648 C A A! 
tables, and entirely enclofe its tides and bottom ; being then 
towed to the bar, the pings are opened, and the water ad¬ 
mitted until the camel links with the fhip, and runs a- 
ground. Then, the water being pumped out, the camel 
riles, lifts up the veflel, and the whole is towed over the 
bar. Tills machine can raife the (hip eleven feet ; or, in 
other words, make it draw eleven feet lets water. Profelfor 
Beckman fays, that the Dutch fir ft contrived to carry their 
numerous fleet, through the Pampas, by means of large 
empty cherts fattened to the bottom of each fhip ; and this 
contrivance gave rife to the invention of the camel. In 
the German Cyclopaedia, the invention is alligned to 
Meyer, a Dutch engineer of coniiderable eminence ; but 
the Dutch writers, almoft unanimoully', aferibe the inven¬ 
tion of the camel to a citizen of Amfterdam, who calls 
himlelf Meeuvcs Meindertfon Bakker. Some make.the 
year of the invention to have been 1688, and others 169.0. 
Much has been fa id of the utility of this machine; but 
however beneficial it niay be, we have reafon to fuppofe 
that fucli heavy veflels, as Ihips of war, cannot be railed 
up, in fo violent a manner, without l'uftaining injury. A 
roof of this is the well known circumftance mentioned by 
Mufchenbro.ek (Introduft/o ad Philojoph. Natar.), that the 
ports of a fhip, which had been railed by the camel, could 
not afterwards be (hut clofely. 
C’A'MEL, /. hieroglyphically, was ufed to intimate filial 
reverence, becaufe it has that relpect for its parents, that 
it refufes copulation with them : it is alfo ufed to lignify a 
rich man, and a good fubjedt, that fubmits to the command 
of his fuperior, being .an animal very ftrong, laborious, and 
.docile. 
CA'MEL, a river of England. See Alan. 
CA'MEL’s HAY, f. in botany. See Andropogon. 
CAME'LEON,/oncofthe conftellations of the lout hern 
ihemifphere, near the fouth pole, and invifible in our lati¬ 
tude. There are ten ftars marked in this conftellaticn in 
Sharp’s catalogue. 
CAME'LEON, or Chameleon,/ a fpeeies of lizard. 
■See Lacerta. 
CAME'LEON MINERAL,/. The combination of 
•fixed alkali, and calx of manganefe, is fo called, on ac¬ 
count of the changes of colour it is fubjedt to when dif- 
folved in water. 
CA'MELFORD, a borough town in Cornwall, fitu- 
ated on the banks of the river Camel, eighteen miles north 
ol Laur.cefton, five from Boftiney, and 228 weft from Lon¬ 
don. Formerly this town was a place of great note. It was 
made a borough by a charter from Richard duke of Corn¬ 
wall, when lie was king of the Romans, who granted them 
a market and a fair. 1 hefe privileges were afterwards con¬ 
firmed by his brother, Henry Ill. It was incorporated by 
Charles I. and fs governed by a mayor and eight b urge lies, 
or aldermen, a recorder, town-clerk, &c. The market is 
held on Fridays ; and the fairs are the firll Friday after 
March 10, May 26, July 17, 18, and September 6. It was 
here that king Arthur was mortally wounded by his ne¬ 
phew Mcrdred, who was killed on the Ipot. A bloody 
battle is alfo laid to have been fought here in 823, between 
the’Saxons and Britons. 
CAMELI'NA, / in botany. See Erysimum, and 
Myagrum. 
CAMEL'LIA,/ [fo named in honour of George Jofeph 
Kami , a .Jefuit, whole name iscommonly written Camellus. ] 
The Japan Rose ; in botany, a genus of the clafs mo- 
nadelphia, order polyandria, natural order columniferae. 
'! lie generic characters are—Calyx : perianthium many¬ 
leaved, roundifli, imbricate ; the feales roundilb, very 
blunt, the inner ones gradually larger, concave, deciduous. 
Corolla : petals five, obovate, coalefcing at the bale. 
Stamina : filaments numerous, erebt, coalefcing below 
into a crown larger than the ftyle, above unconnected, 
fhorter titan the corolla; antherae limple, Pifiillum: 
germ roundifli ; ftyle fubulate, length of the ftamens; 
ffigma acute, leflex. Pericarpiinn : capfule turbinate, 
woody, marked with fonie furrows. Seeds: kernels equal 
C A M 
in number to the breaks of the capfule, roundifli, often 
filled with I mailer feeds. — EJfc.ntial CharaBcr , Calyx, im¬ 
bricate, many-leaved ; the inner leaflets larger. 
