CER 



CER 



neck a chain of gold, with a medal witli 

 the crown of Great Britain, having on 

 one side an emblem of peace, with tne 

 motto, JSeati pacifici ; and on the otter, 

 an emblem of war, with Dieu et mon droit ,- 

 his salary is three hundred pounds pe.r 

 annum, 



CERINTHE, in botany, English honey- 

 ivort, a genus of the Pentandria Monogy- 

 nia class and order. Natural order of 

 Asperifolire. Borragineae, Jussieu. Es- 

 sential character: border of the corolla 

 tube-bellied ; throat pervious ; seeds two, 

 bilocular. There are two species, of 

 which C. major, great honey wort, is about 

 eighteen inches high, round, smooth, 

 branching, and leafy. Leaves glaucous, 

 becoming blue by age, without prickles, 

 but ciliated about the edge, dotted with 

 white. The tube of the corolla is yel- 

 low, but the border is purple : the tooth- 

 lets very short and revolute. C. minor, 

 small honeywort, is very nearly allied to 

 the foregoing; the corolla five-cleft to 

 one-third of the length, whereas that is 

 only five-lobed at the edge. Annual when 

 sown in the spring, but biennial when 

 sown in autumn. Both these plants are 

 natives of France, Italy, Switzerland, and 

 Germany. 



CERITE. See CERIUM. 



CERIUM, in chemistry, a new metal 

 obtained from a fossil found in Sweden, 

 to which has been given the name of Ce- 

 rite. This fossil occurs disseminated or 

 massive ; it is of a flesh red colour, more 

 or less deep, with sometimes a shade of 

 yellow : it is semi-transparent : its fresh 

 fracture has considerable lustre. It strikes 

 fire with steel with difficulty : is not at- 

 tracted by the magnet : its specific gra- 

 vity is from 4.7 to 4.9. Exposed to a strong 

 heat it does not melt, but loses 5 or 6 per 

 cent, of weight, becomes friable, and ac- 

 quires a bright yellow colour. With bo- 

 rax it forms a globule, greenish while hot, 

 but colourless when cold. From 100 parts 

 of it, the Swedish chemists obtained about 

 50 of oxide of cerium, 22 oxide of iron, 

 23 silex, and 5.5 carbonate of lime. Ac- 

 cording to Vauquelin's analysis, the pro- 

 portions are, oxide of cerium 63, silex 

 17.5, oxide of iron 2, lime from 3 to 4, 

 water 12. The pure oxide of cerium is 

 extracted from the cerite, by dissolving 

 this mineral in nitromuriatic acid, and, af- 

 ter saturating the clear solution with an 

 alkali, precipitating by tartrate of pot- 

 ash. The precipitate, well washed, cal- 

 cined, and digested in vinegar, is the ox- 

 ide of cerium. 



The oxide of cerium exists in different 

 degrees of oxidizement. When precipi- 



tated from its acid solutions by the alka- 

 lies, it is white, but acquires a shade of 

 yellow when dried in the air, and, when 

 exposed to a continued heat, becomes of 

 a brick red colour. The white, according 

 to Vauquelin, is the one at the lower de- 

 gree of oxidizement ; but the difference 

 in the proportion of oxygen is, he remarks, 

 inconsiderable. Neither of them can be 

 fused by heat. Borax determines their 

 fusion : the globule, heated by the exte- 

 rior flame of the blow-pipe, is of a blood- 

 red colour, which, by cooling, becomes of 

 a yellowish green, and, at length, colour- 

 less and transparent ; or, if the propor- 

 tion of oxide has been large, opaque and 

 pearly. 



The metal itselfj in the trials which 

 Vauquelin made with it, proved insoluble 

 in any unmixed acid, and was dissolved 

 with great difficulty in nitro-muriatic acid. 

 Its oxide, however, combines with the 

 acids easily, and the properties of its salts 

 have been fully determined. 



CEROPEGIA, in botany, a genus of 

 the Pentandria Monogynia class and or- 

 der. Natural order of Contortae. Apo- 

 cineae, Jussieu. Essential character: con- 

 torted ; follicles two, erect ; seeds plu- 

 mose ; border of the corolla converging. 

 There are six species, of which C. can- 

 delabrum is a twining plant, with slender 

 stems, round, green, or reddish. Leaves 

 opposite, ovate, thick, soft and smooth. 

 The peduncle, and at first the flowers, 

 hang down, but when open they erect 

 themselves, and, being placed in a circle, 

 have the appearance of a set of lamps 

 suspended. The follicles or seed-vessels 

 hang down. It is a native of the East In- 

 dies. 



CERTHIA, the creeper, in natural his- 

 tory, a genus of birds of the order Picae. 

 Generic character: bill sharp-pointed, 

 slender, and incurvated ; nostrils small ; 

 tongue varying in shape; legs somewhat 

 stout ; toes three before and one behind, 

 the latter large ; claws long and hooked ; 

 tail of twelve feathers. 



These birds 'are distinguished from 

 humming birds, with which they have 

 sometimes been confounded, by the cir- 

 cumstances of their being to be met with 

 in every quarter of the world ; by their 

 bill universally terminating in a point; and 

 by their feeding in a great degree, though 

 not exclusively, on insects. There are n<3 

 less than forty-nine species, of which the 

 principal are, 



C. familiaris, the tree-creeper of Albi- 

 nus. This bird is scarcely larger than 

 the crested wren, and is to be observed 

 in various parts of Europe, but especially 



