C H E N O P O D I U M C H E R R Y. 



21 



from sea weeds, yields only two or three per 

 cent. 



The preparation of barilla is carried on to a great 

 extent on the shores of the Mediterranean, and there 

 the seeds of various maritime Chenopodece, are regu- 

 larly sown in places near the sea. In the month of 

 September, when the plants have attained sufficient 

 maturity, they are pulled up by the roots and exposed 

 to dry, so that the seeds may be collected ; they are 

 then gathered into heaps, and afterwards burned in 

 holes made in the ground, or in ovens constructed for 

 the purpose ; the ashes are constantly stirred, while 

 hot, with long poles, and a hard mass ultimately 

 remains, which, when broken into pieces, constitutes 

 the barilla of commerce. The best sort of Spanish 

 barilla has a dark bluish colour, is verv heavy and 

 dry, has no offensive smell, and is covered externallv 

 with numerous small depressions. That which is 

 mixed with small stones, and gives out a disagreeable 

 smell in solution, and is deliquescent, ought to be 

 rejected as bad. From barilla, carbonate of soda is 

 easily obtained by lixiviation in boiling water, and 

 subsequent evaporation. 



Carbonate of soda is of great use in the arts and 

 manufactures, more especially in the formation of 

 glass, and in the preparation of various kinds of soap. 

 Glass is formed by mixing soda or potass with sand 

 in certain proportions, and exposing the mixture to a 

 strong heat, until the materials are fused ; It is then 

 moulded into different forms under the name of flint, 

 crown, plate, and bottle glass. Bottle glass is the 

 coarsest kind, and is made from river sand, which 

 contains iron and other impurities, and the common 

 impure alkali. Crown glass, for windows, requires fine 

 sand, free from iron, and a pure alkali; white plate 

 glass, for mirrors, is made from the purest materials. 

 To the glass commonly called flint glass, some oxide 

 of lead and manganese is added. Soap is prepared 

 by mixing different kinds of oil, in a greater or less 

 degree of purity, with carbonate of potass or soda; 

 the former alkali being employed in the preparation 

 of soft, and the latter in the formation of hard soap. 

 The soap ordered in medicine for internal use, is 

 formed from the finest olive oil and pure carbonate of 

 soda. 



. The purest barilla, though well fitted for ordinary 

 manufactures, does not serve for chemical purposes, 

 on account of the mixture of the sulphates and 

 muriates of potass and soda. A carbonate of soda, 

 considerably purer, is easily got by exposing sulphate 

 of soda, or Glauber's salt, with saw-dust and lime, 

 to the action of a reverberatory furnace, and after- 

 ward-: lixiviating and crystallising. 



lilitnm is another genus of this order, furnishing 

 several species, one of which Blitum capitatum, berry- 

 headed strawberry blite, is a native of Austria. In 

 this species, after the flowers are faded, the heads 

 swell to the size of wood-strawberries, and when ripe, 

 have the same colour and appearance. They are 

 succulent and stain the hands, and were formerly used 

 by cooks for colouring puddings. Another 'genus 

 jihorosma, receives its name from emitting a smell 

 of camphor. 



From the above account of the Chenopodc<z, it will 

 be seen that the plants of this order, although they 

 contribute little to the ornament of our gardens, are 

 still of considerable importance and interest, when we 

 omsider the useful purposes to which they ;ire applied. 

 Many of them are among the most common ,m</.y of 



the countries in which they grow, and yet, when pro- 

 perly used, they contribute, in no small degree, to the 

 comforts, and even the luxuries of life. 



CHENOPOD1UM (Linnseus), vide GOOSEFOOT. 



CHERIMOYER is the Anona cherimolia of Mikan, 

 an excellent South American fruit tree. A majority 

 of the anonas yield useful and pleasant fruit, but the 

 cherimoyer is the best of all. 



CHERMES (Linnaeus). Under this generic name 

 were designated, in the Linnaean system of Ento- 

 mology, numerous minute insects, allied to the 

 aphides, from which they are distinguished by the 

 antennte having ten or eleven joints, and by their 

 powers of leaping. These insects, of which there are 

 various species, have been termed by the French 

 Entomologists false aphides. They subsist upon 

 plants. Geoffroy, however, considering that the 

 term chermes had been improperly applied by 

 Linnaeus, gave to these insects the name of Psylla^ 

 derived from the Greek, and having reference to 

 their saltatorial powers, whilst he employed the name 

 of chermes, in its more legitimate sense, to denomi- 

 nate some of the Linnaean species of Coccus, which 

 had been used as dyes ; the names Chermes, Kcrmes, 

 or Alkcrmes, having been given b_v the Arabians and 

 Persians to the Coccus ilicis of Linnseus, which is 

 found abundantly upon the small evergreen oak, 

 Quercus cocci/era, growing in the south of France and 

 other parts of the world, and which has been employed 

 to impart a blood red or crimson dye to cloth from 

 the earliest ages, having been known to the Phoeni- 

 cians before the time of Moses, under the name of 

 Tola or Thola, and to the Greeks under that of 

 Coccus. It was with this that the Greeks and 

 Romans produced their crimson, and from the same 

 source the unfading reds of the tapestry of the Low 

 Countries were derived. With a solution of alum it 

 produces a blood red, but when mixed with the 

 solution of tin, as brilliant a -scarlet is obtained as 

 that derived from cochineal. As, however, ten or 

 twelve pounds of chermes contain only as much 

 colouring matter as one of cochineal, the latter, at 

 its ordinary price, is cheapest. Introduction to 

 Entomology, vol. i. page 321. 



As Entomologists, in general, have adopted 

 Geoffrey's name of Psylla for the insects first above 

 mentioned, and as the majority of them have not 

 thought it necessary to divide the Linnaean genus 

 Coccus, as Geoffrey has done, we shall defer any 

 further observations upon the Chermes of the latter 

 author, until our articles upon Coccus and Cochineal. 



CHERRY. The cherry is one of our most com- 

 mon, as well as most beautiful garden and orchard 

 fruits. Like other wild genera, it has been wonder- 

 fully improved by art, and many excellent varieties 

 have been obtained by the art of manual impregnation, 

 and not a few by accident. In its wild state the cherry 

 is a lofty tree, producing valuable timber, useful to 

 the cabinet-maker, turner, and other workers in wood. 

 The timber is also durable ; a gate-post nude of the 

 heart of a cherry-tree, lasts as long as one made of 

 the heart of oak. All the improved varieties of this 

 tree cultivated in gardens, are more or less dwarfed, 

 and changed in their manner of growth, as well as in 

 the manner of bearing their fruit. 



A deep sandy loam appears to be the most genial 

 soil for the cherry ; and some of the sorts, as the 

 Kentish, for instance, grows and bears well in what 

 may be called pure sand. 



