C L E 
Clerks of the privy-seal, four officers that 
attend the lord privy seal, for writing and 
making out all things that are sent by war- 
rant from the signet to the privy seal, and 
to be passed the great seal ; and likewise to 
make out privy seals, upon special occasions 
ol his majesty’s affairs, as for loan of money, 
or tin; like. 
Clerk of the rolls, an officer of the chan- 
cery, whose business is to make searches after, 
and copies of, deeds, offices, &c. 
Clerk of the rules, an officer of the court 
of king’s bench, who draws up and enters all 
the rules and orders made in court, and gives 
rules of course in divers writs. 
Clerk of the servers, an officer who writes 
and records the proceedings of the commis- 
sioners of the sewers. ' 
Clerk of the signet, an officer continually 
attending upon his majesty’s principal secre- 
tary, who has the custody of the privy signet, 
as well for sealing the king’s private letters, 
as those grants which pass the king’s hand 
by bill signed. There are four of these 
officers, who have their diet at the secretary’s 
table. 
Clerks, six, officers in chancery, next 
in degree below the twelve masters ; whose 
business is to enrol commissions, pardons, 
patents, warrants, &c. which pass the great 
seal : they were antiently clerici, and forfeited 
their places if they married. They are also 
attorneys for parties in suits depending in the 
court of chancery. 
Clerk oj the supersedeas, an officer of the 
common pleas, who makes out writs of su- 
persedeas, forbidding the sheriff to return the 
exigent upon a defendant’s appearing thereto 
on an outlawry. 
Clerk oj the treasury, an officer belong- 
ing to the court of coimnon pleas, who lias 
the charge of keeping the records of the 
court, makes out all records of nisi prius, and 
likewise all exemplifications of records being 
in the treasury. He has the fees due for 
all searches ; and has under him an under- 
keeper, who always keeps one key of the trea- 
sury-door. 
Clerk of the warrants, an officer of the 
common pleas, whose business is to enter all 
warrants of attorney for plaintiffs and defend- 
ants in suit ; and to enrol deeds of bargain 
and sale, that are acknowledged in court, or 
before a judge. Id is office is likewise to es- 
treat into the exchequer all issues, fines, es- 
treats, and amercements, which grow due 
to the crown in that court. 
- CLERODENDEUM, a genus of the di- 
dynamia angiospermia class of plants, the 
flower of which consists of only one petal, 
with a slender and long tube ; its upper lip 
is concave, erect, obtuse, and divided into 
two segments ; and the under lip, being of 
the length of the upper, is divided into three 
reflex and obtuse segments : the fruit is a 
roundish drupe ; and the seed is roundish and 
single. There are eight species, natives of 
the East Indies. 
C LETHE A, a genus of the monogynia 
order, in the decandria class of plants, and in 
the natural method ranking under the 18 th 
order, bicornes. The calyx is quinquepartite ; 
the petals five ; the stigma trifid ; the cap- 
sule trilocular and three-valved. There are 
four species, of which the most remarkable 
is, 
Clethra alnifolia, a native of Virginia and 
C L I 
Carolina, where it grows in moist places, and 
near the sides of rivulets, rising near eight or 
ten teet high. The leaves are shaped like 
those of the alder, but longer; the flowers 
are produced in close spikes at the extremi- 
ties of the branches: they are white. This 
plant bears the open air in Britain, and is one 
of the 'most beautiful flowering shrubs. Its 
season is commonly about the beginning of 
July ; and, it not very hot, there will be part 
of the spikes in beauty till the middle of Sep- 
tember. It thrives best in moist land, and 
requires a sheltered situation, where it may 
be defended from strong winds, which fre- 
quently break off the branches where they are 
too much exposed to their violence. It is 
propagated by layers, but they are generally 
two years before they take root. 
CLEW of a sail, in naval affairs, is the { 
lower corner of it, to which are made fast 
the sheets and tacks : a square sail lias no 
clew. 
Clew-garnet, a rope made fast to the 
clew ol the sail, and running thence to the 
block, seized to the middle of the main and 
fore yard ; which, in furling, hales up the clew 
of the sail close to the middle of the yard. 
Clew-line, the same to the top-sails, top- 
gallant-sails, and sprit-sails, that the clew-gar- 
net is to the main-sail and fore-sail, and of 
the same use. 
CLIBAD1UM, a genus of the monoecia 
pentandria class and order. The male calyx 
is imbricate ; corolla of the disk five-cleft. 
r i lie female, common calyx the same ; co- 
rolla of the ray female three or four; seed 
an umbilicate drupe. There is one species, 
a native of Surinam. 
