CLUB RUSH. 



COCHINEAL. 



lected as an ornamental evergreen, 10 be hung 

 in festoons around churches, ball-rooms, mir- 

 rors, picture-frames, &c. (Flora Ccslrica.) 



CLUB RUSH. See RUSH. 



CLUMP (Ger.klump'). A number of shrubs 

 or trees growing together. 



CLUSTER-GRAPE. The small black or 

 currant grape. See VINE. 



CLUSTER-SOWING. That method of sow- 

 ing grain, in which a number of corns are 

 placed together. 



CLYSTER. See GLTSTER. 



COAGULATION (Lat. coagulatio). A term 

 signifying that chemical change which takes 



Slace when a fluid, or some part of it, is ren- 

 ered more or less solid. 



COAGULUM. A term applied to the curdled 

 concretion formed by the mixture of two 

 liquors. It sometimes also means rennet. 



COB. A kind of wicker basket, made so as 

 to be carried on the arm. Hence a seed-cob, 

 or seed-lip, is a basket for sowing from. Cob 

 was formerly the name for a spider, hence we 

 have cobweb. Cob is also applied provincially 

 in England to a round sort of stone, to a mud 

 wall, and sometimes to a particular kind of 

 horse. In the United States it is the common 

 name given to that portion of the ear of In- 

 dian corn to which the grains are attached. 

 When burned, corn-cobs yield a large propor- 

 tion of potash. 



COBBLE. A provincial term for a round 

 sort of stone found in the fields. It also signi- 

 fies a small kind of fishing-boat. 



COBBLE-TREES. A sort of double swingle- 

 trees, whippins, or splinter-bars. 



COCCIFEROUS PLANTS (from writ, 

 and fero to bear). Such plants or trees as af- 

 ford nutrition to, and a habitation for, the insect 

 called a coccus. 



COCCUS. A genus of insects frequenting 

 certain plants. Naturalists enumerate more 

 than twenty species. Among these are the 

 cochineal insect of the tropical parts of Ame- 

 rica, and the scarlet-grain of Poland (Coccus 

 pnlonims) which thrives only in cold climates. 

 This last is sometimes called the Cochineal of 

 the Nvrth, and is collected in great abundance 

 for the use of dyers, from the roots of the 

 polygonum coccifcrum. It is much inferior to the 

 American cochineal. 



Some interesting information relative to in- 

 sects of the Coccus family may be found under 

 the head of BARK-LICE. 



COCCULUS INDICUS,or INDIAN BERRY, 

 is the fruit of the Menispermum cocculus, a large 

 tree, which grows upon the coasts of Malabar, 

 Ceylon, &c. The fruit is blackish, and of the 

 size of a large pea. It owes its narcotic and 

 poisonous qualities to the vegeto-alkaline che- 

 mical principle called picroloxia, of which it 

 contains about one-fiftieth part of its weight. 

 It is sometimes thrown into waters to intoxi- 

 cate or kill fishes ; and it is said to have been 

 employed to increase the inebriating qualities 

 of ale or beer. Its use for this purpose is pro- 

 hibited by act of Parliament, under a penalty 

 of 2007. upon the brewer, and 500Z. upon the 

 seller of the drug. 



COCHINEAL. An America -, insect greatly 

 valued on account of its use in dying crimson, 

 343 



scarlet, &c., and preparing carmine. When 

 first discovered it was taken to Europe as a 

 seed, but was proved by the observations of 

 Lewenhoeck to be an insect, being the female 

 of that species of shield-louse, or coccus, disco- 

 vered in Mexico, so long ago as 1518. It is 

 brought to us from Mexico, where the animal 

 lives upon the cactus opuntia or nopal. Two 

 sorts of cochineal are gathered the wild, from 

 the woods, called by the Spanish name grana 

 silvestra; and the cultivated, or the grami fata, 

 termed also mesteque, from the name of a Mexi- 

 can province. The first is smaller, and co- 

 vered with a cottony down, which increases its 

 bulk with a matter useless in dyeing ; it yields, 

 therefore, in equal weight, much less colour, 

 and is of inferior price to that of the fine cochi- 

 neal. But these disadvantages are compen- 

 sated in some measure to the growers by its 

 being reared more easily and less expensively; 

 partly by the effect of its down, which enables 

 it better to resist rains and storms. 



The wild cochineal, when it is bred upon 

 the field nopal, loses in part the tenacity and 

 quantity of its cotton, and acquires a size 

 double of what it has on the wild opuntias. It 

 may, therefore, be hoped that it will be im- 

 proved by persevering care in the rearing of 

 it, when it will approach more and more to fine 

 cochineal. 



The fine cochineal, when well dried and well 

 preserved, should have a gray colour, border- 

 ing on purple. The gray is owing to the pow- 

 der, which naturally covers it, and of which a 

 little adheres; as also to a waxy fat. The 

 purple shade arises from the colour extracted 

 by the water in which they were killed. It is 

 wrinkled with parallel furrows across its back, 

 which are intersected in the middle by a longi- 

 tudinal one ; hence, when viewed by a magni- 

 fier, or.even a sharp naked eye, especially after 

 being swollen by soaking for a little in water, 

 it is easily distinguished from the factitious, 

 smooth, glistening, black grains, of no value, 

 called East India cochineal, with which it is 

 often shamefully adulterated by certain London 

 merchants. The genuine cochineal has the 

 shape of an egg, bisected through its long axis, 

 or of a tortoise, being rounded like a shield 

 upon the back, flat upon the belly, and without 

 wings. 



These female insects are gathered off the 

 leaves of the. nopal plant, after it has ripened 

 its fruit, a few only being left for brood, and 

 are killed, either by a momentary immersion 

 in boiling water, by drying upon heated plates, 

 or in ovens. The last become of an ash-gray 

 colour, constituting the silver cochineal, or 

 jaspeada the second are blackish, called ,iegra, 

 and are most esteemed, being probably driest; 

 the first are reddish brown, and reckoned in- 

 ferior to the other two. The dry cochineal 

 being sifted, the dust, with the imperfect insects 

 and fragments which pass through, are sold 

 under the name of granillo. 



Cochineal keeps for a long time in a dry 

 place. Hellot says that he has tried some 130 

 years old, which produced the same effect as 

 new cochineal. 



Much adulteration is practised in England 

 upon cochineal. In the republics of Mexico, 



