COT 
CASSIGNEA, in botany, a germs of the 
Hexandria Monogyiiia class and order. Ca- 
lyx inferior, five-parted ; corolla four or 
five-petalled ; capsule three-celled, opening 
at top ; the cells about three-seeded. Tliere 
arc two species noticed by Lamarck, found 
in Bourbon and Mauritius. 
COSTIVENESS. See Medicine. 
COSTUME, a term among painters; 
thus, a painter must observe the costume ; 
that is, he must make every person and 
thing sustain its proper character, and not 
only observe the story, but tire circum- 
stances, the scene of action, the country or 
place, and make the habits, arms, manners, 
proportions, and the like, to correspond. 
COSTUS, in botany, a genus of the Mo- 
nandria Monogynia class and order. Natu- 
ral order of Scitamineaj. Cannse, Jussieu. 
Essential character : corolla inner, inflated, 
ringent, the lower lip trifid. There are 
four species, all natives of the East and 
West Indies. 
CO-TANGENT, the tangent of an arch, 
which is the complement of another to 90“. 
COT, in naval affairs, a particular sort of 
bed-frame, suspended from the beams of a 
ship for the officers to sleep in. It is made 
of canvass, sewed in the form of a chest, 
about six feet long, one foot deep, and two 
or three wide, and is extended by a square 
wooden frame with a canvass bottom, on 
which the bed or matrass is laid. It is 
reckoned much more convenient at sea than 
either the hammocks or fixed cabins. 
COTTON is the produce of the gossy- 
pium, a plant about the size of a current 
bush, a native of the torrid zone, though it 
is produced in parts of Turkey, so far as 44 
or 45 degrees from the equator. The finest 
cotton is known by the name of cat’s-claw, 
from its singular appearance when it breaks 
the pod. This kind was accidentally dis- 
covered at the island of Bourbon, and was 
supposed to have been introduced among 
some seed sent from South America to tlie 
Mauritius. The soil should be extremely 
well prepared, and of the best quality, for 
the reception of cotton seed, which is usu- 
ally sown in November or December-, after 
the periodical rains in tropical climates, and 
ripens in May or June ; when the numerous 
pods, which are about the size of large 
gooseberr ies, break, and display their downy 
contents. These are picked, and after tire 
husks have been disengaged, the cotton is 
put to a small mill, consisting of two bright 
steel rollers, each about an inch itr diameter, 
set parallel w'ithin tire distance of about the 
COT 
20th part of an inch. These rollers move 
difierent ways, and draw the cotton through 
betvreen them, while the seeds are forced 
out of tire respective little balls of down in 
which they are enclosed, and drop into a 
bag. The generality of cotton is white ; 
but some is of a nankeen colour, and is in- 
valuable in the manufacture of that article, 
as it fades very little, even with long use 
and frequent washing. The elasticity of 
cotton is inconceivable ! It may be pressed 
into a 50th part of the space into which the 
strongest packers can reduce it by personal 
exertion : large screws are erected at many 
sea-ports where cotton is shipped, for the 
purpose of bringing the bales into the small- 
est compass, so as to save freight. Cotton 
can only be imported as a raw material, in 
which form it conies to us from the Levant, 
the West Indies, South America, and the 
East Indies. In the last quarter there are 
some kinds indigenous, but some are exo- 
tics. 'I he name is obviously derived from 
the Arabic appellation kuter, which leads 
us to suppose the cultivation may have ori- 
ginated in Arabia. The amazing export of 
cotton fabrics from our settlements in the 
East, created for some, time a necessity for 
the manufacturers to import the raw mate- 
rial, and in a few instances the thread, from 
the country where cotton is cultivated to an 
immense extent, and where a very tine sort 
is produced, far superior to what the Levant 
or the West Indies furnish. Of late years, 
however, tire great demand for this material 
has excited a strong spirit of enterprize, 
and enabled the British colonies to raise 
nearly as much as the looms of the country, 
and the demand of the mother country, 
generally require. It is a highly dangerous 
cargo, being very subject to take fire if at 
all damp w-heii packed, or if the smallest 
spark should reach it; in either case it will 
burn very slowly for weeks ; but when the 
hold is opened, and air supplied, bursts 
forth with inconceivable fury. There is a 
species of silky down produced in pods, 
(similar to those of the cotton plant) on a 
very large tree, called the seernul, It is 
only fit to fill beds. Specimens of it have 
passed through various hands ; but this kind 
of cotton is so peculiarly glossy, and the 
fibre is so short, that it could neither be 
carded nor spun. • When mixed with rab- 
bet’s fur, &c. to make hats, it always sepa- 
rated. It also failed in paper-making;, 
otherwise its abundance and cheapness 
would have rendered it highly valuable. 
Cotton, carding of, as a preparation for 
