CYC 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



CYC 



413 



waved ; branches spreading very much. The root is shaped 

 like that of the Spring Crocus ; leaves long, narrow, with a 

 groove on their upper side; the peduncle arises immediately 

 from the root, supporting one flower of a fine blue colour, 

 which appears in May, but the flowers are not succeeded by 

 seeds in England. The roots are roasted and eaten in Africa. 

 Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 



3. CyanellaAlba; White-flowered Cijanella. Leaves linear- 

 filiform. Founil by Thunberg at the Cape. 



; (the Todda Pan) a genus of Palms, of the class 

 Dioecia, order Polyandria, according to Jacquin. GENERIC 

 CHARACTER. Male. Calis: spathe none; spadix none; 

 ament strobile-form, ovate, squarrose, imbricated with scales; 

 scales spathule-forn), smooth, fleshy, coloured, keeled be- 

 neath, with a reflected point, distant. Corolla : none. Sta- 

 mina: filamenta none; anthene none ; pollen spread within 

 the upper surface of the scales of the ament, sessile, very 

 plentiful, very crowded, somewhat globose, one-celled, 

 bursting longitudinally on one side. Female, in a distinct 

 individual. Calix : spathe none ; spadix very simple, com- 

 pressed, ancipital, long, sharpened ; perianth none. Co- 

 rolla : none. Pistil : germina solitary, immersed beyond 

 the middle into the corners of the spadix, remote, roundish ; 

 style cylindric, very short ; stigma simple. Pericarp . 

 drupe oval, one-celled. Seed : nut woody, one-celled. 

 ESSEXTIAL CHARACTER. Male. Ammt : strobile-form, 

 with the scales covered every where beneath with pollen. 

 Female. Spadix : sword-form. Gertnen : immersed into the 

 corners of it, solitary. Style : one. Drupe : with a woody 

 nut. The trees of this genus require to be plunged into the 

 bark-bed in the stove, which should be kept up fully to tem- 

 perate heat in winter, but in summer should be much hotter. 

 In hot weather they will require to be frequently refreshed 

 with water, but must have it sparingly administered in 

 autumn and winter. The species are, 



1. Cycas Circinalis; Broad- leased Cycas. Fronds pin- 

 nate ; leaflets linear, flat. Native of the East Indies, the 

 Friendly Islands, and the New Hebrides, in the South Seas. 



2. Cycas Revoluta; Narroio-leaved Cycas, Fronds pin- 

 nate ; leaflets linear, re volute about the edge. Trunk round, 

 branched, a fathom or more in height, the thickness of the 

 thigh, ferruginous, and hirsute from the falling off of the 

 leaves ; the stipe of the fonds has spines below : the leaflets 

 are nearly opposite, linear, somewhat sickle shaped towards 

 the inside ; the fruit is an ovate, flat, red drupe, an inch and 

 half in length. The fruit is eaten by the Japanese, but the 

 pitli of the trunk is most esteemed for its highly nutritive 

 quality ; they affirm that a soldier can subsist for a day on a 

 very small piece of it. It is not used for food in China or 

 Cochin-china, but is cultivated there for its beauty. In Ton- 

 quin, however, they make a sort of bread called sagu, from 

 tie pith of the trunk. Dampier says, that the inhabitants of 

 Mindanao, one of the Philippine Islands, cull the sago-trees 

 libby-trces, and that they grow wild in great groves of five 

 or six miles long, by the sides of the rivers. Its body and 

 shape are much like the Palineto or Cabbage-tree, but is not 

 so tall as the latter ; the wood is full of white pith, like that 

 of Elder. They cut down the tree, split it in the middle, and 

 scrape out all the pith, which they beat with a great pestle 

 in a wooden mortar or trough, and then put it into a cloth 

 or strainer held over a trough, and pouring water in among it, 

 they stir it about, so that the water carries all the substfincc 

 of the pith through the cloth, leaving a sort of husk behind, 

 which is thrown away : that which runs into the trough set- 

 tles to the bottom like mud, which, when the water is drawn 

 off, they bake into cakes, and proves very good bread. The 



VOL. i. 35. 



