coc 



COF 



COGCUM. 

 ering. 



COCCUS, 

 insect family. 



COCCYX. 



A dry elastic seed cov- 



The bark lice or scale 

 See Bark Lice. 

 The termination of 

 the spinal column. 



COCHINEAL. The Coccus cacti, 

 a Mexican insect. The fine article 

 should be of a grayish exterior, and 

 the lines of the body clearly defined. 

 The brilliant scarlet of cochineal is 

 fixed in dyeing by a mordant of alu- 

 mina and solution of tin, and bright- 

 ened by cream of tartar. 



COCHLEATE (from cochlea, a 

 shell). Twisted like some shells. 



COCK-CHAFFER. See Insects. 



COCKLE. The weed A^rostem- 

 magithago, which grows amid wheat, 

 and whose black seed impair the col- 

 our of flour if not well separated by 

 screening. It is an annual, to be de- 

 stroyed only by a succession of fod- 

 der crops cut for soiling before flow- 

 er, or by clean fallows. 



COCK'S-FOOT GRASS. The or- 

 chard grass. See Grasses. 



COCOA GRASS. Dr. Cartwright 

 thus writes in the American Agricul- 

 turist : 



" There is a repent platit called the 

 cocoa in Louisiana and .Mississippi, 

 which, instead of running on the sur- 

 face of the earth, runs down into it 

 to the depth of four or five feet, and 

 horizontally a little under the sur- 

 face, mole fashion, and at short in- 

 tervals throwing up a bunch of thick, 

 coarse grass. A better idea of this 

 plant can be formed by calling it a 

 subterraneous strawberry. It bears 

 nuts under ground the size of straw- 

 berries. Their bitter taste distin- 

 guishes them from the nut grass, 

 called sweet cocoa. The bitter cocoa 

 grows so fast, that double the num- 

 ber of labourers are required to culti- 

 vate the lands infested by it. All 

 1 liose who, ignorant of this pernicious 

 repent, have purchased cocoa lands, 

 have paid dearly for the want of a lit- 

 tle practical information, as they are 

 nearly all bankrupt. Many have 

 wisely abandoned their cocoa planta- 

 tions. No means have been discov- 

 ered of extirpating this pernicious 



P 



repent when it once gets fixed in the 

 soil." 



It certainly would be exterminated 

 by hoed crops, or long-rooted jicren- 

 nial plants, as clovers. Notwith- 

 standing its vivacious nature, it is a 

 grass of great value to the grazier 

 and sheep raiser. It is somekmes 

 called nut grass. 



COCOON. The web which cov- 

 ers the chrysalis of an insect. 



CCELIAC (from kou.oc, hollow). 

 Relating to the belly or abdomen. 



COFFEE. The berries of the 

 Coffaa Arabica, a tropical shrub. 

 The coffee plant thrives between 

 the tropics in situations where the 

 mean and nearly constant tempera- 

 ture is between 22° and 26^ C. {l\b'^ 

 and 80° F.). 



Coffee is rarely sown in a nursery ; 

 the seeds are made to germinate still 

 surrounded by their natural pulp, and 

 wrapped up in leaves of the banana. 

 The young plants, after seven or 

 eight days of germination, are put 

 into the ground. In the Valley d'Ara- 

 gua an acre of ground of good quality 

 is generally laid out with about 1040 

 plants. The coffee plant flourishes 

 in the course of the second year ; 

 when left to grow unimpeded, it will 

 attain a height of from 23 to 26 feet, 

 but it is seldom allowed to grow so 

 high, its upward progress being check- 

 ed by pruning. The planters of Ven- 

 ezuela generally keep it at a height 

 of from five to six feet. The shrub 

 receives the care of the planter du- 

 ring the first two years ; the ground 

 must be kept free from weeds, and 

 the giowth of parasites must, above 

 all, be prevented. To thrive, the cof- 

 fee plant requires frequent rains up 

 to the time of flowering. The fruit 

 bears a strong resemblance to a small 

 cherry, and is ripe when it becomes 

 of a red colour, and the pulp is soft 

 and very sweet. As the berries nev- 

 er ripen simultaneously, the coflee 

 harvest takes place at different times, 

 each requiring at least three visits 

 made at intervals of from five to six 

 days. A negro will gather from ten 

 to twelve gallons of fruit in the course 

 of a day. 



169 



