CELERY. 



CHAFF-ENGINES. 



grown ; or in February or March some may be 

 carefully taken up, and, after the outside leaves 

 are cut off and all laterals removed, planted in 

 a moist soil a foot apart. Those which are 

 most solid and of a middling size are to be se- 

 lected. When they branch for seed they must 

 be each attached to a stake, to preserve them 

 from being broken by the violence of winds. 

 The flower appears in June, and when the seed 

 is swelling in July, if dry weather occurs, they 

 should be watered every other night. In Au- 

 gust the seed will be ripe, and when perfectly 

 dry, may be rubbed out and stored. A variety 

 of celery with a roundish root (Jlpium rapace- 

 tm?), is sometimes cultivated in gardens. (G. 

 W. Johnson's Kitch. Gard. Brit. Husb. vol. ii. p. 

 575 ; WillicK* Dom. Encyc.) 



CELERY, WILD, or SMALLAGE PARS- 

 LEY (Apium graveolens). This is a biennial, 

 found in ditches and marshy ground, especially 

 towards the sea ; root tap-shaped, herb smooth 

 and shining. Flowers numerous, small, green- 

 ish white. The seeds and whole plant in its 

 native ditches are acrid and dangerous, with a 

 peculiar strong taste and smell ; but by culture 

 it becomes the mild and grateful garden cele- 

 ry, for which and its name we are indebted to 

 the Italians, and which has now supplanted 

 our native Alexanders (Smyrniii 

 (Smith's Eng. Flora, vol. ii. p. 75.) 



CELL (Lat. cella). In botany, the hollow 

 part of a capsule in which the seeds are lodged, 

 and also the part of the anthers which contains 

 the pollen. 



CELLS. The small divisions in honey- 

 combs, which have been observed to be al- 

 ways regular hexagons. They also denote the 

 hollow places between the partitions in the 

 pods, husks, and other seed-vessels of plants. 



CENTAURY (Sabhalia angularis). An an- 

 nual and biennial, of which there are seven or 

 eight additional .species found in the United 

 States. Centaury is commonly found in bar- 

 ren fields, is intensely bitter, and deservedly a 

 popular tonic. 



CENTAURY, COMMON (Erythraa centau- 

 rium). From erythros, red, alluding to the pink 

 colour of the flowers. The species of this ge- 

 nus are pretty, but not easy of cultivation ; the 

 herbaceous species require an open, loamy 

 soil, and may be increased by divisions. The 

 annuals and biennials require sowing in the 

 open border in autumn, or they will not come 

 up. (Paxton's Sot. Diet.) In England there are 

 three native species of centaury, viz. the broad 

 leaved tufted (E. latifolia), the dwarf tufted (E. 

 Kttoralis), and the common centaury, to the last 

 of which the following observations more es- 

 pecially apply. The two first-named varieties 

 are found mostly in sandy ground near the sea 

 shore. (Smith's Ens;. Flora, vol. i. p. 320.) This 

 pretty plant (E. centaurium), grows in sunny, 

 dry places, and in gravelly pastures ; its roots 

 are to be taken up in autumn, when out of 

 flower. It is about eight or ten inches high. 

 The leaves are radicle, or grow in a cluster 

 from the root, and are about an inch long ; the 

 stalks divide towards the top into several 

 branches, and the flowers, which are of a 

 bright pink, are long and slender, and stand in 

 a cluster. The leaves growing upon the stalk 



are oblong, broad, and acute at the point. Com- 

 mon centaury has all the medicinal properties 

 which distinguish the family (the Gentianacea), 

 to which it belongs. Its bitter is agreeable ; 

 and it might be advantageously used as a sto- 

 machic instead of gentian root. The dose of 

 the plant in powder is from a scruple to a 

 drachm. 



CENTIPEDE *(L,at. centum, a hundred, and 

 pes, foot). The name of the myriapodous 

 insects belonging to the genus Scolopendra of 

 Linnceus. They are wingless ; and the largest 

 species possess, when full grown, more than, 

 fifty, and less than two hundred pairs of feet; 

 they are sometimes catted forty-legs. (Brande's 

 Dirt, of Science.) 



CERATE (derived from cera, wax.) Cerates 

 are ointments of rather stiff consistence; sim- 

 ple cerate is made by melting together sweet oil 

 and beeswax, or hog's lard and beeswax, or 

 all three together. The oil or lard employed 1 

 should always be fresh, as nothing irritates or 

 prevents the healing of wounds more than 

 rancid applications. 



CERES. The Roman Pagan goddess of 

 corn and harvests ; the Isis of the Egyptians. 

 The festivals to her honour were denominated, 

 at Rome, the Cerealia or Cerealion, hence the 

 term Cerealian grass; and Sicily, long cele- 

 brated for its corn, was supposed to be her 

 favourite retreat. 



CEREAL, relating to corn or grain. Cereal 

 plants are the various kinds of grain. Cereal 

 grasses are all those raised to supply bread- 

 stuffs, such as wheat, rye, Indian corn, &c. 



CERINE. A substance which forms from 

 seventy to eighty per cent, of beeswax. It 

 may be obtained by digesting wax, for some 

 time, in spirits of wine, at a boiling tempera- 

 ture, after which the cerine is decanted with 

 the liquor, from which it is cleared by evapo- 

 ration. It is white, analogous to wax, and 

 melts at 134 Fahrenheit. 



CHACK. A term used in horsemanship 

 when a horse beats npon the hand, and does not 

 hold his head sleady, but tosses up his nose, 

 and shakes it all of a sudden, to avoid the sub- 

 jection of the bridle. In order to fix and secure 

 his head, it is only necessary to put under his 

 nose-band a small flat ligature of iron, bent 

 archwise, which serves as a martingale. 



CHAFF (Sax.ceap; Dutch, kaf). The husks 

 of corn which are separated by thrashing and 

 winnowing. It likewise implies hay, straw, 

 fee. cut small, for the purpose of being given 

 to horses and other cattle. 



CHAFF-ENGINES. That chaff has been 

 employed as provender for live-stock from a 

 very early period, we have abundant evidence. 

 Cato (lib. 54) recommends it for oxen ; and 

 two centuries since, Hartlib recommended its 

 use, mixed with cut oats and peas. The mode 

 of preparing the chaff, however, from hay and 

 straw by the knife, was a later improvement, 

 and the first machines were rude and incom- 

 plete. 



We are not aware (says Mr. J. A. Ransome 

 of Ipswich, to whom I am indebted for this and 

 other valuable articles on the implements of 

 agriculture) of any attempt to improve upon 

 the plan of pressing the hay in a trough, and 