Mindanese live three or four months of the year on this food. 

 The native Indians of Ternate, Tidore, and all the spice 

 islands, have plenty of these trees, and use them for food ; 

 the sago, which is transported into other parts of the East 

 Indies, is dried in small pieces like little seeds or comfits, 

 and commonly eaten with milk of almonds by those that 

 are troubled with the flux. 



Cyclamen ; (Sow-bread) a genus of the class Pent.indria, 

 order Monogynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: peri- 

 anth half five-cleft, roundish, permanent ; divisions ovate. 

 Corolla : one-petalled ; tube somewhat globose, twice as large 

 as the calix, small, nodding ; border bent upwards, five- 

 parted, very large ; divisions lanceolate ; neck prominent. 

 Stamina : filamenta fivc,very small, in the tube of the corolla ; 

 anthene straight, sharp, in the neck of the corolla,con verging. 

 Pistil : germen roundish; style filiform, straight, longer than 

 the stamina ; stigma sharp. Pericarp : berry globose, one- 

 celled, gaping five ways at the top, covered with a capsular 

 cell. Seeds: very many, somewhat ovate, cornered. Recep- 

 tacle: ovate, free. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Corolla, rotate, 

 reflex, with a very short tube, and prominent throat, llerry- 

 covered with a capsule. All the sorts arc propagated by 

 seeds, which should be sown after they are ripe, in boxes 

 or pots filled with light kitchen-garden earth, mixed with ii 

 little sand, and covered about half an inch deep, placing them 

 where they may have the morning sun till the beginning of 

 September, when they may be removed to a warmer exposure. 

 The most proper time for removing these plants, is about the 

 beginning of June, when the leaves decline ; but they should 

 not be often removed, as the roots do not lose their fibres, 

 as in some others of the tuberous and bulbous-rooted kinds. 

 -The species are, 



1. Cyclamen Coum ; Round-leaved Cyclamen. Leaves 

 orbicular, cordate, quite white. It has plane orbicular leaves, 

 with short weak petioles ; their under side is very red in the 

 beginning of winter, but that colour goes off in the spring ; 

 their upper side is smooth, of a lucid green, and spread flat 

 open ; whereas the other sorts arc hollowed, and reflex a.t the 

 base. The flowers are very bright purple, and as they ap- 

 pear in the middle of winter, when there are few other flowers, 

 they are the more valuable. Native of the south of Europe. 

 This, and the second and fourth species, may be plunged into 

 the ground close to a south wall, a pale, or reed-hedge, in 

 October, where, if the frost be very severe, it will be proper 

 to cover them either with mats or pease-haulm, but in com- 

 mon winters they will not want covering. 



"2. Cyclamen Europeeum ; Common Cyclamen. Leaves orbi- 

 cular, cordate, crenate. Root tuberous, oblately spheroidal, 

 white within, brown without ; stem very short; leaves kidney- 

 form, roundish, very blunt, slightly crenulate, deep green and 

 spotted above, beneath commonly red purple, smooth, on very 

 long round red petioles ; flowers drooping, sweet-scented, 

 purple ; seeds large, rufous, kidney-form. Native of Austria. 



3. Cyclamen Persicum ; Persian Cyclamen. Leaves ob- 

 long-ovate, cordate, crenate ; leaves stiff, on strong fleshy 

 petioles, nearly six inches long, of a purple colour, as are 

 also the veins of the leaves underneath, but the upper side is 

 veined and marbled with white ; the corolla is pure white, 

 with a bright purple bottom, but it varies in colour, and is 

 sometimes entirely white : this variety smells very sweet. It 

 flowers in March and April, and ripens seeds in August. 

 It is admirably adapted to decorate the parlour or the study, 

 and varies with fragrant flowers with the eye more or less 

 red. By its name it should be a native of Persia ; but from 

 Mr. Curtis we learn, that it comes from the East Indies ; and 

 Dr. John Sibthorp found it in the island of Cyprus. The 

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