ovary. The ovary is free and five-celled, with 

 many ovules in each cell, and bears a simple 

 style, and a five-lobed stigma. The capsule 

 is oblong-conical, dehiscing loculiciclally. 

 Some botanists, overlooking the superior 

 ovary, have referred this genus to Cam- 

 pamllacece, because of its five-celied ovary 

 and five-lobed stigma, but in every other 

 respect it appears more nearly connected 

 with Polemoniacece. [W. C] 



CYANELL A. A genus of herbs from the 

 Cape of Good Hope, belonging to Liliacece, 

 and having lanceolate-elliptical or linear 

 radical leaves sheathing at the base, and 

 racemose blue or yellow flowers. Perianth 

 coloured, six-parted; stamens six, with 

 glabrous filaments : the lower perianth seg- 

 ments, the lowest stamen, and the style 

 declinate; capsule three-celled, with nu- 

 merous seeds. They are pretty greenhouse 

 plants. [J. T. S.] 



CYANEOUS, CYAKffiTTS, CYALINUS. 

 In composition Cyano. A clear bright blue. 



CYANOCHROTTS. Having a blue skin. 



CYANOPHYLLUM. A genus of Melas- 

 tomacece, containing one or two under- 

 shrubs with large five-nerved leaves hav- 

 ing a metallic lustre. The flowers are 

 small, with five petals and ten stamens. 

 C. metallicum, which grows at an altitude 

 of 6,000 or 7,000 feet, has a blue metallic 

 lustre on the under-surface of its leaves. C. 

 magnificum, one of the grandest of what 

 are now commonly cultivated in hothouses 

 as ornamental-leaved plants, has its very 

 large opposite leaves of a rich shaded 

 green above, and purple beneath. They are 

 from Tropical America. C. assamicum, a si- 

 milar plant, is of eastern origin. [J. T. S.] 



CYANOSTEGIA. A genus of Verbenacece, 

 found in West Australia, and composed of 

 small upright bushes with narrow lance- 

 shaped or linear entire leaves, often cov- 

 ered with a gummy substance. The 

 blue flowers, in terminal branching ra- 

 cemes, are numerous and remarkable for 

 their frill-like papery calyx, with a five- 

 lobed border, which increases in size after 

 the flowers have withered, and when ma- 

 ture is about half an inch in diameter. 

 The somewhat irregular corollas are small 

 and tubular. The great profusion of the 

 blue flowers with their remarkably enlarged 

 calyces of a paler colour, together with 

 their neat bushy habit, would no doubt 

 render them favourite greenhouse plants 

 were they in cultivation. Three species 

 are enumerated. [A A. B.] 



CYANOTIS. The generic name of plants 

 belonging to the spiderwort order, charac- 

 terised by having the calyx in three divi- j 

 sions joined into a tube at the lower part, 

 and persistent ; the three petals also joined . 

 to form a tube, but soon falling off; the : 

 style thickened upwards, ending in a point — 

 the stigma— which is hollow and covered J 

 with hairs. The name of the genus is ! 

 derived from the Greek words signifying 

 'blue' and ' ear,' in allusion to the colour > 



of the flowers. The species are showy 

 plants, natives of Tropical Asia, annual or 

 perennial, hairy or woolly, seldom naked ; 

 the stems trailing below, sometimes erect 

 above. [G. D.] 



CYATHEA. An extensive genus of ar- 

 borescent ferns representative of the Cy- 

 atheinece. The genus belongs to that series 

 or subgroup which has an indusium or 

 involucre placed in the form of a cup be- 

 neath or so as to contain the spore-cases, 

 the fructification being seated on the under 

 surface of the fronds. The species are nu- 

 merous, and rank amongst the most strik- 

 ing features of tropical scenery. They are 

 most abundant in South America and in 

 the West Indies, in India, the Eastern 

 Islands, and the Pacific Islands ; a few are 

 met with in New Zealand and South Africa. 

 In some the trunk is short, but in others 

 it reaches a height of forty or fifty feet or 

 even more, and is crowned with a magnifi- 

 cent head of fronds, which, in many cases, 

 are of gigantic size, and are always large. 

 The greater number have the fronds bipin- 

 nate.with the pinnas deeply pinnatifid ; but 

 in one, C. Brunonis, found in Malacca and 

 Penang, they are pinnate, the fronds being 

 two to three feet long, and the pinnae six 

 or eight inches ; and in another, C.sinuata, 

 found in Ceylon, they are simple and lance- 

 olate, with a sinuated margin. This lat- 

 ter has a slender trunk, about an inch in 

 diameter, on which the elegant crown 

 of simple wavy fronds is upborne. C. me- 

 dnUaris, a fine bipinnated or tripinnated 

 species of New Zealand and the Pacific 



Cyatliea medullaris. 



Isles, and known in gardens as a noble 

 tree fern of comparatively hardy character, 

 forms in its native country a common 

 article of food with the natives. The part 

 eaten is the soft pulpy medullary sub- 

 stance, which occupies the centre of the 

 trunk, and which has some resemblance 

 to sago. C. dealbata, another beautiful 

 species of New Zealand, is said to be eaten 

 in a similar way. This has a trunk of from 



