CARACALLA CARANXOMORES. 



697 



bourliood of Dublin. Our specimens are from the 

 neighbourhood of Belfast. 



CARACALLA. Is the specific name of a sort 

 of kidney-bean (Phaseolus carncaUa) cultivated in 

 India ; it is also the title of a subtribe of that genus. 



C A RAGANA (Lamarck). A genus allied of plants 

 to the Robinia. and so called from the aboriginal name 

 given to the Siberian pear-tree. Linnaean class and 

 order Diadclphia Decandria, and natural order Lrgn- 

 minoste. Generic character : calyx, bell-shaped, five- 

 toothed ; keel obtusely erect, vexillnm equal with the 

 wings ; style smooth ; pod sitting, cylindrical, with a 

 sharp point. This genus are mostly deciduous shrubs, 

 with yellow flowers and fine foliage. They are rather 

 difficult to propagate, and are most commonly worked 

 on the C. arboresccns, which is raised from seeds, 

 and sometimes by layers. 



CARALLIA (Roxburgh). An East Indian tree, 

 so called by the natives of Hindoostan. Linneean 

 class and order Dodecandria Monogyma, and natural 

 order H/iizophorcfs. Generic character : calyx globular 

 at the base, limb six or seven-parted ; petals six or 

 seven, roundish ; stamens inserted on the calyx ; 

 anthers erect ; style simple ; stigma three-lobed, 

 berry, globular, one-seeded and crowned with the 

 calyx. 



CARALLUMA (R. Brown). A curious under 

 shrub, so called in India, formerly supposed to be a 

 Ktaprlin. Linnu'an class and order Pcntandria Digi/- 

 nia natural order Atclepiadecce : calyx five-parted ; 

 corolla somewhat rotate, and in five divisions ; corona 

 round the seed-vessel consisting of ten leaflets ; five 

 of the folioles bear, and are opposite the anthers ; 

 gynostegium protruding. This ranks among our suc- 

 culent plants, and thrives best in brick rubbish and 

 loam. No water should be allowed to stagnate in 

 the pot, very little of this being required, except at 

 the time of flowering, when they want a good deal ; 

 but at this time they also require a high temperature. 

 The plant may be increased by cuttings , but must 

 be laid on a shelf to dry and get withered before they 

 are put in dry soil. If potted as soon as cut off, the 

 ; discharge of sap from the wound instantly rots 

 the cutting. 



CARANX. A very numerous and widely dis- 

 tributed genus of spinous-finned fishes, belonging to 

 the mackerel family, and so nearly resembling the 

 true mackerel, at least in some of the species, as to 

 be called by the popular name of Bastard Mackerel. 

 They are very numerous, being found in all seas, and 

 in all parts of the sea, or at least of those wide seas 

 in which the true mackerel are found ; but it does 

 not. appear that they collect in such numerous shoals 

 on some parts of the coast as these fishes. As is the 

 case with most of this very important famil}-, they 

 are wholesome and pleasant as food, but, as is the 

 case with the others, they very speedily die when 

 taken out of the water, and they as speedily become 

 putrid. The large gill-openings, and remarkably 

 free gills of these rapid-swimming surface fishes, are 

 probably the chief cause of their speedy death when 

 taken out of the water ; and it is a very general law 

 in the animal economy, that those animals in which 

 the functions of life are most energetic, putrify the 

 soonest after they are dead. We have a remarkable 

 instance of this in trout and eels, the latter of which 

 can lie kept much longer wholesome without salt than 

 the former ; and we have a similar instance in 

 mackerel and skate. 



The general economy of the genus under con- 

 sideration will be treated of in the article FISH and 

 in the article SCOMBEROID*, so that we shall here 

 barely notice the generic characters. 



The name Caranx means "keel" or "ridged," and 

 this is very expressive of the principal distinction 

 between these fishes and mackerel. Along the 

 lateral line there is a series of scaly pieces or bands, 

 with ridges or keels in the middle, and often with 

 spines. These bands extend from the pectorals to 

 the insertion of the tail ; they sometimes consist of 

 as many as a hundred separate pieces upon each 

 line, and they are a very distinct and easily observed 

 character. They have two distinct dorsal fins, with 

 a detached spine bent downwards in advance of the 

 first one. The last rays of the second dorsal are very 

 slightly united, and sometimes entirely separated"^. 

 There are also free or detached spines, forming a 

 little fin behind the anal. 



The seas of Europe contain many of these fishes, 

 and indeed they range, with small difference in 

 appearance, over the whole of the ocean. They are 

 found in the Mediterranean as far to the south-east 

 as Alexandria ; they are to be met with on the shores 

 of North America, on those of Brazil, at the Cape of 

 Good Hope, in the seas of Australia, and indeed 

 everywhere except in the extreme of the Polar seas. 

 The earlier naturalists included them as a species of 

 mackerel (Scomber) ; but they are not only different 

 from all the species of that genus, but they differ so 

 much from each other, as to require division into 

 several species, if not sub-genera. The same species 

 is, however, exactly the same in appearance in which- 

 ever part of the world it is met with. The chief 

 difference is in the number of carinated plates on the 

 lateral line, and in the flexure of that line itself. 

 Some of them have those plates continued the 

 whole way from the shoulder to the tail, while others 

 have them on the posterior or straight part of the 

 line only, while the anterior, or arched part, is 

 covered over with small scales. They have all the 

 spindle shape of the common mackerel, but they 

 differ considerably in the number of what may be 

 called the supplemental fins. Some have only one 

 of these after the dorsal, and others have several, 

 but the greater part have none ; some have the body 

 very much elevated, and the lateral line consequently 

 very much curved, but even these have the forehead 

 with a rapid descent. The species are so numerous, 

 that a particular account of them would fill a volume ; 

 but we, must barely notice two, one found chiefly in 

 the western, and the other in the eastern seas, 

 though both arc met with in the same. These are 

 called in the French West Indies the Carmiguc and 

 the Bastard Carangitc ; and though the difference in 

 appearance between them is not great, it is well 

 worthy of attention, inasmuch as the true fish is 

 always wholesome, and the bastard ones generally 

 poisonous. The caranguc is of a silvery colour, with 

 the exception of a distinct black spot" of a distinct 

 gill ; and the bastard is exactly similar in shape and 

 in general colour, and hardly differs from the other 

 in size, but it never has the least vestige of the black 

 spot. In the warm seas the esculent fish is a very 

 important one ; it is caught readily and in great 

 numbers, and often weighs from twenty to twenty-five 

 pounds. 



CARANXOMORES. One of the five subgenera 

 into which the genus Coryphee na has been divided. 



