CHNO 



\e Creating at Matm%£. 



274 



forms a fine tree fifty or sixty feet in 

 height. It is a native of Ceylon, and the 

 Coromandel coast, and also of other parts of 

 India. Its leaves are pinnate, consisting 

 of numerous pale-coloured leaflets, of a 

 somewhat egg-shaped outline, but with 

 the two sides unequal. These leaflets are 

 readily distinguishable from those of all 

 the allied genera, with the exception of 

 Flindersia, an Australian genus, by their 

 substance being dotted with minute pel- 

 lucid glands or oil cells. The small whitish 

 flowers of this tree are borne in large 

 branching panicles, growing at the ends 

 of the young branches. They have a small 

 five-parted calyx ; five spreading petals 

 with short stalks ; ten awl-shaped spread- 

 ing stamens, all of which are distinct and 

 fertile ; and a three-celled ovary, which is 

 half buried in the disk from which the 

 stamens rise. The fruit contains four 

 seeds in each cell, and the seeds are 

 prolonged at one end into a thin wing 

 or membranous expansion. 



This tree yields the satin-wood of India, a 

 handsome light-coloured hard wood, with 

 a satin-like lustre, and sometimes beauti- 

 fully mottled or curled in the grain, bear- 

 ing some resemblance to box-wood, but 

 rather deeper in colour. The best kind of 

 satin-wood, however, comes from the 

 "West Indies, and is the produce of a dif- 

 ferent but unknown tree. In 1858 the im- 

 ports of this wood amounted to 248 tons, 

 valued at 2.487Z. : the Indian wood being in 

 circular logs of nine to thirty inches in 

 , diameter, and that from the West Indies 

 j (St. Domingo and New Providence) in 

 square logs or planks varying from nine 

 to twenty inches across. The principal 

 use of satin-wood is for making the backs 

 of clothes- and hair-brushes, and for arti- 

 cles of turnery ware ; the finest mottled 

 pieces, however, are cut into veneers and 

 used for cabinet-making and similar pur- 

 poses. [A. S.J 



CHNOOPHORA. A name sometimes 

 given to certain ferns usually referred to 

 Alsophila. [T. M.] 



CHOCO. Sechmm edule, a tropical escu- 

 lent of the cucurbitaceous order. Notused 

 in this country. 



CHOCOLATE ROOT. Geum canadense. 

 —, INDIAN. Geum rivale. 



CHOCOLATE TREE. Theobroma Cacao. 

 The Chocolate-nut is the seed of this tree, 

 and the chocolate of the shops a prepara- 

 tion of these seeds. 



CHCERADODIA. A genus referred by 

 Herbert to the alstromeriform amaryllids. 

 It has fibrous roots, numerous radical 

 linear acute erect glabrous leaves, and 

 a scape five to six feet high, bearing three 

 or four smaller alternate clasping leaves, 

 and supporting a corymb of flowers, of 

 which the sepals and petals are very un- 

 equal in size, the one white the other 

 tipped with red. It is a little-known plant 

 of Chili, where it is called Thekel. A cold 



infusion of its leaves is purgative and 

 diuretic. [T. M.] 



CHOHO. An Abyssinian name f or In- 

 digo/era argentea. 



CHOIN. (Fr.) Schcenus. 



CHOISYA. A Mexican rutaceous shrub, 

 with ternate leaves, a panicled inflor- 

 escence, with large deciduous bracts be- 

 neath the flower-stalks ; white flowers 

 sprinkled with glandular dots ; the five 

 petals and ten stamens inserted on a short 

 stalk supporting the ovary, which consists 

 of five carpels fused into one. The style 

 is short with five furrows, hairy like the 

 ovary; stigma capitate. The fruit is a 

 capsule with five furrows. [M. T. MJ 



CHOKE-BERRY. An American name 

 for Pyrus arbutifolia. 

 CHOKE, BLACK. Cerasus Memalis. 

 CHOLA. An Indian name for Gram, 



Cicer arietinum. 



CHOLLU. An Indian name for the grain 

 of Eleusine coracana. 



CHOLTJM. The great Millet, Sorghum 

 vidgare. 



CHOMORO. Podocarpus cupressinus, one 

 of the best timber trees of Java. 



CHONDRILLA. A genus of the com- 

 posite family, nearly allied to the lettuce 

 (Lactuca), which has the achenes pro- 

 longed into a beak and smooth ; while 

 those of Cliondrilla are often rough and 

 furnished at the base of the beak with five 

 small scales, arranged in the manner of a 

 little calyx. The plants are herbs, with 

 generally pinnatifid root-leaves, having a 

 large terminal lobe and small lateral ones ; 

 those of the stem, few small and entire. 

 The yellow flower-heads are solitary and 

 terminating the branches, or in corymbs 

 or leafy spikes. C. juncea, a native of the 

 south of Europe, a straggling much- 

 branched plant, is almost destitute of 

 leaves when in flower; a narcotic gum is 

 said to be obtained from it in the Island 

 of Lemnos. About twenty species are 

 enumerated, all of them weedy plants, 

 natives of South Europe, the East, and 

 Siberia. [A. A. B.] 



CHONDRODENDRTTM. A genus of climb- 

 ing shrubs belonging to the Menisper- 

 macecv, and closely allied to Cocculus, from 

 which it is distinguished by the stigmas, 

 which are ovate and simple ; by the glo- 

 bose fruit, which consists of one drupe, 

 owing to the suppression of the others ; 

 and by the flat orbicular seeds with a 

 striated margin. C. convolvidaceum is 

 called by the Peruvians the Wild Grape, on 

 account of the form of the fruits, and their 

 acid and not unpleasant flavour. The bark 

 is esteemed as a febrifuge. [M. T. M.] 



CHONDRORHYNCHA rosea is a ter- 

 restrial orchid related to Cymbidium, in- 

 habiting Central America. It has long 

 ribbed broad grassy leaves, and large dirty 



