CO MOCLADIA COMPOSITE. 



9? 



Jamaica, are looked upon as antidotes to the poison 

 of spiders. 



COMOCLAD1A (Linnaeus). A genus of large 

 West Indian timber trees, belonging to the third class 

 and first order of Linnanis, and to the natural order 

 TercbinthacecE. Generic character : calyx of three 

 parts ; corolla of three elongated petals ; stamens 

 short ; style none ; stigma simple and sitting ; drupe 

 of one seed. These trees have been described by 

 Sloane, Swartz, and Jacquin ; but they are of too 

 large growth for cultivation in our stores. 



COMPOSITE. Composite Family. A natural 

 order of dicotyledonous plants, containing between 

 three and four hundred genera, and upwards of four 

 thousand species. It is a very extensive and import- 

 ant order, and is at once recognised by the cohesion of 

 its anthers, and its capitate flowers. On account of 

 the former of these characters, the order has been 

 denominated by some authors, Synantherce. It is 

 allied to Calycereee and Dipsacece, but differs, from 

 these orders in not possessing a pendulous ovulum, 

 and in its anthers not being free. 



The following are the characters of the order : 

 tube of the calyx adnate with the ovary ; limb of calyx 

 either wanting, or membranous, or divided into bris- 

 tles, chaff, hairs, or feathers, called pappus ; corolla 

 regular and funnel shaped, or irregular and ligulate, 

 sometimes two lipped, generally four or five toothed ; 

 stamens four or five, alternate with the teeth of the 

 corolla ; anthers cohering in a cylinder ; ovary in- 

 ferior, one celled, with a single erect ovule ; one 

 style ; stigmas two, either distinct or united ; fruit, a 

 small, indehiscent, dry pericarp, crowned with the 

 limb of the calyx or pappus ; seed erect, without 

 albumen ; embryo straight ; radicle directed to the 

 hilum. 



The plants belonging to this very natural order are 

 herbs or shrubs, rarely trees, furnished with flowers 

 (called JJoscuU, or florets) which are collected into 

 dense heads on a common broad receptacle, and are 

 surrounded by an involucre. Their leaves are alter- 

 nate or opposite, without stipules, and usually simple. 

 Among the flowers there exist frequently leafy or 

 chaffy appendages, called bractcas. The Composite 

 are not in general cultivated on account of their 

 beauty, but the order includes several showy and 

 ornamental garden plants. 



The order has been variously subdivided by dif- 

 ferent botanists. In the Linnsean or artificial arrange- 

 ment, it is included in the class Syngenesia, and is 

 divided into sections, according to the sexes of the 

 florets on different parts of the same head. Thus the 

 first section is Polygamia izqualis, in which all the 

 florets are hermaphrodite, or furnished with both sta- 

 mens and pistils. The second section is Polygamia 

 superflua> in which the florets of the disk or centre 

 are hermaphrodite or perfect, and those of the ray or 

 margin are furnished with pistils only, but all pro- 

 ducing perfect seed. The third section is Polygamia 

 rustranca, in which the florets of the disk are perfect, 

 while those of the margin are neuter or destitute of 

 pistils, as well as stamens, and the fourth section is 

 Polygamia necessaria, in which the florets of the disk 

 have stamens only, while those of the ray have pistils 

 only, so that both are necessary for the production of 

 perfect seed. 



Jussieu, in his natural arangement, has divided the 

 Compositse into three sections ; I. CynarocephaletB, 

 or the artichoke tribe, in which all the florets are 

 NAT. HIST. VOL. II. 



flosculous or tubular ; II. Cichoracca:, the succory 

 tribe, in which the florets are all ligulate or strap- 

 shaped ; III. Corymbiferce, the corymbiferous tube, 

 in which the florets of the centre are tubular, while 

 those of the circumference are ligulate. 



Cassini, Lessing, and Brown, have devoted parti- 

 cular attention to this order, and have divided it into 

 a great number of sections. As these divisions are 

 too minute to be interesting to the general reader, we 

 conceive that it is unnecessary to enter into any 

 details with regard to them. In the observation's 

 which we propose to make on the order we shall 

 adopt Jussieu's division, which is the most simple, 

 and the best adapted for a work like the present. 



Composite plants are found abundantly in all parts 

 of the world, and are said to constitute almost one- 

 twelfth of the known vegetable productions of our 

 globe. In different countries, the proportion which 

 the Composite bear to the other pha:nogamic plants 

 varies considerably. Humboldt states that they con- 

 stitute one-seventh of the flowering plants of France, 

 one-eighth of those of Germany, a fifteenth of those 

 of Lapland, a sixth of the North-American Flora, and 

 one-half of those of America within the tropics. They 

 form only a sixteenth part of the Flora of jNew Hoi- 

 land, and the same proportion of the Flora of Mel- 

 ville Island. In their relative increase and decrease, 

 they do not appear to follow any general law of cli- 

 mate. It may be stated generally that the Cicho- 

 racece are chiefly found in cold, and the Corymbiferce 

 in warm regions. The Composite are herbaceous 

 in the colder quarters of the globe, and become 

 shrubby as we approach the equator. 



If we examine attentively the plants belonging to 

 this vast family, we shall find that they are not only 

 naturally grouped together by their structure, but that 

 they also agree remarkably in the medical properties 

 with which they are endowed. They are all more or 

 less tonic and stimulating ; they contain a bitter, 

 extractive, milky principle, and a volatile oil which is 

 often solid and concrete, and has a strong resem- 

 blance to camphor. Each of the Jussieuan subdivi- 

 sions of the family present some distinguishing pecu- 

 liarities in their properties, and we shall therefore 

 notice them separately. 



I. CYNAUOCEPHALE^E. The plants in this sub- 

 division of the order possess intensely bitter proper- 

 ties, owing to the presence of much extractive matter, 

 and they act chiefly as tonics. By cultivation, how- 

 ever, this bitterness is much lessened, and the plants 

 in some cases become edible. The volatile oil, cha- 

 racteristic of the family, is not very abundant in this 

 division. Under this division are included the genera, 

 Cynara, the artichoke and cardoon, Carduus, Cnicus, 

 Onopordum, Carthamus, Arctium, Carlina, Ccntaurea, 

 &c. 



Cynara Cardunculus, common cardoon, was origi- 

 nally a native of the south of Europe and north of 

 Africa, but is now found in various parts of the world. 

 It bears the climate of Britain veil, and is said to 

 have been cultivated at Holyrood palace so early as 

 the year 1683. It is an ornamental plant in a shrub- 

 bery or large garden. It abounds in the vast plains 

 or pampas of the Cordillera, in South America, and 

 its growth in that part of the world is said to be very 

 rapid. It is stated by a recent traveller in South 

 America, that on the pampas, cardoons shoot up to 

 the height of ten or eleven feet, and come into full 

 flower in the course of a single month. The road 

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