336 



C O C 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



C O F 



they should be carefully taken up, and each planted in a 

 separate pot filled with kitchen -garden earth, and plunged 

 into the tan-bed in the stove, where the plants should always 

 remain, as they are too tender to thrive in any other situa- 

 tion ; but they should be shifted into larger pots as they 

 advance in their growth, taking care not to cut or tear their 

 roots in the removal. Very few of the nuts brought to Eng- 

 land are ripe, being commonly gathered in an unripe state, 

 that they may keep during their passage. The best way to 

 bring them for planting is to put some that are fully ripe in 

 dry sand in a tub, where vermin cannot get at them. These 

 will often sprout upon the passage ; which is an advantage, 

 because they may be immediately planted into pots of earth, 

 and plunged into the bark-bed. These trees make consider- 

 able progress in the West Indies, but they are many years 

 before they attain to any considerable height in Europe: 

 however, as the young leaves are rather large, they make a 

 good appearance among tender exotics in the course of two 

 or three years. The other species of this genus may be pro- 

 pagated by seeds in the same way : and for further informa- 

 tion upon the subject, consult the article Phctnix. 



2. Cocos Butyracea. Unarmed : fronds pinnate ; leaflets 

 simple. A loftier tree than the preceding, with a larger head ; 

 universal spathe an oblong cylinder, drawn to a point at each 

 end, woody, smooth within, marked on the outside with 

 numerous woody parallel ribs uniting towards the end ; it 

 opens longitudinally, falls off after the bursting of the spadix, 

 and is from four to six feet long ; kernel cartilaginous, very 

 hard, having the same taste as in the common Cocoa-nut. 

 The pulp of the nut is very mucilaginous, and there fore used 

 for fattening hogs : an oil or butter prepared from it is in 

 constant use among the Indians in South America, both in 

 food and medicine. 



3. Cocos Guinensis; Prickly Pole. The whole spiny: 

 spines bristle-shaped ; fronds distant ; root creeping. Root 

 knotty, round, thicker than the trunk, short, horizontally 

 bent in directly below the surface, creeping and presently 

 putting out another trunk, so as to make a thicket, while it 

 fixes itself firmly in the soil by slender fibrous roots : trunk 

 erect, armed with very numerous prickles, seldom exceeding 

 twelve feet in height, and one inch in diameter; flowers 

 scentless, with a very slight tinge of yellow ; corolla tri- 

 quetrous, frequently three-parted almost to the base ; fruits 

 dark purple, the size of a common cherry, containing an 

 acid juice, of which the Americans make a sort of wine: the 

 fruit is eatable, but not pleasant, yet they furnish the wild 

 hogs of Jamaica with abundant fare. Canes are made of 

 the trunk when stripped of its bark ; they are black, shining, 

 jointed, and very light. The French call them cannes de 

 Tobago, aud they are sometimes brought to Europe. The 

 outward part is extremely hard and elastic, looking like 

 whalebone, and being very fit for bows and rammers. Na- 

 tive of Carthagena in South America. 



4. Cocos Aculeata ; Great Macaw Tree. Aculeate-spiny; 

 trunk fusiform; fronds pinnate; stipes and spathes spiny. 

 The trunk of this tree is about the thickness of the human 

 body, and rises to the height of thirty feet, with an ash- 

 coloured bark, very thickly set with sharp black prickles of 

 different lengths, placed usually in rings. The fruit is as 

 large as a crab, and of the same shape ; under a green skin 

 it has a thin sweetish astringent pulp, and within that, a nut 

 full of a white sweet eatable kernel. Browne says, that the 

 husks of this and of the small Macaw-tree are full of oil, and 

 the nut black and shining. The negroes say, that it yields 

 the true palm-oil. The outside of the trunk is made into 

 laths, bows, and darts. Native of the Caribbee islands. 



5. Cocos Nypa. Unarmed : fronds pinnate ; spadices to the 

 male flowers round, to the females roundish; drupe grooved. 

 This is a very thick palm, only four feet high, frequently 

 shorter, or even without a stem ; fronds fifteen feet long, 

 almost upright, irregularly pinnate, with a subcylindric rachis 

 or midrib. It is very frequent in salt marshes, and at the 

 muddy mouths of rivers in Cochin-china, Cambodia, the 

 Philippine Islands, the streights of Malacca, &c. See Nipa 

 Fruticans. 



Codia; a genus of the class Octandria, order Digynia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: common four-leaved ; leaves 

 reflected below the head; proper four-leaved; leaflets 

 elliptic, erect. Corolla: petals four, linear. Stamina: 

 filamenta eight, filiform, two, each growing to the base of a 

 petal, longer than the corolla; anthers ovate-angulate. 

 Pistil : germen very small, superior, extremely villose ; styles 

 two, subulate, the length of the stamina; stigmas simple. 

 Receptacle: common villose. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. 

 Calix: four-leaved. Petals: four. Common Receptacle: 

 involucred. The only known species is, 



1. Codia Montana. Leaves opposite, petioled, elliptic, 

 very smooth, entire, obtuse; heads of flowers globular, 

 terminating, and axillary, very short, peduncled. It is a 

 shrub. Native of New Caledonia. 



Codlin Tree. See Pyrus Malus. 



Codlins and Cream. See Epilobium. 



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

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one-leafed, ten- 

 parted ; leaflets subulate, permanent, somewhat erect, alter- 

 nately shorter. Corolla: one-petalled, bell-shaped, torulose 

 at the base : border ten-parted, equal ; nectary ten-celled, 

 consisting of ten scales inserted into the claws of the stamina, 

 converging, covering the receptacle. Stamina: filamenta 

 ten, length of the corolla; anther* thick. Pistil: germen 

 superior, conic ; style simple, length of the stamina ; stigmas 

 two, long, setaceous, divergent. Pericarp: two-celled. 

 Seeds: several, roundish,, echinate, with soft papillae, situ- 

 ated in a juiceless coloured pulp. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. 

 Calix: ten-parted, permanent; leaflets alternately shorter. 

 Corolla: bell-shaped, ten-cleft. Nectary: ten-celled, com- 

 posed of ten scales. Pericarp: two-celled, containing 

 several seeds. The only known species is, 



1. Codon Royeni. Stem herbaceous, firm, eighteen inches 

 in height, round, with rising branches, cottony, and full of 

 pith ; leaves alternate, petioled, cordate-ovate, subrepand, 

 undivided, acuminate, subcoriaceous, clothed with a short 

 cottony down, and rough with small hard prickles; flowers 

 supra-axillary, solitary, peduncled, having the appearance of 

 the corolla of Atropa Belladonna, whitish, with ten purplfl 

 streaks on the outside ; fruit a capsule, contained within the 

 segments of the calix, ovate-acuminate, two-valved, with 

 numerous small seeds of a shining blood-red colour. The 

 whole herb is striated. Native country unknown. 



CM Rosa. See Agrostemma. 



Coffea-. a genus of the class Pentandria, order Monogynia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth five-toothed, 

 very small, superior. Corolla : one-petalled, salver-shaped ; 

 tube cylindric, slender, many times longer than the calix; 

 border flat, five-parted, longer than the tube ; divisions lanre- 

 shaped; sides rolled back. Stamina: filamenta five, subu- 

 late, placed on the tube of the corolla; anthers; linear, in- 

 cumbent, length of the filamenta. Pistil: germen roundish, 

 inferior ; style simple, length of the corolla ; stigmas two, 

 reflected, subulate, thickish. Pericarp: berry roundish, um- 

 bilicated by a one or two celled puncture. Seeds ; one or two, 

 solitary, elliptically hemispherical, gibbous on one side, flat 



