327 



Qtfyc Crcaj»ttrp of 23ntanji. 



COPALCHE PLANT. Strychnos pseudo- 

 quina, which furnishes the Brazilian co- 

 palche bark ; also Croton pseudo-china, the 

 bark of which is called copalche bark in 

 Mexico. 



COPALM BALSAM, or COPALMB D'A- 

 ME'RIQBE. (Fr.) A liquid balsam ob- 

 tained from Liquidambar styraciflua. 



CO'PERNICIA. A genus of palms 

 named in honour of the celebrated Coper- 

 nicus. It comprises six species, inhabiting 

 tropical America, but three of them are 

 almost unknown. They grow twenty, 

 thirty, rarely forty feet high, their trunks 

 being covered by the remains of leaf-stalks, 

 and surmounted by tufts of fan-shaped 

 leaves, from amongst which the branching 

 spikes of small greenish flowers are pro- 

 duced, each spike having several sheathing 

 bracts scattered along its stalk. The 

 flowers are either perfect or imperfect, 

 and have a cup-shaped calyx with three 

 small teeth, a bell-shaped corolla with the 

 upper part cut into three divisions, six 

 stamens fixed to the inside of the corolla, 

 and three ovaries more or less cohering 

 together. The fruit is yellowish, of an 

 elliptical form, and contains a single 

 seed. 



The Carnaiiba or "Wax-Palm of Brazil, 

 C. cerifera, grows about forty feet high, 

 and has a trunk six or eight inches thick, 

 composed of very hard wood, which is 

 commonly employed in Brazil for building 

 and other purposes, and is sometimes sent 

 to this country and used for veneering. 

 The upper part of the young stems, how- 

 ever, is soft, and yields a kind of sago ; 

 and the bitter fruits are eaten by the 

 Indians. The young leaves are coated 

 with wax, called carnaiiba wax, winch 

 is detached by shaking them, and then 

 melted and run into cakes ; it is harder 

 than bees' wax, and has been used by 

 Price and Co. for making candles, but 

 as no process of bleaching has been 

 discovered, they retain the lemon-coloured 

 tint of the raw wax. The leaves are also 

 used for thatching, making hats, &c, and 

 while young as fodder for horses. [A. S.] 



COPPER. Y. Brownish red, with a metal- 

 lic lustre. 



COPRINUS. A genus of gill-bearing 

 Fungi remarkablefor their dark spores and 

 deliquescent pileus. The gills moreover 

 adhere together in consequence of the 

 great projection of the transparent pro- 

 cesses supposed to be antheridia. The 

 species are numerous, of extremely rapid 

 growth, and are developed for the most 

 part on dung hotbeds or very rich manured 

 soil. They have even been found on the 

 dressings of fractured limbs. A few hours 

 is often sufficient for their complete deve- 

 lopment and decay. G. atramentarius 

 yields a very dark juice which has some- 

 times been used for ink, and both that and 

 some other species are mixed with other 

 fungi to make ketchup. C. comatus is 

 sometimes eaten when young and is said 

 to be both delicate and wholesome. C. bolbi- 



' tins is distinguished by its salmon-coloured 

 spores. [M. J. B.] 



I COPROSMA. A genus of cinch onaceous 

 ! shrubs, owing their name to their fetid 

 t smell. The flowers are polygamous, each 

 whorl of from four to nine divisions ; the 

 stamens project from the somewhat bell- 

 i shaped corolla ; the ovary has two to three 

 I compartments, and is surmounted by an 

 ' epigynous disc. The fruit is a berry with 

 two or three seeds. The leaves of C. fceti- 

 dissima are used by the New Zealand 

 priests to discover the will of the gods. 

 The leaves are attached with a cord of flax 

 to sticks, which are laid on the ground, 

 each stick representing a separate party. 

 The priests retire to pray, and after a time 

 the chiefs are summoned to examine the 

 sticks, which are found to have been 

 moved, and some have disappeared entirely; 

 this is considered a certain sign that one 

 of the party will be destroyed. Others are 

 found turned over. If the leaf be turned 

 down, the omen is bad, but if the reverse 

 should occur, it is a sign that the party 

 represented by the stick will prosper in 

 their undertakings. See Bennett's Gather- 

 ings of a Naturalist in Australia. [M. T. M.] 



COPTIS, Gold Thread. A genus of 

 Eanunculacece containing a few North 

 American and North-east Asian herbs (one 

 of which extends into Russia) with creep- 

 ing rootstocks and trifoliate or biternate 

 radical leaves and simple or branched 

 scapes with small white flowers, with five 

 or six petaloid deciduous sepals and as 

 many petals ; fifteen to twenty-five sta- 

 mens, and five to ten follicular stalked car- 

 pels diverging in the form of a star, with 

 four to eight seeds in each. The bitter rhi- 

 zomes are used in America as atonic, and 

 also yield a yellow dye. [J. T. SJ 



COPTOPHYLLTJM. The name of a sec- 

 tion or group of Anemia in which the 

 caudex produces distinct sterile and fertile 

 fronds. It contains one or two beautiful 

 dwarf species, as A. buniifolia and A. mille- 

 folia. [T. M.] 



COQUARDEAU. (Fr.) Cheiranthus fenes- 

 tralis. 



COQTTE. (Fr.) Cocculus. 



COQUELICOT. (Fr.) Papaver Rhceas. 



COQUELOURDE. (Fr.). Anemone Pul- 

 satilla ; also Lychnis coronaria. 



COQTJELUCHIOLE. (Fr.) Cornucopia. 



COQBERELLE. (Fr.) Anemone Pulsa- 

 tilla. 



COQUERET. rFr.) Physalis Alkekengi. 

 — , COMESTIBLE. Physalis peruviana. 



COQUILL A NUTS. The seeds of Attalea 

 funifera. 



COQUITO. The Chilian name of the 



palm Jubcea spectabilis. 



CORACAN. (Fr.) Eleusine Coracana, 

 CORACINUS. Raven-black. 



