CAULOPHYLLUM CAVY. 



There are two varieties of cauliflower in cultiva- 

 tion, namely, the early and the late. The first is the 

 most delicate, the second somewhat more hardy. 

 Both require similar treatment ; and both arrive at 

 the greatest size in the richest soil. 



In saving- seed, the whitish, earliest, and firmest 

 heads, should be chosen ; and when the head begins 

 to open, a portion of the branches should be cut out, 

 to give room and more strength to those which are 

 left to mature seed. The curd-like appearance of a 

 cauliflower, when brought to table, is one of its ex- 

 cellencies. This property is preserved by breaking 

 down a few of the leaves over the head for a few 

 days before it is cut for use. 



CAULOPHYLLUM (Michaux). A curious 

 tuberous-rooted perennial herb, indigenous to North 

 America. Linna?an class and order, Hexandritf 

 Monogynia ; natural order, BerberidetE. Generic 

 character : calyx of six bracte-like sepals ; petals op- 

 posite the sepals ; claws of the petals scaly ; stamens 

 opposite the petals, seated below the germen ; fila- 

 ments short ; anthers two-celled ; seed-vessel inflated, 

 closed, one-celled, three-seeded ; seeds globular. This 

 plant (there being only one species) was called 

 Leontice by Linnaeus. 



CAVOLINA (Bruguiere). A genus of molluscs, 

 not protected by an external covering. Second class, 

 Paracephahphora ; second order, Polt/branchiata ; 

 first family, Tetracerata, of De Blainville's system. 



CAVY (Caviad<z). A very interesting group of 

 rodent or gnawing animals peculiar to South America; 

 but which has not been a little puzzling to systematic 

 naturalists. Indeed the zoology of South America 

 and of Australia, both of which, though differing much 

 from each other, are very peculiar, have suffered from 

 the systematic knowledge of European, Asiatic, and 

 African zoology, which has been brought to the study 

 of them. Those parts of the world, though differing 

 from each other, present, in this respect, singular 

 departures from the zoology of the rest of the world ; 

 and in no part of it is the difference greater than in 

 those animals which consume the herbage or seasonal 

 vegetation of the ground. In Europe, and all the 

 rest of the Eastern continent, and generally speaking 

 also in North America, the leading grazing or vege- 

 table feeding animals are ruminants ; and the minor 

 ones are different species of hares and rabbits. In 

 South America and in Australia the case is totally 

 different. In the last of these places there is no 

 native ruminant animal ; and in the first of them 

 there are only those few members of the camel family, 

 of which an account will be found in the article 

 CAMEL, and which are confined to the mountainous 

 districts. Some notice of the grass-eating mammalia 

 of Australia will be found in the article MARSUPJATA, 

 to which they exclusively belong; and as their num- 

 bers are limited in every other part of the world, we 

 can conveniently treat them as a distinct order occu- 

 pying a distinct locality. The grazing animals of 

 South America are, however, much more perplexing, 

 because in some of their characters the}' fall in 

 with animals of the old continent, while in others 

 they are altogether different. The zoology of the 

 eastern world has, however, been made the basis of 

 their arrangement, and therefore that arrangement 

 contains many absurdities, and even contradictions. 



How the matter shall now be remedied is a ques- 

 tion not easily settled ; but still it is a very important 

 one in as far as rendering the knowledge of the sub- 



ject at once easy and useful is concerned, for classed 

 as animals are at present we are compelled to associ- 

 ate together species which have scarcely any thing in 

 common ; and thus, in the case of animals so peculiar 

 as the rodentia of South America, we not only fail in 

 acquiring a rational knowledge of the animals them- 

 selves, but we fail in making them what they ought 

 to be an index to the .natural history of that part of 

 the world of which they are natives. One can see 

 and even excuse the fault here, much more easily 

 than point out the remedy. The different depart- 

 ments of nature have been studied by different indi- 

 viduals, so that the student of animals has known 

 little or nothing of plants, and the student of either 

 has known little of those general physical circum- 

 stances upon which the characters of both animals 

 and plants depend. Thus though there has been no 

 want of attention to all the departments of natural 

 history, yet each part has been studied " out of nature," 

 entirely away from the rest as it were ; and thus the 

 grand instruction, the relations and connexions of the 

 whole, has been lost; for instance, if one were to ask 

 why antelopes swarm in Southern Africa, while not a 

 single antelope is to be found either in South America 

 or in New Holland, both of which are under exactly 

 the same parallels of latitude, or why the herb-eating 

 animals of New Holland should be marsupial, and 

 those of South America not ; no rational answer to 

 either question could be gleaned from all the count- 

 less volumes which have been written on the subject 

 of natural history. Yet there is no question that the 

 leading animals in every case are intimately con- 

 nected, and in fact the result of the general system of 

 nature in the place where they are found ; and it is 

 just as evident that, if we could study them in con- 

 junction with that general nature of which they are 

 at once productions and parts, we should be enabled 

 to give the same philosophical consistency to natural 

 history which is found in general physical science. 

 How we should go about doing this is another and a 

 much more difficult matter, but the necessity for 

 doing it, both for the sake of theoretic knowledge 

 and of practical usefulness, is abundantly apparent. 



This is a subject which thrusts itself forward most 

 provokingly, whenever one has occasion to notice any 

 of the productions, and more especially the living 

 productions of South America, and it were greatly to 

 be desired that some one, altogether ignorant of the 

 science and systems of the eastern world, should pre- 

 pare a fauna of that country, working out all the de- 

 tails upon its own structural and climatal character, 

 and the relations which the different races bear to 

 each other. Till this is done, we must content our- 

 selves with simply describing the animals of this most 

 interesting part of the world, as if they were mere 

 strangers in Europe, museum specimens, which really 

 had no country, and of which, farther than shape and 

 size, we literally know almost nothing. 



Every one must see, without any reflection, that 

 the vegetable productions of the country must depend 

 on its soil and climate jointly, because we cannot 

 travel a day in any country without having visible 

 demonstration of this. It is equally evident that the 

 animals which feed on vegetables, and as we may say 

 preserve those vegetables by destroying the super- 

 abundance, must be adapted to the general vegetation 

 of the country. And when we advance a step farther 

 and come to the carnivorous animals, which in their 

 turn keep the vegetable feeders within due bounds, 



