c o c 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



C O C 



333 



branch or two about the middle. The timber is deep red, 

 heavy, very hard, and also incorruptible, but brittle ; when 

 used for posts, the part placed in the ground becomes as 

 hard as stone. It is common in the thick mountainous woods 

 of Martinico, where the French call it bois agrandesfeuilles. 

 The fruit is said to be eatable. 



3. Coccoloba Excoriata ; Oval-leaved Sea-sule Grape, or 

 Mountain Grape Tree. Leaves ovate ; branches as it were 

 barked. This grows to a very large size, and the leaves, 

 flowers, and fruits, are all large ; the leaves are very smooth, 

 and of a fine lucid green colour. Browne informs us, that it 

 grows to a considerable size in Jamaica, and is looked upon 

 there as a fine timber wood. 



4. Coccoloba Nivea ; White Sea-side Grape. Leaves el- 

 liptic, acuminate, veined, shining above ; racemes almost 

 upright, It grows to the height of twenty feet, is upright, 

 and the boughs form a head ; flowers small, yellowish. The 

 calix becomes thi6k, succulent, and snow-white, covering to 

 the middle a three-sided black shining nut ; fruit sweet and 

 pleasant. The French call it raisinier de coude. Native of 

 St. Domingo, Jamaica, and Martinico. 



5. Coccoloba Leoganensis. Leaves roundish, quite entire, 

 shining, flat ; racemes of the fruit erect. This is a small up- 

 right branching tree, ten feet high; leaves veined.coriaceous. 

 Native of Port-au-Prince, and Leogane, in St. Domingo. 



6. Coccoloba Obtusifolia. Leaves oblong, very obtuse. 

 This is a small, very branching, irregular tree, about twelve 

 feet high, with smooth ash-coloured branches ; leaves quite 

 entire, shining; flowers small white; fruit astringent. It 

 flowers in August ; and is a native of Carthagena. 



7. Coccoloba Flavescens. Leaves lanceolate-oblong, blunt, 

 with a point. A small branching tree, twelve feet high ; leaves 

 quite entire, coriaceous, shining, somewhat rigid ; racemes 

 simple, terminating, erect; drupes roundish, dark purple, the 

 si/.c of a large pea ; the pulp sweet and eatable. Native of 

 St. Domingo at Port-au-Prince. 



8. Coccoloba Punctata. Leaves lanceolate, ovale. A 

 small, upright, branched tree, fifteen feet in height ; leaves 

 quite entire, subcoriaceous, veined, shining ; flowers white : 

 almost the whole receptacle, with a small part only of the 

 calix, becomes a roundish drupe of a dark red colour, and 

 a sweetish but austere taste. Native of Carthagena. 



9. Coccoloba Emarginata. Leaves coriacebus, roundish, 

 gash-emarginated. Native of the West Indies. 



10. Coccoloba Barbadensis. Leaves cordate-ovate, waved. 

 Bark of the branches cinereous ; leaves very coriaceous, five 

 inches long : wood red. Native of Barbadoes. 



11. Coccoloba Tenuifolia ; Small Sea-side Grape. Leaves 

 ovate, membranaceous. This is of a humbler growth than 

 any of the preceding species, having also smaller fruits and 

 flowers ; flowers scattered and pedicelled, in simple terminal 

 racemes. Native of Jamaica. 



12. Coccoloba Australis. Leaves cordate-ovate, acute ; 

 flowers polygamous. Native of New Zealand. 



13. Coccoloba Asiatica. Scandent : leaves oblong-ovate, 

 veined; racemes terminating. Stem suffruticose, branching ; 

 leaves subacuminate, quite entire, coriaceous, alternate ; 

 flowers white, in loose racemes ; fruit a roundish five-lobed 

 berry, formed from the five segments of the calix, blackish, 

 pellucid, small. Native of Cochin-china, where it is found 

 in bushes and hedges. 



14. Coccoloba Cymosa. Scandent : leaves oblong-ovate, 

 veined; flowers axillary and terminal, in sessile cymes. 

 Found also in the hedges of Cochin-china. 



Cocculus Indicus. See Menispernum Cocculus. 

