C E R 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



C E R 



2S1 



streams, flowering in August and September; also in Japan 

 it is common in Jamaica, where they call it Morass-weed, and 

 use it to cover fish, &c. when to be carried to any distance. 

 2. Ceratophyllum Submersum ; Smooth-seeded Hornwort. 

 Leaves three-fold, dichotomous ; fruits thornless. It is 

 found in the ditches on the side of the road, from Chichester 

 to the Isle of Selsey. 



Cerbera -. a genus of the class Pentandria, order Monogy- 

 nia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth five-leaved, 

 acuminate, spreading; leaflets ovate-lanceolate. Corolla: 

 monopetalous, funnel-form ; tube clavated ; border large, five- 

 parted ; divisions oblique, obtuse, more gibbous on one side 

 than the other ; mouth of the tube pentagonal, five-toothed, 

 converging in the form of a star. Stamina : filamenta five, 

 subulate in the middle of the tube ; anthera? erect, converging. 

 Pistil : germen roundish ; style filiform, short ; stigma headed, 

 bilobate. Pericarp: drupe very large, roundish, fleshy, 

 excavated on the side by a longitudinal furrow, and with 

 two specks or points. Seed : not two celled, four-valved, 

 retuse ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Contorted. Drupe ; one- 

 seeded. These plants must be propagated from their nuts, 

 which must be procured from the countries where they natu- 

 rally grow. They should be put into small pots filled with 

 light earth, and plunged into a hot-bed of tanner's bark in the 

 spring, and treated in the same manner as other tender exotic 

 seeds, giving them now and then a little water to promote 

 their vegetation. When the plants are come up about two 

 inches high, they should be transplanted into a separate pot, 

 filled with light sandy earth, and plunged again into a hot- 

 bed of tanner's bark, observing to shade the glasses in the 

 heat of the day, until the plants have taken new root ; they 

 must also be frequently refreshed with water, but not in large 

 quantities. As the summer advances, they must have air 

 admitted to them in proportion to the warmth of the season ; 

 and when they have filled these small pots with their roots, 

 they should be turned out, and transplanted into those of a 

 larger size. In the winter they should be placed in a warm 

 stove, and have but little water. The following spring they 

 must be shifted to larger pots, and plunged into the bark- 

 bed again. When by any accident the tops of these plants 

 are injured, they frequently put out shoots from their roots, 

 which, if carefully taken up and potted, will become good 



plants. The species are, 



1. Cerbera Ahouai ; Oval-leaved Cerbera. Leaves ovate. 

 It grows naturally in the Brasils, and in the Spanish West 

 Indies ; and also in the British islands of America. It rises 

 with an irregular stem to the height of eight or ten feet, send- 

 ing out many crooked diffused branches ; leaves three inches 

 long, thick, and succulent ; flowers in loose bunches at the 

 end of the branches, cream-coloured, with long narrow tubes. 

 Every part of the plant is very full of a milky juice : it flowers 

 in July and August, but never produces seeds in England. 

 The wood of this tree stinks most insufferably, and the 

 kernels of the nuts are a deadly poison. The Indians are not 

 acquainted with any antidote to it ; nor will they use the 

 wood for fuel. They put small stones into the empty nuts, 

 string them, and fasten them about their legs when they dance. 

 *2. Cerbera Manghas. Leaves lanceolate; nerves trans- 

 verse. This is a milky tree ; corolla white ; drupe ovate, the 

 size of a goose's egg, with very minute white drops, com- 

 pressed on one side, and with an obscure suture, inclosing 

 two seeds resembling two large chestnuts, poisonous and 

 vomiting. Native of the East Indies, some parts of the 

 Spanish West Indies, and of the Society Islands. 



3. CerberaThevetia; Linear-leaved Cerbera. Leaves linear, 

 very long, crowded. This is an elegant shrub or small tree, 

 VOL. i. 24. 



about twelve feet in height ; the stem is round, unarmed, 

 abounding in a poisonous milky juice. Flowers large, spe- 

 cious, nodding, yellow, smelling very sweet. Native of the 

 West Indies, in woods or coppices near the coast. Mr. Miller 

 informs us, that he received it from our islands there, by the 

 name of French Physic-nut, and that it flowers here in July 

 and August, but never produces fruit in England. 



4. Cerbera Parviflora. Leaves stellate, obovate. Native 

 of the Friendly Islands, and Savage Island, in the South Seas. 



5. Cerbera Salutaris. Leaves and fruits oval. This is a 

 middle-sized tree, with a milky juice and spreading branches ; 

 flowers white, inodorous, in small subterminating racemes ; 

 drupe oval, large with a smooth skin, yellow on one side, 

 red on the other, containing a fibrous woody nut, with a 

 single kernel in it, not poisonous. Native of Cochin-china, 

 near the coast. 



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

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one-leafed, very 

 short, bell-shaped, gibbous below, melliferous ; mouth five- 

 toothed, erect, obtuse. Corolla : pentapetalous, inserted 

 into the calix, resembling a papilionaceous corolla ; wings, 

 petals two, bent upwards, affixed by long claws ; standard, 

 petal one, roundish, clawed beneath the wings, and shorter 

 than the wings ; keel, petals two, converging into a cordate 

 figure, including the organs of generation, affixed by claws ; 

 nectary a style-shaped gland, below the germen. Stamina r 

 fllamenta ten, distinct, subulate, bent downwards, of which 

 four are longer than the rest, covered ; anthera; oblong, 

 incumbent, rising upwards. Pistil; germen linear lanceolate, 

 pedicelled ; style of the length and situation of the stamina ; 

 stigma obtuse, ascending. Pericarp : legume oblong, ob- 

 liquely acuminate, unilocular. Seeds : somewhat roundish, 

 connected to the superior suture. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. 

 Calix : five-toothed, gibbous below. Corolla : papilionaceous. 

 Standard : short, beneath the wings. These plants may be 

 propagated by sowing their seeds upon a bed of light earth, 

 towards the latter end of March, or the beginning of April ; 

 and if a little hot dung be put under the bed, it will greatly 

 facilitate the growth of the seeds. When they are sown, sift 

 the earth over them about half an inch thick, and cover the 

 bed with mats whenever the season turns out wet ; otherwise 

 the great rains will burst the seeds, and cause them to rot. 

 When the plants appear, they should be carefully cleared 

 from weeds, and in very dry weather must be now and 

 then refreshed with water, which will greatly promote their 

 growth. In the following winter, if the weather be very 

 cold, it will be proper to shelter the plants, by covering them 

 with mats or dry straw during hard frosts ; but they should 

 constantly be opened in mild weather, otherwise they will 

 grow mouldy and decay. About the beginning of April you 

 should prepare a spot of good fresh ground, to transplant 

 them out, for the best time to remove them is immediately 

 before they are beginning to shoot, which is done by taking 

 up the plants cautiously, being careful not to break their roots, 

 and replanting them as soon as possible. They are generally 

 planted two feet row from row, and a foot asunder in the 

 rows, which is full room enough for them to grow two or three 

 years, by which time they should be transplanted whither 

 they are intended to remain. The ground between the plants 

 should be carefully kept clean from weeds in summer, and in 

 the spring should be well dug to loosen the earth, in order 

 to allow the roots to extend themselves every way : at that 

 season prune off all strong side branches, especially if you 

 intend to train them up for standard trees, that their top 

 branches may not be checked by their side-shoots, which 

 often attract the greatest part of the nourishment from the 

 4C 



