Cat 



cat 



where it grows naturally, but here it is rarely 

 snore than five or six feet high. The stalk is 

 strong, woody, and covered with a purplish bark, 

 sending out many stiff branches. The leaves 

 are very thick, for the most part opposite, about 

 two inches long and almost as broad, of a dark 

 green colour. The flowers come out from the 

 side of the old branches in clusters, three, four, 

 or five together, on one common slender pe- 

 duncle ; are first greenish yellow, but changing 

 to white. They are succeeded by large red 

 cherrv-like fruit. It is a native of the Cape, 



Culture. — These plants, as they do not produce 

 ripe seed in this climate, must be increased 

 either by layers or cuttings, but the first is the 

 best method. 



The layers should be made from the young 

 shoots near the root, which, as they take root 

 with difficulty, should be twisted in the part 

 laid down, and tbe business performed in the 

 autumn. 



With cuttings, the best practice is to take 

 the shoots of the preceding year, which should 

 be cut with a little of the old wood to them, 

 and planted in the early spring, in pots filled 

 with a rather mellow, loamy earth, plunging 

 them in a hot-bed, kept close and shaded, 

 taking care that very little water be given at the 

 time. 



They take root much more readily in the 

 former than the latter method; requiring one 

 year in the first, and generally two in the second 

 before they are well rooted. 



When they have become well rooted they 

 should be taken off, and removed into separate 

 small pots, being shaded till well re-established, 

 and then placed in a warm sheltered situation 

 during summer, but taken under the protection 

 of the greenhouse before tbe approach of frosts 

 in the autumn. They require water rather freely 

 in the hot season, but very sparingly in winter: 

 and air should be admitted freely when the wea- 

 ther is suitable. 



They are very ornamental in the greenhouse, 



from their stiff evergreen leaves, and the fine 



appearance of the fruit. 



CASSIOBERRY-BUSII. See Viburnum. 

 CATALPA. See Bignonia. 

 CATANANCHE, a genus containing a 



plant of the herbaceous perennial flowery kind. 



Candia Lion's-foot. 



It belongs to the class and order Syngenesia 



Potygamia JEqualis, and ranks in the natural 



order of Composite, 



The characters are : that the calyx is common 



imbricate, turbinate; leaflets very many, loosely 



incumbent, acute, scariose; the squamule 



nvate-ainminate, concave, lax, glossy and per- 



Coanent: the corolla is compound, generally 



imbricate, uniform; corollets hermaphrodite, 

 very many; the exterior ones longer. 



Proper monopetalous, ligulate, linear, trun- 

 cate, five-toothed : the stamina consist of five 

 capillary filaments, very short: the anthers are 

 cylindric, and tubular : the pistillum is an oblong 

 germ : the style filiform, length of the stamens : 

 the stigma bifid and reflex : there is no pericar- 

 pium: the calyx unchanged : the seeds solitary, 

 turbinale-ovate: down from afive-awned calycle : 

 the receptacle is chaffy. 



The species chiefly cultivated is C. cccrulea. 



It is perennial, sending out many long, 

 narrow, hairy leaves, which are jagged on their 

 edges. Between the leaves the flower-stalks 

 come out, which are in number proportioned 

 to the size of the plant; as from an old thriving 

 root there are frequently eight or ten, and young 

 plants seldom send out more than two or three" 

 These stalks rise near two feet high, dividing 

 into many small branches upward, with leaves 

 like those below, but smaller, and have few or 

 no jags on their edges; each of the peduncles 

 is terminated with single heads of flowers, of a 

 blue colour, having a dry, silvery, scaly calyx. 



It is a native of the south of Europe, flower- 

 ing from July to October. 



There is a variety with double flowers. 



Culture. — It is increased by sowing; the seeds 

 in the early spring, on the borders where the 

 earth is light: the plants when sufficiently 

 strong may, some of them, be removed into 

 pots; but they flower best when left where sown. 

 The double sort is best increased by slipping the 

 roots and planting them out either in the early 

 autumn or spring seasons ; but in this way the 

 roots should not be divided into too small parts, 

 as that prevents their sending up a sufficient 

 number of stalks for flowering. 



These are very ornamental plants for the 

 borders or clumps, where sufficiently dry, warm, 

 and protected, as they continue several years. 



Some plants may likewise be preserved in 

 pots, to set out in assemblage with other potted 

 plants. 



CATECU. See Areca. 



CATERPILLAR, a well known highly de- 

 structive insect to various sorts of trees and 

 plants. 



There are several different kinds; but those 

 that are the most destructive to vegetables and 

 fruits in the garden are the yellowish green, the 

 black, and the dark rough-skinned leathery kinds. 

 The first is generated from the ova of the white 

 butterfly deposited upon the leaves and other 

 parts of the plants. The second sort mostly 

 show themselves in March, when the weather 

 is dry, upon trees of the pear, apple, and other 

 kinds, sometimes contained in large webs. 

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