Species. 1. Camellia Japonica, or Japan rofe : leaves 
acutely ferrate, acuminate. Bark afh-coloured ; brandies 
round and fmooth ; leaves pale-green beneath. It is a 
vail and lofty tree, in high efteein with the Japanefe for 
the elegance of its large flowers, which exhibit a great va¬ 
riety of colours, but have no (cent, and for its evergreen 
leaves. It is very common every where in their groves 
and gardens, flowering from OCtober to April. It varies 
with (ingle and double flowers, white, red, and purple. It 
is a native alfo of China, and occurs very frequently in 
Chinefe paintings. 
2. Camellia fafanqua : 'leaves obtufely ferrate emargi- 
nate. A tree of a middling fize, differing from the firft 
fpeeies in having thinner and narrower leaves ; flowers 
much fmaller, with a much fmalier and more (lender ftem ; 
the leaves dried in the (hade have a fweet fmell ; a de- 
coCtionof them is ufed by the women to wadi their hair 
with. The Chinefe call it cha-wha, or flower of tea, on 
account of the refemblance of the one to the other, and 
becaufe its petals are fometimes mixed among the teas to 
increale their fragrance. Sir George Staunton faw it flou¬ 
rishing on the Tides of very high mountains, where the foil 
conlilted of little more than fragments of (lone, crumbled 
into a fort of coarfe earth by the joint adion of the fun and 
rain. It yields, lie fays, a nut, from which is expreffed an 
efculent oil, equal to the bed w hich comes from Florence. 
On this account, it is cultivated in vart abundance ; and is 
particularly valuable from the facility of its culture in 
fituations fit for little elfe. Native of Japan, flowering in 
November. 
3. Camellia drupifera : leaves ovate-oblong, flightly 
crenate ; flowers two or three together, terminating, 
drupes four-celled. This is a middle-lized tree, with 
fpreading branches ; leaves fmooth, hard, fmall ; flowers 
white ; fruit equal in fize the walnut, and not much un¬ 
like it ; it is not, however, efculent. It is both wild and 
cultivated in Cochinchina. The oil expreffed from the 
nuts is ufed by the natives to anoint tHeir hair, and for va¬ 
rious medical purpofes ; it has a pleafant odour, and does 
not ealily become rancid. 
Propagation and Culture. The firft fort, having been hi¬ 
therto icarce, and kept up to a high price, has been gene¬ 
rally treated as a Hove plant, though it has been fometimes 
placed in the green-houle. When it (hall hereafter become 
more common among us, it may perhaps be treated in the 
fame manner as the Magnolia. It is propagated by layers* 
It may alfo be propagated by cuttings, in the fame manner 
as directed for Gardenia. The other fpeeies have not yet 
been introduced into Europe. 
C AMELO'DUM, /. See Camalodunum. 
CAMELOPAR'DALIS,/ [from oj, a camel, and 
7r«p3aXi? 3 a panther.] The cameleopard, a fpeeies of 
cervus, thus named, becaufe it has the ffiape of a camel, 
and the fpots of a panther. See Cervus. 
CAMELOPAR'DALUS, a new confiellation of the 
northern hemifphere, formed by Hevelius, confiding of 
thirty-two ftars firft obferved by him. It is lituated be¬ 
tween Cepheus, Caffiopeia, Perfeus, the Two Bears, and 
Draco ; and it contains fifty-eight ftars in the Britifh cata¬ 
logue. 
CAM'ELOT, or Cam'let, / [from camel. ] A kind 
of fluff originally made by a mixture of filk and camels 
hair ; it is now made with wool and filk.—This habit was 
not of camels Ikin, nor any coarfe texture of its hair, but 
rather fonie finer w eave of camclot , grograin, or the like ; 
inafmuch as thefe (luff's are fuppofed to be made of the 
hair of that animal .*• Broum. 
England, France, Holland, and Flanders, are the chief 
places of this manufacture. Brulfels exceeds them all in 
the beauty and quality of its camlets : thole of England 
are reputed the fecond. Figured camlets, are thofe of one 
colour, whereon are flamped various figures, flowers, foli- 
