cicu] 



5Tf)e STrsagury ai botany. 



284 



jecting above the fruit, which is roundish, 

 compressed at the side, and marked with 

 ten scarcely prominent ridges, five to each 

 half of the fruit, while beneath each fur- 

 row in the rind of the fruit there runs a 

 single channel filled with volatile oil. 



C. virosa, the Cowbane or Water Hem- 

 lock, is a plant occasionally found wild in 

 this country by the side of ponds and 

 ditches. The rootstock is large, white, 

 and fleshy, covered externally with fibres, 

 and internally hollow and divided into 

 several compartments, by transverse par- 

 titions, filled with a yellowish milky juice. 

 The stem is erect, hollow, striated, some- 

 what branched, and attains a height of 

 three or four feet. The leaves are twice 

 or thrice-pinnate, with narrow lance-shaped 

 segments, one to one and a half inches 

 long, and slightly toothed at the margin. 

 The umbel consists of from ten to fifteen 

 principal rays, unprovided with any in- 

 volucre or with only a few small bracts. 

 The flowers are whitish. This plant is 

 dangerously poisonous, having qualities 

 like those of Conium ; indeed, it is 

 called Water Hemlock. It produces tetanic 

 convulsions, and is fatal to cattle eating 

 the herbage. In April 1857, two farmer's 

 sons were found lying paralysed and speech- 

 less close to a ditch where they had been 

 working. Assistance was soon rendered 

 but the poor fellows shortly expired. 



Cicuta virosa. 



A quantity of the Water Hemlock grew in 

 the ditch where they had been employed. 

 A piece of the root was subsequently 

 found with the marks of teeth in it, near to 

 where the men lay, and another piece of 

 the same root was discovered in the pocket 

 of one of them, so that there can be no 

 doubt that they were poisoned by eating 

 the root of this plant in mistake for some 

 other. The root of the American C. macu- 

 lata is even more virulent. [M. T. MJ 



CICUTAIRE. (Fr.) Cicuta. 

 CIERGE. (Fr.) Cereus. 

 CIGTTE AQUATIQUE. (Fr.) Cicuta 

 virosa. — , D'EAU. (Enanthe Phellandriam. 



—, GRANDE. Conium maculatum. 



— , PETITE. ^Ethusa Cynapium. 



CILICE (adj. CILIATED). Marginal hairs 

 forming a fringe. • 



CILIATO-DENTATE. When the teeth of 

 anything are finely serrated as if fringed. 



CILIATO-SERRATE. When the serra- 

 tures of anything end in a hair. 



CIMICIFUGA. Bugbane. A genus of 

 Manunculacece, allied to Actma, but dif- 

 fering by having several carpels, which are 

 follicules, not berries. The species are 

 natives of Eastern Europe, Siberia, and 

 North America. 



The European species, C. fcetida, which 

 has twice-ternate leaves and racemes of 

 inconspicuous flowers arranged in a ter- 

 minal panicle, is extremely foetid, and has 

 been used to drive away vermin, whence 

 the generic name. [J. T. S.] 



CIMIOINE. Smelling of bugs, as Cori- 

 ander. 



CINCHONA.* This important genus 

 gives its name to the order of which it is a 

 member. The genus consists of evergreen 

 trees or shrubs growing in the tropical 

 valleys of the Andes. The flowers are of a 

 white or pinkish colour, very fragrant, 

 arranged in panicles. The corolla is salver- 

 shaped, and nearly, if not quite, conceals 

 the five stamens. The ovary is crowned 

 with a fleshy disc ; the style is simple ; 

 the stigma two-cleft. The fruit is an 

 ovate capsule, grooved on both sides, 

 crowned by the limb of the calyx, and 

 dividing from below upwards, in order to 

 allow of the escape of the numerous 

 winged seeds. 



There are, according to Weddell, twenty- 

 one species of this genus, but only some 

 of them yield commercial Cinchona, or 

 Peruvian bark. Of this there are several 

 varieties, the most esteemed of which are 

 the Calisaya or yellow bark, the produce of 

 C. Calisaya ; grey, or Huanuco bark, the 

 produce of C. micrantha and C. nitida; 

 Loxa, or crown bark, the produce of C. 

 Condaminea; red bark, &c. The great 

 value of these barks as tonics and re- 

 medies for fevers, depends upon the pre- 

 sence of certain alkaloid substances called 

 quina, cinchonia, and quinidina, which 

 exist in the bark, especially in the liber or 

 inner bark, in combination with kinic and 

 tannic acids. It is found that certain of 

 the barks contain more of one principle 

 than of another; hence their greater or 

 less value commercially, and the skill and 

 complex knowledge required by the manu- 

 facturer to distinguish the different va- 

 rieties of bark one from the other. Quina 

 is the most useful of the alkaloids, and 

 this is found in greatest abundance in 

 Calisaya bark ; cinchonia occurs most 

 abundantly in the best grey and red 

 barks ; while Loxa bark furnishes the 

 largest amount of quinidin. The several 

 alkaloids have all similar properties, but 

 varying in degree. Quina, in its combina- 

 tion with sulphuric acid, is the most gener- 



