CINQUE-FOIL. 



CLIMATE. 



runners resemble those of the strawberry. 

 This common kind of cinque-foil in the Middle 

 and Northern States is frequent in worn-out 

 and neglected fields, and, where abundant, indi- 

 cates thriftless farming. The Latin name of 

 the genus is derived from potens, powerful; 

 in reference to the supposed medical virtues 

 of the cinque-foil family. Another species, 

 commonly called five-fingers (Potentilla sim- 

 plex'), is also a very common, yellow flowered 

 perennial, along the borders of woods, &c. 



CINQUE-FOIL, PURPLE MARSH (Coma- 

 rhnu palustrc). A perennial, found in spongy, 

 muddy bogs and ditches. Root, creeping ex- 

 tensively, with many long fibres. Stems, round, 

 reddish, a foot or more in height. Flowers, 

 several, without scent, but handsome, an inch 

 broad, all over of a dark purplish blood colour, 

 as well as the fruit. They appear in June. 

 (Smith's Eng. Flora, vol. ii. p. 433.) 



CITRIC ACIDS. Acids contained in le- 

 mons and some other kinds of fruit. See 

 ACIDS, VEGETABLE. 



CLARY, or SAGE (Satom). Smith (Eng. 

 Flora, vol. i. p. 34) describes two kinds, the 

 meadow clary (S.pratensis}, and wild English 

 clary (S. verbcnacaj. The first is very uncom- 

 mon, but sometimes met with in dry meadows 

 and about hedges ; grows three feet high, erect; 

 not very aromatic; leaves, dark-green ; flowers, 

 large and handsome, of a fine purplish blue. 

 The second species is more common on gra- 

 velly or chalky soils, a foot or eighteen inches 

 high ; leaves, grayish-green ; flowers, small, 

 violet-blue. Seeds, black, smooth; blows from 

 June to October. This, plant is of great vir- 

 tue, and is kept in gardens on account of its 

 excellent flavour. The whole herb is medi- 

 cinal, and is equally good, freshly gathered, 

 or dried. It is cordial and astringent in its 

 quality. . 



CLASPERS. The threads or tendrils of 

 creeping plants. 



CLASS, an appellation used to denote the 

 most general divisions of which any thing is 

 susceptible. Thus in the Linnasan system of 

 natural history, the animal kingdom is divided 

 into six great classes, of mammalia, or ani- 

 mals which suckle their young; aves, or birds; 

 pisces, or fishes ; insecta, or insects ; vermes, or 

 worms. 



In botany, the term class implies the primary 

 division of plants into large groups, each of 

 which is to be subdivided by a regular down- 

 ward progression, into orders, genera, and spe- 

 cies, with occasional intermediate subdivisions, 

 constituting varieties, &c., all being subordi- 

 nate to the division which stands immediately 

 above them. Each class is divided into orders, 

 each order into genera, each genus into species, 

 and each genus and species sometimes into 

 subgenera or subspedes. The term family is 

 sometimes used instead of genus, and objects 

 are often arranged in families, which again are 

 distinguished into varieties. 



CLAYING OF LAND. See MIXTURE OF 



hpll. 



w CLAY-KILN. A stove for burning clay. 

 There are two modes commonly employed, 

 one by kilns partly constructed of masonry, 

 and the other of sods ; in both of which the 

 330 



earth is piled upon them, instead of being 

 placed under cover, as in a lime-kiln in Suf- 

 folk, where it is called clod-burning. (Brit. Husb. 

 vol. i. p. 369, 375.) See ASHES. 



CLEANING. A term applied to the secun- 

 dines of the cow, ewe, &c. 



CLEARING. A term applied, in thrashing 

 corn, to a heap large enough to be winnowed. 

 Clearing of land is the means of removing trees 

 and other obstacles and impediments to its 

 cultivation. 



CLEAVERS, or GOOSE-GRASS. See 

 HATUFF. 



CLEDGY. A term applied to such sorts of 

 land as are stiff, stubborn, hard, and tenacious, 

 or mixed with clay. 



CLEFTS. In farriery, a disease in the 

 heels of horses. See CRACKS in HEF.LS. 



CLEMATIS, VIRGIN'S BOWER (Clemati* 

 ritiirlla). A hardy climber, suited to trellis- 

 work, and propagated by layers. It blows a 

 bluish purple flower in July and August. 

 Multiply by parting its roots, and from seed. 

 It flourishes in any soil. 



Clematis vil alba. Common Traveller's Joy : 

 in England an indigenous shrub, found in 

 hedges, chiefly on calcareous soils. -It is a 

 climber, using the footstalks of the leaves as 

 supports. The leaves consist of five leaflets, 

 stalked and heart-shaped; the flowers are 

 white, and have the odour of the almond or 

 peach blossom. Nine or ten species of clema- 

 tis have been found in the United States. 



CLEVVY and CLEVIS, provincial words, 

 applied to the draft-iron of a plough. 



CLICKLING. An unpleasant noise known 

 also by the term " overreach," which arises 

 from the toe of the hind foot of a horse knock- 

 ing against the shoe of the fore foot. If the 

 animal is young, the action of the horse may 

 be materially improved; otherwise nothing 

 can be done. 



CLIMATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 

 The temperature of the atmosphere constitutes 

 the principal element of climate. If the tem- 

 peratures of places depended solely upon the 

 position of the earth in relation to the sun, 

 then would every place receiving the rays at 

 a similar angle be similarly heated, and places 

 in the same latitude in every part of the globe 

 would have similar climates, so far as heat 

 was concerned. It would therefore be very 

 easy to classify climates according to relative 

 distances from the equator or proximity to the 

 poles. But observations made in differed 

 parts of the world show that in similar latitudes 

 climates differ greatly, as is exemplified on the 

 two sides of the northern Atlantic, where the 

 mean temperatures of places on or near the 

 ocean are found to differ in some cases ten de- 

 grees of Fahrenheit, the climate of the European 

 coast being that much warmer, in its annual 

 mean temperature, than the American in the 

 same latitude. When, instead of mean tempe- 

 ratures, extremes of heat and cold are com- 

 pared, the difference is still more striking. 



Now, in explaining the rationale of this 

 well known fact, we are compelled to refer to 

 a grand natural phenomenon, which we shall 

 designate the great atmospheric circulation. 

 This commences in the tropical region where 