 Cochlearia .- a genus of the class Tetradynamia, order Sili- 

 VOL. i. 28, 



culosa. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth four-leaved ; 

 leaflets ovate, concave, gaping, deciduous. Corolla: four- 

 petalled, cruciform ; petals obovate, spreading, twice the 

 size of the calix ; claws narrow, shorter than the calix, 

 patulous. Stamina : filamenta six, subulate, length of the 

 calix, the opposite ones shorter ; anthers obtuse, compressed. 

 Pistil : germen heart-shaped ; style simple, very short, per- 

 manent ; stigma obtuse. Pericarp : silicle heart-shaped, 

 gibbous, turgid, emarginate, furnished with a style, two- 

 celled, scabrous ; valves gibbous, obtuse. Seeds : about four 

 in each cell. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Silicle : emarginate, 



turgid, scabrous ; valves gibbous, obtuse. The species 



are, 



1 . Cochlearia Officinalis; Common Scurvy Grass. Root-leaves 

 roundish; stem ones oblong, somewhat sinuated ; fruit glo- 

 bular ; root annual or biennial, white, rather thick, elongated, 

 with hairy fibres ; stems angular, branched in a corymbose 

 manner, leafy; root-leaves petioled, roundish, kidney-shaped; 

 stem-leaves alternate, sessile, embracing the stem ; flowers 

 white, in terminal corymbs, afterwards lengthening into 

 racemes; petals inversely egg-shaped, entire ; siliques globu- 

 lar, slightly veined, crowned with a short style. The whole 

 herb smooth, somewhat fleshy, various in size. The common 

 Scurvy-grass has been long held in very high estimation, as 

 an antiscorbutic and purifier of the blood ; it has a some- 

 what unpleasant smell, and a warm bitter taste. Its active 

 matter is extracted by maceration both in watery and 

 spirituous menstrua, and accompanies the juice obtained by 

 expression. The most considerable part of it is of a very 

 volatile kind, the peculiar penetrating pungency totally 

 exhaling in the drying of the herb, and in the evaporation of 

 the liquors. Its principal virtue resides in an essential oil, 

 separable in a very small quantity by distillation with water. 

 Scurvy-grass is antiseptic, attenuant, aperient, and diuretic, 

 and is said to open obstructions of the viscera and remoter 

 glands, without heating or irritating the system : it has long 

 been considered as the most effectual of all the antiscorbutic 

 plants, for which we have the testimony of the most cele- 

 brated physicians: and it has been observed to grow naturally 

 in those high latitudes where the scurvy is most prevalent. 

 In rheumatic pains of long continuance, accompanied with 

 fever, this plant, combined with arum and wood-sorrel, is 

 highly recommended by Sydenham and Lewis. A remark- 

 ably volatile and pungent spirit, prepared from this herb, and 

 called spiritus antiscorbuticus, was found by Werlhof to be 

 a useful remedy in the palsy, and other disorders requiring 

 an active stimulant ; he gave it in the dose of thirty drops 

 several times a day : but no preparation seems so beneficial, 

 by way of an antiscorbutic, as the fresh plant eaten as a salad, 

 or its expressed juice drank. If the green herb be infused 

 in ale or beer, and put into a bottle well-corked, it will com- 

 municate to it all its antiscorbutic virtue, or volatile spirit, 

 in three or four days' time. Mr. Ray recommends this ale, 

 from his own experience, to be taken as the ordinary drink 

 of those who are troubled with the scurvy : he says, it is 

 not so good if the Scurvy-grass be long infused in it, for 

 the earthy and fixed parts are thereby forced from the herb, 

 and communicated to the ale, while the volatile parts either 

 fly off, or, being jumbled with the more fixed parts, lose 

 a great deal of their virtue. The juice of the Scurvy-grass, 

 with the bruised herb, applied to the face or any other part, 

 has been recommended as a cosmetic, but should be after- 

 wards washed off with a decoction of bran. According to 

 Withering, Scurvy-grass is a powerful remedy in the moist 

 asthma, and also in what some authors call the scorbutic 

 rheumatism. Adistilledwaterand conserve are preserved from 

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