caby] 



Wfyz Crcatiurg nf 33flta«|?. 



230 



Caryophyllus, is the origin of all the culti- 

 vated varieties of carnations, as picotees, 

 bizarres, and flakes. The common duckweed 

 (Stellaria media), and spurrey {Spergula ar- 

 vensis) used as .fodder for sheep, are other 

 examples. There are about sixty genera 

 and 1,100 species. Illustrative genera: 

 Dianthus, Saponaria, Silene, Lychnis, Al- 

 sine, Armaria, Stellaria, Cerastium, Mol- 

 lugo. [J. H. B.] 



CARYOPHYLLACEOUS, CARYOPHYL- 

 LATUS. A corolla whose petals have long 

 distinct claws, as in the clove pink. 



CARYOPHYLLATA. (Fr.) Gemn urba- 

 num. 



CARYOPHYLLUS. One of the genera 

 of Myrtacece, characterised by a long cylin- 

 drical calyx, whose limb is four-cleft ; four 

 petals adherent at their points ; stamens 

 numerous in four parcels ; berry oblong, 

 one or two-celled, and as many seeded. 



The tree producing the well-known spice 

 called Cloves (C. aromaticus) is a handsome 

 evergreen, rising to from fifteen to thirty 

 feet, with large elliptic leaves and purplish 

 flowers arranged in corymbs on short- 

 jointed stalks. The Cloves of commerce 



Caryophyllus aromaticus. 



aretheunexpanded flower-buds, and derive 

 their name from the French word clou, a 

 nail, in allusion to the shape of the bud 

 with its long calyx tube, and the round 

 I knob or head of petals at the top. These 

 buds are collected by hand, or by heating 

 the tree with sticks, when the buds, from 

 the jointed character of their stalks, 

 readily fall, and are received on sheets 

 spread for the purpose. The Cloves are 

 then dried by the sun. For many years 

 the Dutch exercised a strict monopoly in 

 the growth of this spice, by restricting its 

 cultivation to the island of Amboyna, and 

 even there extirpating all but a limited 

 number of the trees : but they are now 

 extensively grown in the West Indies and 

 elsewhere. All parts of the plant are aro- 

 matic, from the presence of a volatile oil, 

 but especially the flower-buds, hence its 

 use for culinary purposes. The oil is occa- 



sionally used in toothache with the effect 

 of lulling the pain, and as a carminative in 

 medicine. [M. T. MJ 



CARYOTA. A genus of very elegant lofty 

 palms (Palmacece) with graceful twice- 

 pinnate leaves, the leaflets of which differ 

 very much from those of other plants of 

 this order. In general the leaflets of pinnate- 

 leaved palms are long, narrow, and tapering 

 upwards to a point ; but those of Caryota, 

 on the contrary, are comparatively short, 

 tapering to the base, very broad at their 

 top end, where they are jagged as though 

 gnawed by an animal. Nine species of 

 this genus are known, all of them natives 

 of India and the Indian Islands. They 

 have flowers of separate sexes, borne upon 

 the same spike, or sometimes on distinct 

 spikes. The calyx is of three distinct 

 sepals, and the corolla is three-parted ; the 

 male flowers have numerous stamens con- 

 nected together at the base and. forming a 

 cup ; and the females a one or two-celled 

 ovary, with as many stigmas, and three 

 barren stamens. The fruits are nearly 

 round, somewhat fleshy, and generally, of 

 a purplish colour, containing one or two 

 seeds. 



C. urens is a beautiful tree with a trunk 

 about a foot in diameter, growing to the 

 height of fifty or sixty feet, and sur- 

 mounted by an elegant crown of grace- 

 fully curved leaves. These leaves are 

 eighteen or twenty feet long, and ten or 

 twelve broad, and have a very strong 

 central stalk, the base of which widens 

 out so as to form a kind of sheath round 

 the stem, and leaves a circular mark or 

 scar when it falls away; they have, also, 

 a curious black fibrous material at their 

 base. The leaflets are shaped somewhat 

 like a scalene triangle, one side being very 

 sharply and irregularly jagged. The flower 

 spikes are ten or twelve feet long, and 

 issue from the trunk at the base of the 

 leaves, hanging down like the tail of a 

 horse; they are not produced until the 

 tree has arrived at its full period of growth, 

 and the manner in which the numerous 

 spikes succeed each other is rather singu- 

 lar. The first spike issues from the top of 

 the tree, and after it has done flowering 

 another comes out below it, and so on, a 

 flower-spike being produced from the 

 angle of each leaf-stalk, or from the cir- 

 cular scar left by leaves that have fallen 

 away from the trunk, until the process of 

 flowering reaches the ground, when the 

 tree is exhausted and dies. The fruits are 

 reddish berries about the size of nutmegs, 

 and have a thin, yellow, acrid rind. The 

 tree is a native of Ceylon and many parts 

 of India, particularly Malabar, Bengal and 

 Assam ; and it supplies the natives of those 

 countries with several important articles. 

 From its flower-spikes a large quantity of 

 the juice called toddy, or palm wine, is 

 obtained, and this, when boiled, yields very 

 good jaggery or palm sugar, and also ex- 

 cellent sugar-candy. The whole of the 

 sugar used in Ceylon is obtained from the 

 present and two other palms (Cocos nucifera 



