CALYSTIGIA CAM E L. 



671 



species of tropical plants, one a climber from Africa, 

 the other an under-shrub from Brazil, The flowers 

 resemble those of violets ; and Aublet, a French 

 botanist, named the African one, Viola Hybanthus. 

 The genus is ranked in the order ViolariecB. 



CALYSTIGIA (R. Brown). A new genus, se- 

 parated from the genus Convolvulus of Linnasus. 

 See BINDWEED. 



CALYTRIX (Labillardiere). A genus of New 

 Holland ornamental shrubs, belonging to the Linnsan 

 cluss and order Icosandria Monngynia, and of the 

 order Myrtacece of the natural system. Generic 

 character: calyx furnished with two bractae at the 

 base, tube cylindrical, elongated, limb in five oval 

 divisions, terminated by bristles ; corolla of five 

 petals, inserted in the calyx ; stamens attached to the 

 throat of the calyx ; filaments awl-shaped ; anthers 

 roundish ; style filiform ; capsule one-seeded, not 

 opening ; seed somewhat cylindrically club-shaped. 

 All the plants of this natural order (MyrtaccoB} are in 

 one respect or other estimable. It contains some of our 

 finest fruits, and many of our most beautiful flowers. 



CALYX is the name given by botanists to the 

 outer coat or covering of flowers. It is the cup-like 

 member which includes all the others. It is gene- 

 rally green, but sometimes coloured, sometimes 

 entire, but much more frequently divided into parts 

 called sepals, which remain erect or are reflexed. 

 The calyx is said to be inferior if seated below the 

 germen, and superior if seated on the side, or on the 

 top of it : in the two lust cases it is usually persisting, 

 its base being swollen into a fruit, or seed-vessel. In 

 some instances, the calyx is entirely wanting, or ap- 

 pearing only as a slightly raised rim. In the second 

 subdivision of the class, Dicotylcdonece, the calyx 

 and corolla are united, in which case it assumes the 

 colour of the latter. This member of the flower 

 affords many pertinent distinctions in descriptive 

 botany, and is usually the first which is noticed. 



CAMEL (CAMELEUS, or rather CAMELID^E, the 

 carnel family). A group of ruminant animals, par- 

 taking in part of the characters of the Pachy- 

 dermatous, or thick-skinned animals, and also of 

 those of the other ruminantia ; but having characters 

 which are peculiarly their own, and in consequence 

 of which they form a very well-defined, and also a 

 remarkable group. 



There are two divisions of them, the one found 

 only in the more arid portions of the Eastern conti- 

 nent, and the other only in those of the Western, 

 the former being entirely, and the latter chiefly, in a 

 state of domestication. These two divisions have 

 characters sufficiently distinct for warranting the 

 arrangement of them as separate genera in the 

 system ; but we shall save time and also render the 

 account of them more clear, by including both in one 

 article, and stating first those characters which are 

 common to both genera. 



The most remarkable of these characters is that of 

 the feeding apparatus, more especially of the teeth: 

 these are as much tearing teeth as those of the car- 

 nivorous animals, but they are tearing teeth of a dif- 

 ferent description ; those in the anterior part of the 

 mouth are' not formed for wounding, neither are the 

 false grinders suited for bruising flesh ; they and the 

 incisors and canines are all adapted for tearing vege- 

 table matter of harder texture than that on which the 

 rest of the ruminantia feed; though, like these, they 

 subsist entirely upon vegetable matter. This structure 



of the teeth will, upon examination, be found the very 

 best adapted for enabling them to feed upon the hard 

 and prickly plants which, in the deserts, form at all 

 times the principal, and at some times the only, 

 vegetation. 



The characters and structure of the several families 

 which form the order RUMINANTIA, can be better 

 explained in their resemblances and contrasts to each 

 other, in a general article upon the order, than in 

 detached notices of each family ; but still it may not 

 be amiss here to state that the incisive teeth of those 

 ruminants which browse upon grass, or other soft vege- 

 table matter, are in the lower jaw only ; that they 

 are chisel-shaped, ranged in an even curve, and act 

 against a callosity, or hard cartilaginous surface on 

 the upper jaw. Teeth thus formed are not adapted 

 for biting, as those of the last pachydermatous ani- 

 mals, the horse tribe (eqiiieenide), all of which have 

 six incisive teeth in each jaw acting against each 

 other, and though they are not adapted for tearing, 

 and have not the sharp nipper structure of the teeth 

 of rodentia, as in the hare for instance, they give a 

 very strong dividing bite ; but the animals which 

 have them, have little or no lateral grinding motion 

 of the jaws, and thus their food is not returned to the 

 mouth to be chewed, as in the ruminant animals. 

 In the browsing ruminantia, on the other hand, the 

 grass is brought to the callosity on the upper jaw by 

 a circular sweeping motion of the tongue, and then, 

 pressing the incisors of the lower jaw against the 

 food so brought, they divide it, partly by the pressure, 

 and partly by a twitch of the head. 



The camel family have the mouth of a character 

 intermediate between these, but differing in many 

 respects from both. Their teeth vary in -the two 

 genera of which the group is composed, but they 

 all have three, or, strictly speaking, four kinds of 

 teeth ; namely, two incisors in the upper jaw and six 

 in the under, in all the species ; two canines in the 

 upper jaw in all the species, and two in the under 

 jaw in the camels only ; two false grinders in the 

 upper jaw of all the species, and two in the under 

 jaw of the true camels ; and five grinders in each jaw 

 of all the species ; making thirty-six teeth in the true 

 camels, and thirty-two in the rest. 



They all have the lateral or grinding motion of the 

 jaws, by means of which the food is reduced to a sort 

 of pulpy mass, as it is brought up from the " hood" in 

 rumination, previous to being carried to the true or 

 digestive stomachs ; thus these animals have a double 

 operation in feeding as compared with most of the 

 other mammalia : the first being merely the reception 

 of the food into a portion of the stomach which 

 answers merely as a receptacle or magazine, just as 

 the craw does in gizzard birds. They can therefore 

 take a larger quantity of food in the same time than 

 those animals which do not ruminate, but they have 

 afterwards to chew it ; and this operation is carried 

 on when they are in a state of repose. A particular 

 account of the ruminating stomach, and the process 

 of rumination, will be found in the article RUMI- 

 NANTIA, so that we shall only notice here an error 

 into which most authors have fallen, in treating of 

 the stomach of the camel. It has been said that 

 camels take in so large a quantity of water into their 

 stomachs, and contrive by means, the explanation of 

 which has never been attempted, to keep it so cool, 

 that when travellers who use camels in the deserts, 

 are reduced to extremities for water, they kill the 



