live among mosses which partly conceal 

 them. The supposed genus Omoca is one 

 of the species. The Ceratochilus of Lod- 

 diges' Botanical Cabinet is Stanhopea. 



CERATOCHLOA. A genus of grasses 

 belonging to the Festucece; only one 

 species has been described, namely, C. 

 pendula, •which is Bromus Schracleri, a 

 native of Carolina. [D. M.] 



CERATODACTYLIS. A synonyme of 

 Llavea cordifolia, a beautiful Mexican 

 fern. [T. M.] 



CERATOGONTJM. A genus of Polygo- 

 nacece founded on a plant cultivated in the 

 Calcutta Botanic Garden. The leaves 

 are stalked, ovate-triangular or hastate, 

 with ochreate stipules, cilated at the apex, 

 and extra-axillary lax filiform flower-spikes. 

 The flowers are monceciously polygamous, 

 the males with a five-parted coloured calyx, 

 while that of the perfect flowers consists of 

 six segments in two rows, the three inner 

 ones petaloid, the three outer leathery, in- 

 serted into a tube; stamens eight; nut 

 adhering to thetubeof perianth. [J. T. SJ 



CERATONIA. A genus of leguminous 

 plants remarkable on account of its flowers 

 being destitute of a corolla, having only 

 a small five-parted calyx, five stamens, 

 and a pistil with a sessile stigma. The 

 male and female organs are occasionally 

 produced in distinct flowers on different 

 trees. 



C. Siliqua, the only species, is a native of 

 the European, African, and Asiatic coun- 

 tries bordering on the Mediterranean, 

 where it forms a small branching tree 

 about thirty feet in height, having wood 

 of a pretty pinkish hue. Its pinnate 

 leaves are composed of two or three pairs 

 of oval blunt-topped leaflets, of a leathery 

 texture, and a shining dark-green colour. 

 The flowers are in small red racemes ; and 

 are succeeded by flat pods, from six inches 

 to a foot in length, an inch or rather more 

 in width, and scarcely a quarter of an inch 

 in thickness, of a shining dark purplish- 

 brown colour ; they do not split open like 

 many other pods, and contain numerous 

 small seeds arranged in a line along the 

 centre of the pod, each seed being con- 

 tained in a separate cell formed by the 

 fleshy pulp of the pod. The tree is exten- 

 sively cultivated in many of the above- 

 mentioned countries, especially in such as 

 suffer from periodical drought, its long 

 roots penetrating to a great depth in 

 search of water. It is called Algaroba 

 by the Spaniards, and Kharoub by the 

 Arabs, whence comes our English name 

 Carob or Caroub, the pods being called 

 carob-pods, or carob-beans, or sometimes 

 sugar pods. These pods contain a large 

 quantity of agreeably flavoured mucilagi- 

 nous and saccharine matter, and are com- 

 monly employed in the south of Europe for 

 feeding horses, mules, pigs, &c, and occa- 

 sionally, in times of scarcity, for human 

 food. During the last few years consider- 

 able quantities of them have been imported 

 into this country and used for feeding 



cattle ; but although they form an agree- 

 able article of food, they do not possess 

 much real nutritive property, the saccha- 

 rine matter belonging to the class of foods 

 termed carbonaceous or heat-givers, the 

 seeds alone possessing nitrogenous or 

 flesh-forming materials, and these are so 

 small and hard that they are apt to escape 

 mastication. They form one of the ingre- 

 dients in the much-vaunted cattle-foods 

 at present so extensively advertised, the 

 green tint of these foods arising from this 

 admixture. Some years ago they were 

 sold by chemists at a high price, and were 

 used by singers who imagined that they 

 I softened and cleared the voice. By fer- 

 mentation and distillation they yield a 

 spirit which retains the agreeable flavour 

 of the pod. 

 Besides the name of Carob-beans, these 

 I pods are also commonly called Locust-pods, 

 I or St. John's Bread, in consequence of its 

 having once been supposed that they 

 '. formed the food of St. John in the wilder- 

 ' ness, but it is now more generally admitted 

 j that the locusts of St. John wei-e the 

 animals so called, and which are at the 

 ' present day used as food in Eastern coun- 

 i tries. There is more reason, however, for 

 ■ entertaining the belief that these pods 

 i were the husks mentioned in the parable 

 of the prodigal son. The small seeds are 

 I said to have been the original carat weight 

 used by jewellers. [A. SJ 



I CERATOPETALTJM. A genus of Aus- 

 tralian shrubs or small trees, belonging to 

 Cunoniacem. The leaves are opposite, ter- 

 nate, with the leaflets coriaceous, serrated, 

 the stipules somewhat leaf-like, caducous. 



i The flowers are small yellow in terminal 

 panicles ; the calyx tube is adherent to the 



[ ovary, and the limb is five-parted; petals 

 five, cut into a frinse of linear segments ; 

 stamens ten, the anthers beaked ; capsule 



| one-seeded, gaping at the apex, and.crowned 

 bv the calyx limb. They have a gummy 

 secretion. [J. T. S.] 



CERATOPHYLLUM. CERATOPHYL- 



I LACE^E. An aquatic floating herb, 

 I with numerous verticillate linear-filiform 

 leaves several times forked ; and minute 

 ! sessile unisexual flowers of the most sim- 

 j pie construction. There is no real peri- 

 anth, but each flower is surrounded by a 

 whorl of minute bracts ; the males consist 

 of twelve to twenty oblong sessile anthers; 

 the females of a small ovary with a simple 

 style, and containing a single pendulous 

 ovule. The fruit is a small nut, smooth 

 or more or less armed with prickly ap- 

 pendages, the seed has no albumen, and 

 the embryo is remarkable for a highly de- 

 veloped placenta. The plant has some 

 general resemblance to the aquatic Ha- 

 loragew or the Callitriche, but there is 

 nothing in its nature to indicate any im- 

 mediate affinity with the various families 

 to which it has been appended, and it 

 stands at present as an isolated genus or 

 family. C. demersum, the only species 

 known, is common in pools or slow 

 streams over a great part of the world. 



