776 



CERINTHE CERTHIA. 



plenty of water when they are coming into flower. 

 Hybrid varieties are easily raised by cross impregna- 

 tion, several new sorts are already in the gardens, 

 and many more, it is highly probable, will be obtained. 

 The late Mr. Sweet was of opinion that several of 

 the new imported species are only varieties ; as 

 where the different kinds stand closely together, 

 which they are known to do in their native habitat, 

 their seeds cannot fail to be impregnated by the 

 pollen of each other. All the sorts are easily pro- 

 pagated by cuttings ; only they require to be dried 

 for a few days before they are planted ; the fresh 

 wound being liable to rot without this precaution. 

 The greater number of these succulents do very well 

 in the green-house ; some few require the dry stove 

 to flower in. 



CERINTHE (Linnaeus). A herbaceous annual 

 native of Europe, called honey-wort by English her- 

 balists. The genus belongs to the natural order 

 BorasjnecE. 



CEROCOMA (Geoffrey). A genus of coleop- 

 terous insects, belonging to the section Heteromcra, 

 and family Cantharidte, and distinguished by the ex- 

 traordinary and irregular shape of the antennae, which 

 are only nine-jointed, the last joint being large and 

 oval, the preceding joints, as well as the maxillary 

 palpi, being of very unequal sizes, and unequally pro- 

 duced into various sized branches. These insects, 

 which inhabit the warmer regions of Europe, appear 

 often in great quantities about the summer solstice, 

 and are found upon flowers, especially those of wild 

 camomile, millefoil, &c. They are about three quar- 

 ters of an inch long. The type is the Meloe Schaefferi, 

 Linnaeus. 



CEROPEGIA (Linnaeus). A genus of various 

 tuberous rooted herbs, under-shrubs, and climbers, 

 found chiefly in India. Linnaean class and order 

 Pcntandria Digynia ; natural order Asclepiadece ; 

 generic character : calyx five parted ; corolla swollen 

 at the base, tube funnel shaped, limb cut into conniv- 

 ing tongues ; corona double, perigynous, exterior 

 a five lobed leaf, interior five leaved ; leaflets linear 

 bearing anthers alternately ; gynostegium included. 

 The flowers are of a curious structure and beautifully 

 fringed ; grow well in the green-house, potted in 

 light loam and moor earth ; require but little water 

 when dormant, and at all times requiring the pots to 

 be well drained. 



CERTHIA the tree creepers. A very interest- 

 ing genus of small birds, belonging to the order Aniso- 

 dactyli (uneven-footed creeping birds), or Tenuirostrcs 

 of Cuvier. It is distinguished by a slender and com- 

 pressed, curved, sharp-pointed, and rather long bill ; 

 narrow and tapering tongue, which is stiff and rather 

 horny at the tip. The wings round and hollow as 

 in the woodpeckers; the fourth and fifth feathers 

 longest. Tail also, as in that genus, wedge-shaped, 

 and composed of twelve stiff sharp-pointed feathers, 

 which however are proportionably longer and weaker 

 in the shafts than the woodpeckers, though quite stiff 

 enough to support the much lighter comparative 

 weight of the bird, which, in the hand, appears little 

 more than a mass of feathers. The plumage on the 

 upper parts is soft and very loose in its texture, the 

 filaments of the feathers not adhering ; on the under 

 surface white, silky, and glistening. Feet, of very 

 perfect anisodactyle construction, adapted for creeping 

 about upon the bark of trees, with three toes before 

 and one behind, which are rather long, the outer and 



middle ones united at the base ; claws long, thinly 

 compressed, and the front ones very much curved, 

 almost semicircular, and extremely sharp-pointed, 

 hitching into the slightest inequalities of surface ; 

 that on the hind toe is the longest, and not so much 

 curved as the rest. 



This genus was by the earlier systematists made to 

 comprise an immense variety of species, which are 

 now distributed into various independent genera, as 

 Ctereba, Tichodroma, Millephaga, Nectarinia, Cinyrtu, 

 Climacteris, &c. It became, in short, a general recep- 

 tacle for every small bird with a slender and long 

 curved bill, however dissimilar they might otherwise 

 have been. By Illiger it was reduced to three or 

 four species, to such only as exhibit the more essential 

 generic characters above given ; and some of the 

 more eminent ornithologists of the present day are 

 now for confining it, at least in its more restricted 

 sense, to a single bird, the common mottled tree- 

 creeper of this country, 



C. fami/iaris, which is certainly the most typical 

 bird of the kind. This species has a very wide geo- 

 graphical range, being found in all suitable localities 

 within the northern temperate /one, and is equally 

 common in Europe and North America. It is a very 

 small bird, about five inches in length including the 

 bill, which, in old specimens, measures rather more 

 than half an inch ; weight, about a quarter of an 

 ounce ; extent of the wings nearly seven inches. 

 The upper parts are brown, darkest about the head, 

 each feather having a whitish streak along the centre. 

 Over each eye is a broad streak of whitish ; the lower 

 part of the back, rump, and tail-coverts, rusty brown ; 

 ground colour of the wings dark brown, prettily mot- 

 tled with a lighter tint and with markings of pale 

 yellowish brown. Tail brown, sometimes obscurely 

 barred across. The under parts are of a glistening white, 

 which is purest upon the chin and throat. The sexes 

 are exactly similar in plumage, and the younger indi- 

 viduals (distinguishable by the fainter tints of the 

 upper parts) are also very nearly about the same size, 

 but (as seems to be the case also with the common 

 wren, Troglodytes Europeans,) the male tree-creeper 

 appears to continue growing for three or four years, 

 as the older individuals only of this sex are often 

 much larger than the females, and have the bill of 

 rather more than the usual dimensions. The young 

 of the year are, in their nestling plumage, mottled on 

 the upper parts somewhat differently from the old 

 birds, and they do not acquire their full beauty till 

 the second moult, when their colours appear brighter, 

 and the various contrasts which they afford become, 

 in consequence, much more decided. 



This curious little bird is everywhere abundantly 

 distributed over the British islands, frequenting gar- 

 dens, parks, and all places where trees are to be found. 

 " A retired inhabitant," as a pleasing writer describes 

 it, " of the woods and groves, and not in any way 

 conspicuous for voice or plumage, it passes its days 

 with us, scarcely creating any notice or attention. 

 Its small size, and the manner in which it procures 

 its food, both tend to secrete him from sight. In 

 these pursuits its actions arc more like those of a 

 mouse than of a bird, darting like a great moth from 

 tree to tree, uttering a faint trilling sound as it fixes 

 upon their boles, running round them in a spiral 

 direction, when, with repeated wriggles, having gained 

 the summit, it darts to the base of another, and com- 

 mences again." Its manner of flying much resembles 



