the same manner as the Mahogany. 



Cedrota ; a genus of the class Octandria, order Monogy- 

 nia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one-leafed, six- 

 parted ; parts ovate, obtuse, concave. Corolla. none. Sta- 

 mina : filamenta eight, short ; antherae roundish. Pistil : 

 germen superior, roundish, surrounded by a gland ; style 

 short; stigma obtuse. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: six- 

 parted. Corolla: none. Germen: superior, surrounded by 



a gland. Style : short. The only known species is, 



1. Cedrota Guianensis. A tree forty feet high, and two 

 in diameter, with a thick, unequal, wrinkled bark, full of 

 clefts [ and a yellow, heavy, aromatic wood, which however 

 becomes light when dry. Branches near the top of the trunk, 

 numerous ; leaves about seven inches long, and two broad; 

 flowers very small, green, loosely racemed, on a long, 

 weak, axillary peduncle. It grows in the forests of 

 Guiana, flowering in May : the inhabitants call it bois de 

 cetlre, and use it for making their pirogues ; it is also fit for 

 masts. 



Celastrus ; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Monogy- 

 nia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Caluc: perianth one-leafed, half 

 five-cleft, flat, small; divisions obtuse, unequal. Corolla: 

 petals five, ovate, spreading, sessile, equal, reflected at the 

 borders. Stamina: filamenta five, subulate, length of the 

 corolla ; antherae very small. Pistil : germen very small, 

 immersed in a large flat receptacle, which is marked with 

 ten streaks ; style subulate, shorter than the stamina ; 

 stigma obtuse, trifid. Pericarp : capsule coloured, ovate, 

 obtusely triangular, gibbous, trilocular, trivalvular. Seeds : 

 few, ovate, coloured, smooth, half involved in an unequal 

 coloured arillus, with a four-cleft mouth. ESSENTIAL CHA- 

 RACTER. Corolla: five-petalled, spreading. Capsule: triin- 

 gular, trilocular. .Seed : calyptrated. This genus consists of 

 shrubs or small trees, with alternate leaves, and the flowers 



many together, on axillary subdichotomous peduncles. 



The species are, 



1 . Celastrus Bullatus ; Virginian Staff Tree. Unarmed : 

 leaves ovate, quite entire. It rises to the height of eight or 

 ten feet ; but in England there are few of these shrubs much 

 more than half that height. This shrub flowers in July, but 

 rarely produces good seeds in England. The flowers come 

 out at the ends of the branches, in loose spikes, and are 

 white ; the capsule is of a scarlet colour, set full of small 

 protuberances, opening into three cells, each containing a 

 hard oval seed, covered with a thin red pulp. It grows 

 naturally in Virginia, and many other parts of North America. 

 It is propagated by layers, which will take root in one year; 

 the young branches only are proper for this purpose, so that 

 when there are not any of these near the ground, the main 

 stalks should be drawn down and fastened with pegs to pre- 

 vent their rising, and the young shoots from them should be 

 laid : the best time for doing this is in autumn, when they 

 begin to cast their leaves, and by that time twelvemonth they 

 will be sufficiently rooted, and should be cut off from the old 

 plant, and be replanted in the nursery for two or three years 

 to get strength, after which they must be removed to the 

 places where they are to remain : it grows naturally in moist 

 places, and will not thrive in a dry soil, although it be very 

 hardy, and bears the cold of our winters very well. It is 

 also propagated by seeds brought from America, but as these 

 rarely arrive in time to sow before the spring, the plants 

 never come up the first year ; therefore the seeds may be 

 sown either in pots or in a bed of loamy earth, keeping then 

 clean from weeds during the summer, and those in the pots 

 in the shade till the autumn, when the pots should either 

 be plunged into the ground in a warm situation, or placet 

 under a common frame, to prevent the frost from pene- 

 trating through the side of the pots ; and if the surface ol 

 hose which are plunged into the ground, and also the beds 

 where the seeds are sown, be lightly covered with some old 

 ;an from a decayed hot-bed, it will secure the seeds from 

 jeing hurt by severe frosts. If the plants make a good pro- 

 gress the first summer, they may be transplanted into a nur- 

 ery in autumn, otherwise they should remain in the seed- 

 bed till the second year, when they may be treated in the 

 same manner as the layers. 



2. Celastrus Scandens ; Climbing Staff Tree. Unarmed ; 

 ,tem twining. It sends out several woody stalks, which are 

 lexible, and twist themselves round trees and shrubs, or 

 ound each other, to the height of twelve or fourteen feet or 

 more, girding trees so closely as in a few years to destroy, 

 hem. Leaves alternate, petioled, smooth ; flowers small, 

 whitish green. It flowers in the beginning of June, and the 

 eeds ripen in autumn. Native of North America and Japan, 

 ["he seeds of this species generally ripen well in England, and 



