S 54 CAR 
cient for the confumption of the inhabitants. The cli¬ 
mate is very hot; from May to December is almofta con¬ 
tinual fucceflion of rain and temped ; the principal trees' 
for fize are the caobo, or acajou, the cedar, the maria, 
and the balfam-tree. Here are alio tamarind trees, med¬ 
lars, fapotes, papayo, cullia-fiftula, and manchineel trees; 
t lie latter is remarkable for its poifonous fruit, it is even 
dangerous to lie under the tree, as the droppings of rain 
from the leaves will produce inflammation wherever it 
touches. There are feveral fpeciesof the palm; guaiacum 
and ebony trees are equally common; and fendtive plants 
are found in great varieties. The only tame animals here 
are cows and hogs: the fleth of the latter is faid to exceed 
thole of Europe, while that of the former is dry and un- 
palateable, as they cannot be fattened for the heat of the 
climate. Nothing can furpafs the variety and beauty of 
the birds; poultry, pigeons, partridges, and geele, are 
good and plentiful. There are great quantities of deer, 
wild boars, foxes, tygers, armadbloes, fquirre'ls, rabbits, 
and an innumerable variety of monkies. Snakes, vipers, 
centipes, and other poifonous reptiles, are very Common. 
Plantations of fugar-canes and cotton-trees abound here, 
and the chocolate made from the cocoa-trees, which grow 
here, is elleemed even fuperior to that of the Caraccas. 
The fruits peculiar to the country are pine-apples, pa¬ 
payas, plantains, &c. 
CARTHASE'NA, a city and fea-port of South Ame¬ 
rica, and capital of the above-mentioned province, in 
Terra Firma. The bay and the country round Cartha- 
gena, anciently called Calamari, were difeovered by Ro- 
derigo de Badidas, but the conqued thereof, by feveral 
fucceeding adventurers, met with more refiftance than 
was expended. The Indians being naturally a warlike 
people, the very women diar.ed in defending the country. 
Their ufual arms were bows and arrows, the points of 
■which they poifoned with the juice of certain herbs, 
whence the flighted wounds were mortal. Gregorio Her¬ 
nandez de Oviedo, being, like feveral of his prerieceflbrs, 
baffled in repeated attempts, the conquefl: of the place, the 
peopling of the city, and reducing it into a colony and 
government, was completed by Don Pedro de Heredia, in 
1583. From feveral natural advantages, particularly that 
of its fine fitnation, it was' railed into an epifcopal fee. 
The promifmg advantages of its fitnation foon excited rlie 
envy of foreigners, particularly the French, who invaded 
it under the conduct of a Corfican pilot, in 1544. The 
Fecond invader was Sir Francis Drake, who, after pillaging 
it, fet it on fire; but it was happily reflected from the 
flames by a yanfom of 120,000 ducats, paid him by the 
neighbouring colonies. It was invaded and pillaged a 
third time by the French, un.der Monfieur de Pointis, in 
1697. In the year 1741, it was befieged by the Ehglifti, 
but from a mifunderdanding between the commanders, 
and a difeafe among tire troops, the enterprize was aban¬ 
doned.. The city is fituated on a Tandy ifland, which, for¬ 
ming a narrow paflfage on the fouth-wed, opens a commu¬ 
nication with that part called Tierra Bombay ; as far, as 
Bocca Chica on the norlh fide, tire land is fo narrow, that, 
before the wall was begun, the difiance from fea to lea 
was only thirty toifes, but afterwards the land enlarging, 
by means of the wall, it forms another ifland on this fide, 
and the whole city is, excepting thefe two places, which 
are very narrow, entirely fur rounded with water. Ead- 
wards it communicates by means of a wooden bridge, with 
a large fuburb, built on another ifland, which communi¬ 
cates with the continent by another wooden bridge. Car- 
thagena, together with its fnburbs, is equal to a city of 
the third rank in Europe. It is well peopled, though 
mod of its inhabitants are defeended fiom the Indian 
tribes. As no mines are worked here, mod of the money 
feen in this part is fent from Santa Fe and Qujto, to pay 
the falaries of the governor, officers, and garrifon. Car- 
thagena bay is one of the-belt in this country. It extends 
two leagues and a half from north to font!), and lias fafe 
anchorage, though the many (hallows at the entrance 
3 
CAR 
make a careful fieerage necefifary. The entrance into the 
bay was through the harrow ftrait of Bocca Chica, or Lit¬ 
tle Mouth, which, fince the invafion of 1 he Engliih, lias 
been (hut up, and a more, commodious one opened and 
fortified. Towards Bocca Chica, and two leagues and 
a half didant feawaras, is a (hoal of gravel and courts 
land; 011-many parts of which there is not above a foot 
and a half of water. The climate is very hot. From 
May to November, which is the winter here, there is ai- 
moll a continual .fucceflion of thunder, rain, and tempeds; 
fo that the flreets have the appearance of rivers, and the 
country of an ocean; from this otherwife (hocking incon¬ 
venience they lave water in refervoirs, as the wells only 
fupply them with a thick brackith fort, not fit to drink. 