CLIFFORTIA, a genus of the polyandria 
order, in the dicecia class of plants : and in the 
natural method ranking under the 38th order, 
tricoccae. The male calyx is triphyilous, 
no corolla ; the stamina near 30 in number ; 
the female calyx triphyilous, superior to the 
receptacle of the fruit; no corolla; two 
styles, with a bilocular capsule, and a single 
seed. There are 19 species, all natives of 
Africa; so require to be kept in a greenhouse 
when cultivated in this country.. Their 
flowers make no great appearance ; but the 
plants themselves are very ornamental ever- 
greens. They grow to the height of four or 
five feet; and are propagated by cut- 
tings, which must be young shoots of five or 
six inches long. If planted in pots in spring 
or summer, and plunged in a hotbed, they 
will readily take root. They must be watered 
plentifully in summer, but very sparingly in 
winter. 
CLIMACTERIC, among physicians and 
natural historians, a critical year in a person’s 
life, in which he is supposed to stand in great 
danger of death. According to some, every 
seventh year is a climacteric ; but others 
allow only those y ears produced by multiply- 
ing seven by the odd numbers, 3, 5, 7, and 
9, to be chmacterical. These years, they 
say, bring with them some remarkable change 
with respect to health, life, or fortune: the 
grand climacteric is the sixty-third year ; 
hut some, making two, add to this the eighty- 
iirst: the other remarkable climacterics are 
the seventh, twenty-first, thirty-fifth, forty- 
ninth, and fifty-sixth. The credit of climac- 
teric years can only be supported by the doc- 
trine of. numbers introduced by Pythago- 
3 A 2 
CLO 371 
ras, and is probably nothing but supersti- 
tious nonsense.. 
CLIMATES, in geography, spaces upon 
the surface of the terrestrial globe, contained 
between two parallels, so far distant from 
each other, that the longest day on one paral- 
lel differs half an hour from the longest day on 
the other. See Geography. 
CLINCH, in the •sea-language, that part 
ot a cable which is bent about the .ring of the 
anchor, and then seized, or made fast. 
CLINCHING, in the seaflangugge, a kind 
of slight caulking used at sea, in a prospect of 
foul weather, about the ports : it consists in 
driving a little oakum into their seams, to 
prevent the water’s coming in at them. 
CLINIC medicine, particularly used for 
the method of visiting and treating sick per 
sons in bed, and the more exact discovery of 
ail the symptoms of their disease. 
CLINOPODIUM, field-basil, a genus 
of the gymnospermia order, in the didynamia. 
class ot plants ; and in the natural method 
ranking under the 4 1st order, asperifolia*. 
The involucrum consists of many small bris- 
tles under the verticillus or whorl of flowers. 
I here are live, species, all herbaceous plants 
growing from one to two feet high. They 
are remarkable only for their strong odour, 
being somewhat between marjoram and 
basil. 
CLIO, in zoology, a genus of insects be- 
longing to the vermes mollusca. The body . 
is oblong and fitted for swimming : it has two 
membranaceous wings placed opposite to each 
other. There are three species, principally 
distinguished by. the shape of the vagina, 
and all natives of the ocean. See Plate 
Nat. Hist. fig. 118. 
CL1TORIA, a genus of the decandria 
order in the diadelphia class of plants; and 
in the natural method ranking under the 32d 
order, papilionacea?. The corolla is supine, 
or turned down-side up ; with the vexillum 
or flag-petal very large, patent, and almost 
covering the ala: or wing-petals. There are 
five species, all herbaceous perennials, or an- 
nuals, of the kidney-bean kind, growing na- 
turally in both the Indies. The stalk is climbing, ' 
slender, andot the height of a man. The leaves 
are winged. The flowers, which are elegant, 
stand singly, each on its proper footstalk.’ 
They are very large, and generally of a deep 
blue, but sometimes of a white colour.. From 
the fruit of this plant is distilled an eye-water. 
CLOACA, in Homan antiquity,- {lie com- 
mon sewer, by which the filth of the city of . 
Rome was carried away. It was built with 
great stones, in the form of an arch, so well 
fastened and cemented together, that the- con- 
tinual running of water and filth had not - 
damaged it in the space of 700 years. There 
were many sinks in the city, which ail fell into 
this common sewer; and the officers ap- 
pointed to take care of tiiis work, and to see 
it repaired, were called curatores cloacarum 
urbis. 
C LOATH ED; in the sea-language. A 
mast is said to be cloathed, when the sail is 
so long as to reach down to the gratings of 
the hutches, so that no wind can blow below 
the sail. 
CLOCK, a kind of movement, or machine, 
serving to measure and strike time. 
The usual chronometers are watches and 
clocks: the former are such as shew the 
parts of tune ; the latter, such as publish ifc 
