pleasant symptoms in persons unac- 

 customed to its use. [M. T. M.] 



CHAW-STICK. Gouania domingensis. 



CHAT-ROOT. Oldenlandia umbellata. 



CHEAT or CHESS. An American name 

 for Bromus secalinus. 



CHEESE RE:NTsET. Galium verum. *■ 



CHEESEROOM. The common name in 

 some parts of the country for Agaricus 

 arvensis, or Horse Mushroom. This fungus 

 grows in large rings, often many yards in 

 diameter, and in some years, as in the wet 

 summer of 1860, occurs in extraordinary 

 abundance. It is known from true mush- 

 rooms by its large size, paler gills, gene- 

 rally thick rings, which are double at the 

 edge, but especially by their turning yellow 

 when bruised. It constitutes the greater 

 part of the mushroom baskets in the 

 Covent Garden market, and is consumed 

 in large quantities in Leeds and other 

 important towns in the north. When 

 properly dressed and eaten in moderate 

 quantities with plenty of bread, to insure 

 mastication, these horse mushrooms are 

 an excellent article of food, though they 

 occasionally prove unwholesome, partly 

 from over-indulgence, and partly from 

 their having undergone decomposition 

 before use. The term is sometimes ap- 

 plied to species of Boletus, several of which 

 are highly dangerous. [M. J. B.] 



CHEILANTHE^E. A section of poly- 

 podineous ferns, in which the sori are 

 punctiform at the apices of the veins, and 

 covered by indusia, which, — sometimes 

 short and rounded, sometimes elongated 

 continuous and therefore pteroid— consist- 

 ing of portions of the margin inflected 

 over them, are therefore necessarily trans- 

 verse to the margin of the frond or of its 

 segments. [T.M.] ! 



CHEILANTHES. A genus of polypo- 

 diaceous ferns of the group of Cheilanthece, 

 which it typifies. The species, which are 

 numerous and scattered over the tropical 

 and temperate regions both of the Old and 

 New World, generally inhabiting dry rocky 

 situations, are much varied in aspect, 

 and for the most part are dwarf plants 

 of tufted habit, with more or less com- 

 pound fronds, the under surface in some 

 cases being covered with silvery or gold- 

 coloured powder, as in Gymnogramma. 

 The distinguishing features of the genus 

 consist in its producing small punctiform 

 sori at the ends of the veins close to the 

 margin of the frond, the margin itself 

 becoming membranaceous, and bent over 

 them to form the indusia, which are either 

 linear and continuous, or take the shape 

 of roundish lobes. The veins are free. 

 Cheilanthes has considerable affinity with 

 Nothochlwna, the species of which possess 

 a similar habit, but have naked or non- 

 indusiate sori. Owing, however, to the 

 different degrees in which the margin 

 becomes attenuated and reflexed, it is ' 

 sometimes not easy to decide between the J 



1 two. C. argentea, a pretty dwarf tripartite 

 silvery species, is found in Siberia ; C. 



i fragrans, a dwarf bipinnate species, whose 

 fronds have a grateful anthoxanthoid or 

 new-hay-like odour, occurs throughout the 



' region "of the Mediterranean, and reaches 

 as far north as Switzerland ; whilst Arabia, 



I Abyssinia, South Africa, India, the Eastern 

 Islands, Australasia, North and South 



I America, and the West Indies, yield a 

 variety of species, some of which, like C. 



! tenuifolia, are distributed over a very wide 

 area. One of the most beautiful species, 

 and one which is familiar in gardens, is C. 

 farinosa, a fine bipinnatifldly-pinnate plant, 

 with tallish fronds silvered beneath and 

 having black stalks. A peculiar group of the 

 specieshas sometimes been separated under 

 the name of Myriopteris ; in this, the seg- 

 ments are small, roundish, pouch-shaped, 

 the indusium entire and almost closing 

 over the back of the segment, which, 

 when reversed, looks not unlike a small 

 roundish watch-pocket. The difference is 

 hardly important enough to warrant their 

 separation. [T. M.] 



CHEIRADENIA cuspidata is a small 

 Demerara orchid with the aspect of some 

 equitant Oncidium. It has the lateral 

 sepals adnate to the prolonged foot of the 

 column, a pair of solid pollen masses, and a 

 round lip bearing five processes near the I 

 margin, arranged like the fingers of an | 

 expanded hand : a circumstance alluded 

 to in the name of the genus. 



CHEIRANTHERA. A genus of Pitto- \ 

 sporacece, containing an Australian under- 

 shrub with erect stems, and narrowly 

 linear acute leaves, which have fascicled 

 leaves in the axils ; peduncles terminal, 

 with small blue corymbose flowers; calyx 

 of five sepals ; the petals and stamens 

 five each, the latter all bending to one 

 side ; fruit dry, scarcely berry-like, two- 

 celled. [J. T. S.] 



CHEIRANTHUS. A genus of cruci- 

 ferous flowers, all so nearly resembling in 

 habit and characters the common species 

 as to be easily distinguished. C. Cheiri, 

 the Wallflower, is a native of all Southern 

 Europe, growing on old walls, in quarries, 

 and on sea-cliffs. In its wild state the 

 flowers are always single and of a bright 

 yellow colour, but the varieties obtained 

 by cultivation are of various tints, many 

 of them beautiful, and all fragrant, espe- 

 cially in the evening. Seeds of numerous 

 beautiful varieties are annually imported 

 from Germany ; and small gardens, in 

 which the supply of ornamental early 

 summer flowers is limited, may be made 

 very gay by planting them liberally with 

 these German wallflowers. The wallflower 

 has long been a favourite cottage-garden 

 flower, and has been praised in many a 

 rustic lay ; it is supposed by many to be 

 the Viola of the Latin poets. Its French 

 names are Girofleejaune, Violier, Ravenelle, 

 Bavieau d'or, Baton d'or, &c. ; German, 

 Leucoje. Several other species are also 

 worthy of cultivation. Among these the 



