cyna] 



Clje GTreaSttrii af Sootanp. 



372 



by Pliny as being a vegetable that was 

 much esteemed by the Romans, it does not 

 appear to have been known in this country 

 until introduced from Italy in 1548. The 

 plant has some resemblance to a large 

 thistle. The leaves are numerous, ample, 

 pinnatifld, somewhat spiny, from three to 

 four feet long, and covered with an ash- 

 coloured cottony down. The flower stems 

 grow erect, and attain the height of from 

 four to six feet. They are each terminated 

 by a large globular head of imbricated 

 oval spiny scales of a purplish-green colour, 

 which envelope a mass of flowers in the 

 centre. These flower-heads in an im- 

 mature state contain the parts that are 

 eatable; which comprise the fleshy recep- 

 tacle usually called the ' bottom,' freed 

 from the bristles and seed-down, commonly 

 called the ' choke,' and the thick lower 

 part of the imbricated scales or leaves of 

 the involucre. Although Artichokes are 

 a common vegetable, they are not so 

 much in request with us as on the conti- 

 nent, where by various modes of cooking 

 they are made to form favourite dishes. 

 In Prance, the bottoms are often fried in 

 paste, and enter largely into ragouts. 

 They are occasionally used for pickling, 

 but for this purpose the smaller heads 

 which are formed on the lateral shoots 

 that spring in succession from the main 

 stem, are generally preferred when about 

 the size of a large egg. The Chard of 

 Artichokes, or the tender central leaf-stalk 

 blanched, is by some considered to be 

 equal to the cardoon. The flowers are very 

 handsome, and are stated to possess the 

 property of coagulating milk. [W. B. B.] 



CYNAROCEPHAL.E. The artichoke- 

 headed composites, a suborder of the na- 

 tural order Composite or Aster acecc, having 

 numerous flowers collected in a common 

 receptacle, and surrounded by a series of 

 leaves or scales so as to form a compact 

 head. The flowers are all tubular, and 

 either have stamens and pistils, or those 

 of the circumference (the ray) are abor- 

 tive; the style is swollen below the stig- 

 ma. Among the plants of this suborder 

 are the artichoke, the cardoon, the bur- 

 dock, the safflower, and thistles. They 

 are usually bitter and tonic; some are es- 

 culent. See Composite. [J. H. B.] 



CYNARRHODON. Such a fruit as that 

 of the rose, in which many bony achamia 

 are enclosed in a fleshy hollow enlarge- 

 ment of the apex of the flower-stalk. 



CYNOCTONUM. A genus of Asclepia- 

 clacece, containing more than thirty species 

 of perennial herbaceous plants or twining 

 shrubs, natives of Africa, India, and tropi- 

 cal America. They have cordate leaves, 

 and lateral peduncles springing from be- 

 tween the petioles, and bearing many- 

 flowered umbels. The calyx and corolla 

 are five-parted ; the stamina! corona is 

 tubular and simple, with five or ten lobes, 

 and without any appendages in the in- 

 terior ; the gynostegium short ; the anthers 

 surmounted by membranaceous append- 



ages ; and the projecting stigma is hilnbed 

 or with a bifid linear apex. [W. C] 



CYNODON. A genus of grasses belong- 

 ing to the tribe Chloridece, distinguished 

 chiefly by the spikes of inflorescence being 

 in short spreading finger-like heads. The 

 spikelets one-flowered, awnless ;theglumes 

 nearly equal, spreading; pales equal; sta- 

 mens three ; and styles three. Fourteen 

 species are described, only one of which is 

 a native of Britain, C. Dactylon, which 

 inhabits the southern coasts of England. 

 The creeping roots of this and some other 

 grasses are said to possess some of the 

 medicinal properties of sarsaparilla. [D. M.] 



CYNOGLOSSUM. Houndstongue. A 



genus of Boraginacece, consisting of herbs 

 from the temperate zones, especially of 

 the northern hemisphere. Leaves often 

 covered with silky-white hairs ; flowers in 

 scorpioid racemes, often bractless, dull-red 

 or blue ; calyx five-parted ; corolla salver- 

 shaped with the throat closed by five 

 obtuse scales, and the limb five-lobed ; 

 stamens five, included ; nuts four, muri- 

 cated depressed externally. Two species 

 occur in Britain, G. officinale, with leaves 

 covered with soft white hairs, dull-red 

 flowers, and strongly-margined nuts ; and 

 C. montanum, a much more local plant, 

 with green roughish leaves without soft 

 hairs, blue-veined flowers, and nuts with- 

 out a prominent margin. [J. T. S.] 



CYNOMORITJM. One of the genera of 



the singular family Balanophoracece. It is 

 represented by a fleshy red herbaceous 

 plant, about a foot in height, covered with 

 scales, the flowers of which are unisexual, 

 the males and females mixed in the same 

 heads, and surrounded by numerous scales ; 

 occasionally the flowers are hermaphro- 

 dite. The perianth in either case consists 

 of six divisions. 



C. coccineum, the fungus melitensis of old 

 writers, was formerly valued as a styptic 

 and astringent. The plant is not confined 

 to Malta", but extends also to the Levant, 

 Northern Africa, and the Canary Islands, 

 in which, according to Mr. Webb, it is 

 esteemed good to eat. It was formerly 

 used to procure abortion in Malta, and was 

 so highly valued as a remedy for dysentery 

 that the place where it grew was guarded 

 with the utmost vigilance ; and even up to 

 a recent date the plant was gathered, and 

 its growth secured by a person specially 

 appointed to the office by the English 

 Government. [M. T. M.] 



CYJSTORCHIS. A Mascaren genus of ter- 

 restrial orchids, differing from Habenaria 

 in little except the lip being connate with 

 the face of the column. The species have 

 testiculate roots, like the orchids of Eu- 

 rope. One, G. fastigiata, has been in culti- 

 vation (see Bot. Register, t. 1998). Blume's 

 genus, Mitostigma, is a synonym. 



CYNOSTJRUS. A genus of grasses be- 

 longing to the tribe Festucece, and distin- 

 guished chiefly by the inflorescence being 



