' CER 
trees, Jussieu. Essential character : male, 
calyx one-leafcd, bifid ; enrol none ; female 
calyx one-leafed, keeled, permanent, two- 
horned ; styles two ; seeds single, com- 
pressed, inclosed in and covered by the 
calyx. There is but one species, viz. C. 
arenarius, is an annual, branching plant, 
with very narrow leaves. Three male 
flowers sessile in each division of the stems ; 
females solitary, sessile in each axilla of the 
leaves. It has no proper pericarp, but the 
calyx when ripe becomes a sort of oblong- 
triangular compressed sheath, w'ith a ridge 
on each side, and two innocuous spines, 
diverging almost horizontally at the end. 
Within this is a single obovate seed, com- 
pressed, and at bottom very' sharp-pointed, 
which does not drop from ils covering. 
Native of Tartary. 
OER4TONIA, in botany, English ca- 
rob tree, St. John’s bread, a genus of the 
Polygamia Trioecia class and order. Na- 
tural order of Lomeritaceas. Leguminosae, 
Jussieu. Essential character : hermaphro- 
dite ; calyx five-parted ; corol none ; sta- 
mens five; style filiform; legume coria- 
ceous ; many seeded ; dioecous ; male and 
female separate. There is but one spe- 
cies, VIZ. C. siliqua. The carob tree, which 
is a native of Syria, Palestine, Egypt, 
Cyprus, Candia, Sicily, Apulia, Spain, &c. 
CERATOPETALUM, in botany, a ge- 
nus of the Decandria Monogynia class and 
order. Calyx five-parted, permanent, bear- 
ing the stamina ; petals five, pinnatifid ; 
antheraj spurred, capsule covered in the 
bottom of the calyx ; two-celled, one spe- 
cies, a native of New Holland. 
CERATOPHYLI.UM, in botany, a ge- 
nus of the Monoecia Polyandria class and 
order. Natural order of Inundate. Naiades, 
Jussieu. Essentia! character ; male calyx 
many-parted ; corola none ; stamens sixteen 
to twenty ; female calyx many-parted ; co- 
rolla none ; pistils one ; style none ; seed 
one, naked. There are two species, viz. 
C. demersura ; prickly-seeded hornwort ; 
and C. submersqm ; smooth-seeded horn- 
wort. They grow in ' ditches and slow 
streams, flowering in August and Septem- 
ber in Europe ; also in Japan. It is com- 
mon in Jamaica, called there morass weed, 
and used to cover fish, &c. when carried to 
any distance. 
CEKBERA, in botany, a genus of the 
Pentandria Monogynia class and order. 
Natural order of Contort®. Apocine®, 
Jussieu. Essential character ; contorted ; 
drupe one-seeded. There are five species. 
CER 
of which C. ahouai, oval-leafed cerbera, 
grows naturally in the Brazils, and also in 
the Sitanish West Indies in plenty ; and 
there are some of the trees growing in the 
British Islands of America. This tree is 
about ten feet high, sending out many 
crooked diffused branches, which toward 
the top has thick succulent leaves about 
three inches long and near two broad, of 
a lucid green colour, full of a milky juice, 
as is every part of the tree. The flowers 
come out in loose bunches at the end of 
the branches ; they are of a cream colour. 
It flowers in July, but never produces fruit 
in England. The wood of this tree is ex- 
ceedingly offensive, and the kernels of the 
nuts are a most deadly poison. 
CERCARIA, in natural history, a genus 
of the Vermes infusoria : woi-m invisible 
to the naked eye, pellucid, and furnished 
with a tail. There are 13 species, of which 
C. gyrinus is round with a sharp pointed 
tail; found in animal infusions; white, ge- 
latinous, fore-part nearly globular. C. ca- 
tellus; body three-parted, with a forked 
tail ; is met with- in waters where flowers 
have been kept; head moveable, affixed 
to the body by a point ; abdomen not so 
wide, but twice as long as the head, and 
filled with intestines ; tail shorter than the 
head and narrower than the abdomen, end- 
ing in two bristles, which it can unite and 
separate at pleasure ; C. niutabilis ; chan- 
geable, cylindrical, red or green, with a 
pointed slightly bifid tail; found in stag- 
nant pools in such innumerable myriads, as 
to cover the whole surface with a sheet of 
green or red, giving it sometimes the ap- 
pearance of being tinged witli blood ; varies 
its posture from a long cylindrical body, 
larger in the middle, to a nearly globular 
one ; the extremities are pellucid. 
CERCIS, in botany, English Jxtdas tree, 
a genus of the Decandria Monogynia class 
and order. Natural order of Lomentace®. 
Leguminosae, Jussieu. Essential character : 
calyx five-toothed, gibbous below ; corol 
papilionaceous ; standard short, beneath 
the wings ; legume. There are two spe- 
cies, viz. C. siliquastrum, common Judas- 
tree ; and C. canadensis, Canada Judas tree, 
or red budding tree. These trees are 
usually planted witJi other flowering trees, 
for ornaments to pleasure gardens, and for 
their singular beauty deserve a place as 
as well as most otiier sorts. The wood is 
also beautifidly veined with black and 
green, and taking a fine polish, may be con- 
verted to many uses. 
