70S 



CAROCOLLA CARYOPH\LLE^. 



dog and cat. The dog is the less carnivorous animal 

 of the two ; and as he uses the mouth only in the 

 capture and killing of his prey, he has much more 

 powerful and varied action of the neck. He can 

 divide a portion of tough vegetable matter, as for 

 instance a crust of bread, only by repeated vertical 

 bites ; but if he has much labour with the substance, 

 and his hunger is strong enough to induce him to eat 

 it, he may be seen shifting his head, now higher at 

 the one side, then higher at the other, alternately, in 

 order to bring the whole under his teeth ; and he 

 also flings the head upwards or downwards, and 

 gives a snap, so that the lower jaw may bite vt ith a 

 momentum, while the substance to be divided rests 

 against the teeth of the upper jaw. The cat has a 

 good deal more trouble in this imperfect mastication, 

 as she cannot snap, and derive advantage from the 

 momentum of the jaw as the dog does; thus with 

 her, the division of hard vegetable food, so as to 

 prepare it for the stomach is no easy matter. AH 

 the actions of those animals, with reference to their 

 structures, are eminently deserving of the most careful 

 study, as a highly interesting portion of nature's me- 

 chanics, and as eminently useful to man in under- 

 standing how to construct mechanical apparatus upon 

 principles at once the most economical and the most 

 efficient. But though we can and do recommend the 

 study, our space will not admit the introduction of 

 the details ; we shall, therefore, close with a mere 

 notice of the two leading divisions of this family, or 

 rather sub-order of animals, those divisions are two : 

 First, PLANTIGRADA ; animals which walk on the 

 flat of the foot, or apply the whole length of it to the 

 ground in walking, and thus have the elbow and 

 knee joints, the first from the ground on their march. 

 Those animals, though they have a firmer base, espe- 

 cially when they stand upright, or rest the whole 

 weight of their bodies upon the tarsi of their hind 

 feet, are, in general, much slower in their motions 

 than those which plant only the toes ; and if they 

 have much motion they require the t\vo joints of 

 which they have the command in each leg, clear of 

 the ground, to be more free in their motions than 

 they are in those races which have the advantage of 

 an additional joint. The play which is thus required 

 in the femoral bones and the scapulars, gives the 

 animals a loose appearance, as if they were badly put 

 together. They in many particulars resemble the 

 insectivorous division ; and many of them are, in 

 part at least, insectivorous ; and like those, some of 

 them at least, are dormant during winter in cold 

 climates. See PLANTIGRADA. 



Second, DIGITIGRADA ; or animals which walk 

 upon the toes, or upon the toes and metatarsal bones ; 

 but have the tarsi clear of the surface. From having 

 the ankle joint at their command in walking, in addi- 

 tion to those joints which are used by the former 

 division, their motions are much more lively. This 

 briskness is not confined to the mere motions of the 

 legs, but extends to the spine, which is more elastic 

 in them than in the plantigrades ; their shoulders 

 have also a greater appearance of firmness ; and they 

 remain active during winter. See DIGITIGRADA. 



CAROCOLLA (Lamarck). This genus of mol- 

 luscs was constituted by Lamarck, from the Linnaean 

 helices, to which, however, it is so nearly allied, that 

 it has been restored by De Blainville to the C. helix, 

 of which, in his system, it forms the first division. 

 It 5 principally distinguished from the helix by the 



circumference of the shell being constantly carinated 

 or sub-carinated at every stage of its growth ; its 

 form is discoid, sub-umbilicated; the lip thickened, 

 and the shell more convex on the lower side than the 

 upper one ; the right lip or margin is consequently 

 sub-angular, and frequently toothed within. The 

 accompanying cut of the Carocollit fasciata fully points 

 out these distinctions. They are all of them ter- 

 restrial shells, and the animal resembles that of the 

 helix so nearly, as to need no separate description. 

 Lamarck describes eighteen species ; but a more con- 

 siderable number is known. They inhabit all parts 

 of the globe, as well in the driest situations, as on tho 

 banks of rivers and damp places. The fossil species 

 are by no means so numerous as the recent. 



This mollusc is placed by De Blainville in the 

 second class Paracephalophora ; first order Pulmo- 

 branchiata; third family Limacinea. Many attempts 

 have been made by modern naturalists to subdivide 

 the immense numbers of helices into well-defined 

 groups, in order to facilitate a knowledge of the 

 species : De Montfort commenced the task by form- 

 ing about ten genera ; Oken proposed others ; but 

 the Baron de Ferussac has published a magnificent 

 work on terrestrial and fluviatile molluscs, in which a 

 system of classification is pursued, exhibiting deep 

 research and sound reasoning. Unfortunately, the 

 expense attending such works on natural history, 

 closes them to the generality of readers, and renders 

 them more objects of luxury than utility ; to obviate 

 which is the study of all enlightened men in the pre- 

 sent day, and the .great end of the editor of this work. 



CARYCHIUM (Miiller). PIIITIA (Gray). A 

 genus of molluscs, forming one of the divisions of 

 De Blainville's and Lamarck's genus Auricula. It 

 will be more amply described under the article 

 PHITIA. 



CARYOPHYLLE^E. The chickweed family. 

 A natural order of dicotyledonous plants containing 

 nearly thirty genera, and upwards of eight hundred 

 and fifty species. It is closely allied to Linca; and 

 Fran ke niacece as well as to Elatinece. 



The essential characters of the order are : sepals 

 four or five, continuous with the peduncle, at one 

 time free, at another coalescing into a four or five- 

 toothed tube ; petals also four or five in number, 

 hypogynous, but occasionally wanting; stamens^ 

 usually twice the number of the petals, slightly 

 united at their base; anthers two-celled, opening 

 longitudinally ; ovary inserted on the top of a pedicel 

 or torus ; styles varying from two to five ; cap- 

 sule one to five-celled, and from two to five-valved ; 

 placentae central, in the two to five-celled capsules 

 adhering to the edge of the dissepiments ; seeds inde- 

 finite ; albumen mealy ; embryo curved round the 

 albumen ; radicle directed to the hilum. 



The plants of* this order are generally herbace- 

 ous, rarely assuming a shrubby character. Their 

 stems are knotty, they are furnished with terminal 



