CIRC] 



Qilyz Crta^urg of 2Sotany. 



288 



Cut circularly round the sides, as the seed- 

 vessel of Anagallis. 



CIRCUMSCRIPTIO. The outline of 

 anything. 



CIRCUMSEPIENTIA FOLIA. Leaves 

 which rise up like a funnel and surround 

 the stem as if to protect the young shoots, 

 as in the marvel of Peru. Such is De 

 Candolle's definition, but the term is very 

 rarely used. 



CIRIER or CIRIER DE LA CAROLINE. 

 (Fr.) Myrica cerifera. 



CIRRILEA. A genus of pseudobul- 

 bous orchids from tropical America, with 

 solitary ribbed ieaves, and drooping ra- 

 cemes of flowers, yellowish, greenish, or 

 spotted with purple. They are remarkable 

 for their long column, which bears a one- 

 celled anther at the back of the upper 

 extremity, curving gracefully over a deeply 

 three-lobed lip, the middle division of 

 which turns back from the side ones. The 

 proscolla or stigmatic point is extended 

 into a slender tendril-like thread, whence 

 the name. 



CIRRHTFEROUS. Bearing a tendril. 



CIRRHIFORM. Shaped like a tendril. 



C1RRHOPETALUM. An extensive ge- 

 nus of small epiphytal orchids, with soli- 

 tary fleshy leaves proceeding from the top 

 of roundish pseudobulbs. Their flowers 

 are remarkable for having the lateral 

 sepals prolonged into narrow streamers, by 

 which the species are readily distinguished 

 from Bolbophyllum. Between thirty and 

 forty species are known, all from tropical 

 Asia except C. Thouarsii, which inhabits 

 the Mascaren and South Sea Islands. The 

 singularly-formed flowers have made a few 

 favourite objects of cultivation. The best 

 are C. fimbriatum, refractum, chinense, and 

 Cumingii. 



CIRRHOSITAS. The production of 

 tendrils. 



CIRRHUS (adj. CIRRHOSE). A tendril. 

 A slender twining organ by which a plant 

 climbs. 



CIRSIUM. A genus of compound flowers 

 belonging to the thistle group, distin- 

 guished from Cardials by having the 

 receptacle covered with chaffy bristles, and 

 the achenes crowned with a soft feathery 

 pappus. Several British species are des- 

 cribed by English botanists as belonging 

 to the genus Cnicus. Numerous others 

 occur in various parts of the continent, 

 some having purple, and others yellow 

 flowers, but none of sufficient interest to 

 require further notice. [C. A. J.] 



CISSAMPELOPSIS. The name given to 

 a number of trailing shrubby plants of the 

 composite family which are found in 

 India and the adjacent islands, as well as in 

 S. Africa. They differ in little except habit 

 from groundsels (Seneeio), in which genus 

 indeed they are placed by some authors. 

 Most of them have heart-shaped stalked 



leaves with toothed margins, and their 

 under-surface is invariably covered with 

 short close-pressed white hairs. The 

 yellow flower-heads, arranged in terminal 

 or axillary panicles or corymbs, have an 

 involucre of eight or ten scales, enclosing 

 about a dozen florets, all of them tubular. 

 The achenes have no beak, are somewhat 

 angular in form, and crowned with a 

 pappus of many rough hairs, arranged in a 

 single series. [A. A. B.] 



CISSAMPELOS. The plants so named 

 have the climbing character of the ivy 

 —kissos of the Greeks, and the clustered 

 fruit of the vine— ampelos. Their flowers 

 are dioecious. The male flowers have four 

 sepals and four petals combined into a 

 cup ; the female flowers have two sepals 

 fused into a somewhat fleshy two-nerved 

 scale, frequently notched at the margin, 

 and having externally a small bract, for- 

 merly considered as a sepa the ovary is 

 solitary. In drawing up the differential 

 characteristics of this genus, the explana- 

 tions of Booker and Thomson as to the 

 structure of these flowers have been 

 adopted as being probably correct, though 

 at variance with the account given by 

 other writers. The most important plant 

 of the genus is the Velvet Leaf, C. Pareira, 

 a native of the West Indies, Central 

 America, and India. It is an exceedingly 

 variable plant with a climbing stem, the 

 leavesof variable'rounded shape,and dotted 

 with velvety pubescence ; male flowers in 

 stalked hairy cymes, and female flowers in 

 clusters,with large rounded bracts, and suc- 

 ceeded by sub-globose hairy scarlet drupes. 

 The root of this plant furnishes the 

 ' Pareira brava' of the druggists, which is 

 used with much benefit in diseases of the 

 bladder and urinary organs. Many other 

 species are used as tonics and diuretics, 

 while C. glaberrima and C. ebracteata are 

 used as remedies for serpent bites. The 

 root of C. obtecta is used in the manufac- 

 ture of an intoxicating drink. [M. T. M.] 



CISSAROBRYON. A genus of Vivia- 

 niacece found in the Andes of Chili, and 

 differing from its congeners in having a 

 five-parted calyx, five petals, and three 

 conspicuous slender styles. The only spe- 

 cies known, C. elegans, is a little prostrate 

 branching plant with slender woody stems 

 and opposite roundish leaves an inch long ; 

 their stalks as long as the blade, which has 

 three to seven deep notches, is slightly 

 hairy above, and is covered underneath 

 with a hoary down. The flowers are blue, 

 in size and form made like those of the 

 wood sorrel, and single from the axils of 

 the leaves, supported on long slender 

 stalks. [A. A. B.] 



CISSUS. A genus of Vitacece scarcely 

 differing from the vine (Vitis). The petals, 

 however, usually separate before they 

 fall, instead of remaining united at the 

 tips as in Vitis, and are usually four in- 

 stead of five ; the disk is more conspicuous. 

 The leaves are often more deeply divided. 

 J Most of the species are found within the 



