CLO 
CLI 
such as ascend by means of spiral strings, 
issuing from the sides of the stalks and 
branches, or from the foot-stalks of the 
leaves, and even from the leaves tliemselves, 
twisting about any thing they meet with, 
by which tlieir stalks are supported and 
arrive at their proper height, such as most 
of the pea tribe, cucumber, vine, passion- 
flower, and various others. And the last 
plants are also of the same kind, but their 
claspers plant themselves as roots in the 
bark of the plants on which they ascend, 
or in the crevices of walls or pales, thereby 
supporting themselves, and mounting to 
their tops, as the ivy, Virginia creeper, radi- 
cant bignonia, and several others. 
CLINCHING, in the sea-language, 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 tliem. 
CLINK stone, in mineralogy, nearly 
allied to Basalt, which see. It has re- 
ceived its name from the sound which it 
gives when strack. It occurs massive, and 
forms beds, and sometimes assumes the 
columnar form : its colour is grey, with 
shades of green and yellow. Its specific 
gi-avity is 2.5, and it is composed of 
Silex 67.25 
Alumina 23.5 
Oxide of iron .. 2.25 
Manganese 25 
Soda 8.10 
Water., 3. 
94.35 
Loss 5.65 
100 
CLINOPODIUM, in botany, a genus 
of the Didynamia Gymnospermia class and 
order. Natural order of Verticillataj. 
Labiatae, Jussieu. Essential character : 
involucre many bristled, under the whorl. 
There are five species. 
CLIO, in natural history, a genus of 
Vermes Mollusca; body oblong, noyant, 
generally sheathed, and furnished with two 
dilated membranaceous arms or wing-like 
processes ; tentacula three, besides two in 
the mouth. There are six species. The 
C. retuso uses its arms or wings, which are 
submembranaceous, like a pair of oars. 
CLITORIA, in botany, a genus of the 
Diadelphia Decandria class and order. 
Natural order of Papilionaceae or Legumi- 
nosae. Essential character: corolla in- 
verted ; standard very large, spreading, 
overshadowing the wings. There are five 
species. 
CLITORIS. See Anatomy. 
CLOCK, in horology, is a machine which 
measures time with a degree of accuracy, 
that gives it a just preference over the 
clepsydrae, and other methods anciently 
u.sed for the same purpose. > See Clepsy- 
dra. 
The sphere of Archimedes, made two 
hundred years before the birtli of Christ, 
is usually considered as the first attempt 
at the formation of a clock ; it had, indeed, 
a maintaining power, but being without 
any kind of regulator, could only measure 
time, as a planetarium exhibits the motion 
of the stars, with relative, but not with 
positive precision. 
In 1232, a machine for measuring time 
was sent by tire Sultan of Egj’pt to the 
Emperor Frederic II. but this, if it had 
any regulating part, most probable had 
none superior to the flyer of a common 
roasting jack. Wallingford, at the'begin- 
ing of the fourteenth century, and Dondi 
at the end of the same, have each had the 
honour of being supposed the first inven- 
tors of clocks ; the account given of 
Dondi’s clock by Petrus Paulus Vergerius 
(in Vit. Princip. Carrar. tom. 16) makes it 
neai'ly similar to our church clocks ; as, like 
them, it was placed on the upper part of a 
turret, or steeple, and spontaneously point- 
ed out each of the twenty-four hours in 
succession. There is still, however, some 
doubt whether Dondi was the original in- 
ventor. 
Boethius, at the end of the fifth century, 
Pacificus about the middle of the ninth, and 
Gerbert at tlie end of the tenth, are also 
regarded as the inventors of clocks, but 
on rather doubtful authority. 
There are many documents to prove tlie 
existence of clocks, with wheels and weights, 
in the middle of the fourteenth century, 
and therefore there is more reason for as- 
signing this period to the invention than 
any other. 
On comparing the various testimonies 
relative to the origin .of the clock, the feir- 
est conclusion seems to be, that it is neither 
of so ancient a date as some writers sup- 
pose, nor yet among those more recent 
inventions, wliich are placed in the last 
two centuries, and tliat the first inventor 
is not certainly known. 
The opinion of Fer. Berthoud, who has 
written more on the subject of clock-work 
