CLI 
Calyx three-leaved, superior ; stamens about 
thirty. Female, calyx three-leaved, supe- 
rior ; corolla none ; styles two ; capsule 
two-celled ; seed one. There are nineteen 
species, all shrubs from the Cape of Good 
Hope. 
CLIMACTERIC, among physicians and 
natural historians, a critical year in a per- 
son’s life, in wliich he is supposed to stand 
in great danger of death. 
According to some, every seventh year is 
a climacteric ; but others allow only those 
years produced by multiplying 7, by the 
odd numbers 3, 5, 7, and 9, to be climacte- 
rical. These years, they say, bring with 
them some remarkable change with respect 
to health, life, or fortune ; the grand cli- 
macteric is the sixty-third year ; but some, 
making two, add to this the eighty-first: 
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 
doctrine of numbers introduced by Pytha- 
goras ; though many eminent men, both 
among the ancients and moderns, appear 
to have had great faith in it. 
CLIMATE, in geography, a space upon 
the surface of the terrestial globe, con- 
tained between two parallels, and so far 
distant from each other, that the longest 
day in one differs half an hour from the 
longest day in the other parallel. The dif- 
ference of climates arises from the different 
inclination or obliquity of the sphere : the 
ancients took the parallel wherein the 
length of the longest day is twelve houi-s 
and three quarters for the beginning of the 
first climate : as to those parts that are 
nearer to the equator than that parallel, 
they were not accounted to be in any cli- 
mate, either because they may, in a loose 
and general sense, be Considered as being 
ifi a right sphere, though, strictly speaking, 
only the parts under the equator are so ; or 
because they were thought to be uninha- 
bited by reason of the heat, and were be- 
sides unknown. The ancimits, considering 
the diversity there is in the rising and set- 
ting of the heavenly bodies, especially the 
sun, and, in consequence thereof, the dif- 
ference in the length of the days and nights 
in different places, divided as much of the 
earth as was known to them, into climates ; 
and instead of the method now in use, of 
setting down the latitute of places in de- 
grees, they contented themselves with say- 
ing in w'hat climate the place under consi- 
deration was situated. According to them. 
CLI 
therefore, what they judged the habitable 
part of the northern hemisphere was divided 
into seven climates, to which the like num- 
ber of southern ones corresponded. A 
parallel is said to pass through the middle 
of a climate, when the longest day in that 
parallel differs a quarter of an hour from 
the longest day in either of the extreme 
parallels that bound the elimale : this paral- 
lel does not divide the climate into two 
equal parts, but tire part nearest to the 
equator is larger than tlie other, because 
the farther we go from the equator, the 
less increase of latitude will be sufficient to 
increase the length of the longest day a 
quarter of an hour. 
Some of the moderns reckon the differ- 
ent climates by the increase of half an 
hour in the length of the longest day, be- 
ginning at the equator, and going on till 
they come to the polar circle towards the 
pole ; they then count the climates by tiie 
increase of a whole natural day, in the 
length of the longest day till they come 
to a parallel, under which the day is of the 
length of fifteen natural days, or half a 
month ; from this parallel they proceed to 
reckon the climates by the increase of half 
or whole months, in the artificial day, till 
they come to the pole itself, under which 
the length of the day is six montl-.s. Tliose 
between the equator and the polar circles, 
are called hour climates ; and those between 
the polar circles and the poles, montlily cli- 
mates. Vrdgarly the term climate is be- 
stowed on any country or region differing 
from one another, either in respect of the 
seasons, the quality of the soil, or even th.e 
manners of the inhabitants, without any re- 
gard to the length of the longest day. 
CLIMAX, in rhetoric, a figure wherein 
the word or expression which ends the first 
member of a period begins the second, and 
so on ; so that every member will make a 
distinct sentence, taking its rise from the 
next foregoing, till the argument and period 
be beautifully finished. 
CLIMBING plants, in gardening, are 
such plants as ascend either spirally round 
supports, or by means of clasjiers and 
tendrils. They are either herbaceous or 
woody, and which, according to their mode 
of climbing, may be denominated twining 
climbers, cirrhous climbers, and parasitic 
climbers. The first sort includes all such 
as have winding stalks, and twist about any 
neighbouring support, such as scarlet kid- 
ney beans, hops, and some sort of honey- 
suckle. The second kind comprehends all 
