C U P 



C Y A 



applied to each other like the stones of an 



arch. 

 CU'PREOUS. (ciipreits, Lat.) Coppery ; 



consisting of copper. 

 CUPRI'FEROUS. (from cuprum and fero, 



Lat.) Yielding copper ; containing 



copper. 

 CU'PULE. (cupula, Lat.) The cup of the 



acorn and of similar fruits. 

 CU'RVATE. } (curvatus, Lat.) Crooked; 

 CU'RVATEP. $ bent. 

 CURVA'TION. (curvo, Lat.) The act of 



bending or making crooked. 

 CU'RVATURE. (curvatura, Lat.) Flexure; 



crookedness; inflexion. 

 CURVE. A flexure, or bending, in a regular 



form ; a portion of a circle. 

 CU'RVED. Bent ; flexed. 

 CURVILI'NEAR. (from curvus and linea, 



Lat.) Consisting of curved or crooked 



lines. 



CU'RVITY. Crookedness. 

 CU'SPATED. (from cuspis, Lat.) Pointed ; 



terminating in a point, as the leaves of 



the thistle. 



CU'SPIDAL. Ending in a point, 

 CU'SPIDATED. 



1. A botanical term, applied to leaves ter- 

 minating in sharp rigid spines. 



2. In entomology, having a pointed pro- 

 cess much extended, and nearly setiform. 



CUTA'NEOUS. (cutanee, Fr. cutaneo, It.) 



Pertaining to the skin. 

 CU'TICLE. (cuticula, Lat. cuticule, Fr.) 



1. The scarf-skin; the outermost skin. 

 The cuticle is a thin, greyish, semi-trans- 

 parent, insensible membrane, which covers 

 the skin, and adheres to it by small vas- 

 cular filaments. It is this which is sepa- 

 rated by the application of blisters. 



2. In botany, the outward covering of 

 plants. Every plant is covered by a cuti- 

 cular expansion, analogous to the scarf- 

 skin that covers animal bodies. The 

 cuticle, or epidermis, of plants varies in 

 thickness, being extremely delicate on 

 some parts of a flower, and very thick, 

 hard, and coarse on the trunks of many 



CUTI'CULAR. Pertaining to the cuticle, or 

 external covering of the body. 



CU'TIS. (Lat.) The skin, dermis, or true 

 skin, as distinguished from the cuticle or 

 scarf-skin. It lies immediately under the 

 corpus mucosum, and gives a covering to 

 the whole body. It is formed of fibres 

 intimately interwoven, and running in 

 every direction, like the hairs in the felt 

 of a hat, and is so plentifully supplied 

 with nerves and blood-vessels, that the 

 smallest puncture cannot be made in any 

 part of it, without occasioning pain and a 

 discharge of blood. It is that part of 

 quadrupeds of which leather is made. 

 The cutia can be entirely dissolved by the 



action of boiling water, and consists 

 chiefly of gelatin, from which circum- 

 stance it is a principal article in the 

 manufacture of glue. 



CU'TTLE. i The sepia of Linnseus. A 



CU'TTLE FISH. } species of Cephalopoda, 

 genus Mollusca. The bone of the sepia 

 (which is an internal bone, flat and broad, 

 somewhat resembling a sole in its appear- 

 ance,) is found, commonly, washed up on 

 our coasts, and when ground into fine 

 powder is used as pounce, and is some- 

 times employed in the making of tooth- 

 powder. The sepia attains to an immense 

 size in the seas of India and China, and 

 it is said that its arms, which are eight in 

 number, are sometimes several fathoms 

 long, so that it will, by throwing them 

 around a boat, endanger the safety of the 

 boat's crew, and that it is usual to keep 

 on board a hatchet for the purpose of 

 severing them on such occasions. The 

 cuttle-fish having no external shell, is 

 protected from its enemies by a peculiar 

 internal provision, consisting of a bladder- 

 shaped sac, containing a black and viscid 

 ink, soluble in water, the ejection of 

 which, by rendering the surrounding 

 water opaque, conceals and defends the 

 animal. The sepia has its feet around its 

 head, and walks along the bottom of the 

 sea with its head downwards. The feet 

 are lined internally with little round 

 serrated cups, or suckers, by which the 

 animal both seizes its prey and adheres 

 to other bodies. The mouth, which re- 

 sembles a parrot's beak, or the bill of a 

 hawk, is placed in the centre of the arms. 

 The ink of the cuttle-fish is said to form 

 an ingredient in the composition of Indian 

 ink. 



Professor Buckland states, in describing 

 the ink found in a fossil ink-bag of the 

 cuttle-fish, " So completely are the cha- 

 racters and qualities of the ink retained 

 in its fossil state, that when, in 1826, I 

 submitted a portion of it to my friend 

 Sir Francis Chantrey, requesting him to 

 try its power as a pigment, and he had 

 prepared a drawing with a triturated por- 

 tion of this fossil substance ; the drawing 

 was shown to a celebrated painter, without 

 any information as to its origin, and he 

 immediately pronounced it to be tinted 

 with sepia of excellent quality." 



The common sepia used in drawing is 

 from the ink-bag of an oriental species of 

 cuttle-fish. 



CY'ANITE. (from KVO.VOQ, Gr. color cce- 

 rultus, or sky-coloured.) Called also 

 Kyanite, and by Saussure, Sappare, is a 

 mineral of a grey, blue, and blueish-green 

 colour. It occurs regularly crystallized, 

 as well as massive and disseminated. Its 

 texture is foliated ; laminae long ; frag- 