From December to April is F.ere the hammer, in which 
there is fo invariable a continuation of exceflive heat, that 
perfpiration is pYofufe to a degree of wafte; whence the 
complexions of tire inhabitants are fo wan and livid, that 
one would imagine them but newly recovered from a vio¬ 
lent fit of fickriefs. Yet they enjoy a good (late of health, 
and live even to eighty and upwards. The (ingulariry of 
the climate occafions diftempers peculiar to the place : 
tlie mod (hocking is the fever, attended with the black 
vomit, which moftly affebts (Irangers, and rages among 
the feamen ; it lads about three or four days, in which 
time the patient either recovers or dies. Lat. 10. 30. N. 
I011.58. 5. W. Ferro. 
CARTHA'GO. See Cartago. 
C ARTHAMOI'DES, in botany. See Carthamus. 
CAR'THAMUS,/ [from xaSaufEu, to purge.] Base 
Saffron, or Safflower. In botany ; a genus of the 
cktfs fyngenefia, order polygamia tequalis ; natural order 
compofita, or compound flowers, and divilion of capitata. 
The generic characters are—Calyx : common ovate, im¬ 
bricate ; (bales numerous, contracted below, increafed at 
the tip by a foliaceous appendicle, which is fubovate, flat, 
(preading, obtufe. Corolla : compound uniform, tubu¬ 
lar ; corollets hermaphrodite, equal ; the proper one mo. 
nopetalous, funnel-form ; border five-parted, erect, fub- 
equal. Stamina: filaments five, capillary, very fliqrt; 
anthers cylindric, tubular. Piltillum : germ very (hort ; 
(tyle filiform, longer than the damens ; digma fimple. 
Pericarpium : none; calyx converging. Seeds: folitary. 
Receptacle : flat, pilofe, hairs longer than the feed.— 
EJfential CharaBer. Calyx ovale, imbricate with (bales, 
which at the end are fubovate-foliaceous. 
Species. 1. Carthamus tinbtorius, or officinal baftard 
faffron, or faffiovver : leaves ovate, entire, ferrate-acu¬ 
leate. This is an annual plant, which riles with a (lift' 
ligneous (talk, two feet and a half, or three feet, high, 
dividing upwards into many brandies, with ovate pointed 
fedile leaves. The flowers grow (ingle at the-extremity 
of each branch : the heads are large, inclofed in a (baly 
calyx ; each fcale is broad at the bale, flat, and formed 
like a leaf of the plant, terminating in a (harp fpine. 
The lower part of the calyx fpreads open, but the (bales 
above clofely embrace the florets, which (land out near 
an incli above the calyx ; thefe are of a fine faffron colour, 
and this is the part which is gathered for the ufes above- 
mentioned. When the florets decay, the germs become ob¬ 
long, angular, feeds, of a white colour, and having a pretty 
(trong (hell or cover to them. It flowers in July and A11. 
guft, and the feeds ripen in autumn; but, if the feafon 
proves cold and moid when the plants are in flower, there 
will be no good feeds produced ; fo that there are few 
feafons, wherein the feeds of this plant come to perfec¬ 
tion in England. It grows naturally in Egypt, in fome 
of the warm parts of Ada [and, according to Allioni, on 
dry hills in the country of Nice 4 but in the latter country 
it has probably edablifhed itfelf only in modern times, 
fitice Pliny (ays, that it was unknown in Italy under Vef- 
pa(ian). Mr, Miller fays, that he has frequently received 
the (beds from the Britifli i Hands in America; but whether 
they were originally carried thither, or if it naturally 
grows ihere ; lie could never be rightly informed. 
2. Car- 
