270 



Ctje Crea£urp of 33 clang. 



[CHOR 



purple radical flowers, with the upper sepal 

 united to the back of the column, and the 

 lip in the form of a large boat-shaped body. 

 The pollen masses are four, secured in 

 pairs to a long soft gland attached to a 

 hard cartilaginous rostel. 



CHOXDROSPERMUM. A genus of 

 climbing evergreen shrubs, natives of 

 India, with opposite petiolate and three- 

 nerved leaves ; the flowers are in very short 

 pedunculate panicles with small lanceolate 

 bracts. The calyx and corolla consist each 

 of four parts ; the corolla has a long tube, 

 and spreading limb, cleft into four linear 

 clavate lobes ; there are two scarcely ex- 

 serted stamens, a two-celled ovary with a 

 single erect ovule in each cell, and two 

 very short styles or stigmas. The yellow 

 flowers and climbing stems, together with 

 the erect ovules, have caused this genus to 

 be referred to Jasminacece. The whole struc- 

 ture of the flower seems, however, to unite 

 it more closely to Oleacece. ["W. CJ 



CHOXDRUS. A small genus of rose- 

 spored Algce, with a forked fan-shaped 

 frond, and the capsules, which contain 

 several masses of spores, immersed in the 

 frond without any definite border. The 

 type of the genus is C. crispus, the true 

 Carrageen. It is very common on our 



Chondrus crispus. 



coasts, as it is also on the Atlantic coast, 

 from the shores of British America to 

 those of Long Island. The colour varies 

 from a dull livid purple to greenish and 

 yellowish. [II. J. B.] 



CHOXEMORPHA. A genus of Apocyn- 

 i acece, closely allied to Echites, and differing 

 from it principally in the funnel-shaped 

 corolla. The species are, moreover, Indian 

 not American. The root and leaves of 

 C. riri ,fjf' ,-,>», a plant of Malabar, are used 

 medicinally by the natives. [M. T. M.J 



CHOOA or CHOUA. An Indian name 

 for Amaranthus frumentaceus, and olera- 



CHOOPA. Pierarclia dulcis, a Malacca 

 fruit. 



CHORDA. A genus of dark-seeded Algce, 

 with a simple cylindrical tubular frond, in 

 the surface of which are imbedded a num- 

 ber of obconical spores. In C. filmn, the 

 frond is slimy, perfectly cylindrical, and 

 sometimes twenty, or even forty feet in 

 length. It is occasionally used instead 

 of fishing lines, for which, however, it 

 must be a poor substitute. ' It is in quiet 

 land-locked bays,' says Dr. Harvey, ' with 

 a sandy or somewhat muddy bottom, and 

 in from three to six fathoms of water, 

 that it reaches its greatest size. In such 

 places it frequently forms extensive sub- 

 marine meadows so dense as seriously to 

 affect the passage of boats, and to endanger 

 the life of the unfortunate swimmer who 

 may chance to become entangled in its 

 slimy cords, which when growing have 

 considerable tenacity.' [M. J. B.] 



CHORDA PISTILLARIS. A line of 

 tissue reaching from the stigma down to 

 the cavity of the ovary. 



CHORDARIE^E. A natural order of 

 dark-spored Algce, distinguished by their 

 compound gelatinous frond consisting of 

 vertical and horizontal threads variously 

 interlaced, the cysts being contained in 

 the substance of the frond, and not ex- 

 ternal as in Ectocarpecc. Some are as ge- 

 latinous as Batrachospermum ; while Lea- 

 thesia presents an irregular firm but 

 hollow T truffle-like mass ; Ralfsia forms an 

 adherent crust. They are principally in- 

 habitants of colder regions, though species 

 are found at Port Natal and amongst the 

 Philippines. The spore-like cysts are 

 often of two kinds, both producing zoos- 

 pores. The tips of the terminal threads 

 are often swollen so that they appear to be 

 fruit. [M. J. B.J 



CHORETIS. A genus of Mexican and 

 Texan Amaryllidacece., with the habit of 

 Ismene, and the flowers of Hymenocallis. 

 The perianth has a long slender nearly 

 straight tube, a reflexed limb of long 

 narrow segments, and a large rotate coro- 

 nel lacerated at the margin, the long fila- 

 ments being spreading-connivent. C. 

 glauca is a beautiful species with black- 

 coated bulbs, erect glaucous leaves, a foot 

 and a half long and two and a half 

 inches wide, and a scape upwards of a 

 foot high, supporting three or four sessile 



I flowers. The tube of the perianth is six 

 inches long, quite slender, green, the limb 



' three and a half inches or more, linear 

 white-ribbed with green, the cup, or coro- 



j nel above an inch long, white, rotate, with 

 large teeth between the stamens, which 

 have long incurvo-connivent filaments at- 

 tached to the upper part of the anther in a 

 prominent callosity. C. galvestonensis is a 

 smaller-flowered species from Texas, pro- 

 ducing four-flowered umbels, the tube of 

 the perianth and the limb each about two 

 and a half inches long. [T. M.] 



I CHORETRUM. A genus belonging to 



