CUN 
a fpan high, and brachiate. It has a Arong fcent, and 
an infufion of it is ufed in Nortli America, by perfons 
who have taken cold, or have pains in their limbs. Na¬ 
tive of North America, in dry places; flowering with us 
in Auguft. 
3. Cunila thymoides, or thyme-leaved cunila : leaves 
oval, very entire ; flowers in whorls ; Item four-corner¬ 
ed. It has the air of the foregoing. Native of the 
country about Montpellier. 
4. Cunila capitata, or headed cunila: leaves ovate ; 
flowers terminating; umbel roundifh. Native of Siberia. 
Propagation and Culture. Thefe plants are all hardy, 
and may be propagated from feeds, which they fome- 
times produce here. The firA fort may alfo be incrcafed 
by planting cuttings in the fpring, in the (ante manner 
as is praftifed for mint; they will take root freely, and 
if they are planted in a moifl foil will thrive exceedingly. 
CUNI'NA, in mythology, a goddefs who had the care 
of little children. 
CUNI'TIA (Maria, or Cunitz), a female aArononter, 
daughter of Hendric Cunitz, dobtor of medicine in Si- 
lelia. She was born at the commencement of the feven- 
teenth century, and was -educated with fo much care, 
that (he became a miArefs of the German, Polilli, French, 
Italian, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, languages. With 
equal fuccefs Ate became a proficient in hifiory, medi¬ 
cine, and mathematical fcience, and cultivated painting, 
mulic, and the art of poetry. Her principal attention 
was, however, directed to aflronomy and afirology. She 
was highly efteemed by the moA Ikilfui aAronomers, 
with whom (lie correfponded, particularly Elias a Leo- 
nibus (de Lcwen), whom (he married about the year 
1630. The war in Germany having fonte time after¬ 
wards penetrated into Silefia, they retired into Poland, 
in which retreat (he compofed her aAronomical tables, 
printed in 1650, at Oels in Silefia, with an introduftion 
in Latin and German, dedicated to the emperor Ferdi¬ 
nand III. Maria Cunitiafurvived her hulband, and died 
the 22d of AuguA, 1664. 
CUNL'HAT, a town of France, in the department of 
the Puy-de-Dome, and chief place of a canton, in the 
diftrift: of Ambert: three leagues north-north-wefi of 
Ambert. 
CUN'NERSDORF, a town in Germany, in the circle 
of Upper Saxony, and Middle Mark of Brandenburg. 
In the year 1759, a battle was fought here between the 
AuArians and Pruflians : the Pruflians loA in killed, pri- 
foners, and deferters, 7485 men; the wounded amounted 
to 1119, of whom 300 recovered. The AuArians claimed 
the viftory, but their lofs was fuppofed to be nearly 
equal to that of the Pruflians: two miles eaA of Frank¬ 
fort on the Oder. 
CUN'NING, adj. [from connan, Sax. konnen, Dut. to 
know.] Skilful; knowing ; well infiructed ; learned.— 
Send me now therefore a man cunning to work in gold and 
in filver, and that can (kill to cut and to grave. 2 C/iron. 
When Pedro does the lute command, 
She guides the cunning artiA’s hand. Prior. 
Performed with (kill; artful : 
And over them Arachne high did lift 
Her cunning web, and fpread her fubtile net, 
Enwrapped in foul fmoke, and clouds more black than 
jet. Spenfer. 
Artfully deceitful ; fly; defigning; trickifh ; full of 
fetches and Aratagems ; fubtle ; crafty; fubdolous.— 
■Thefe fmall wares and petty points of cunning are infi¬ 
nite, and it were a good deed to make a liA of them ; for 
nothing does more hurt than that cunning men pafs for 
wife. Bacon. —Afted with fubtilty.—The more lie pro- 
tefted, the more his father thought he diflembled, ac¬ 
counting his integrity to be but a cunning face‘.of falfe- 
liood. Sidney. 
CUN'NING, f. [cunninge, Sax.] Artifice; deceit; 
CUN 471 
flinefs; Height; craft; fubtilty ; diffimulation ; fraudu¬ 
lent dexterity.—We take cunning for a Unifier dr crooked 
wifdom ; and certainly there is great difference between 
a cunning man and a wife man, not only in point of ho- 
nefiy, but in point of ability. Bacon. —Difcourage cun¬ 
ning in a child ; cunning is the ape of wifdom. Locke .—■ 
Art; (kill ; knowledge ; right-hand cunning-. 
CUN'NINGHAM, a diArift of Scotland, in the county 
of Air. > 
CUN'NINGHAM (Alexander), a writer on hifiory, 
fon of the pariflt minifier of Ettrick, near Selkirk, in 
Scotland. The time of his birth is not known, but it 
appears that he was intimate with the Scotch refugees 
at the Hague previoufly to the revolution, and that he 
pafled fome years after that event as travelling tutor to 
the fons of the earl of Hyndford, and to lord Lome, af¬ 
terwards John duke of Argyle. He was in France with 
a pupil in 1701, and was there engaged in fome negocia- 
tions relative to the Scotch commerce. He returned 
from the continent in 1703, and was employed in fome 
political negociations. The minifiry conlulted him on va¬ 
rious affairs in Scotland ; and he exerted himfelf warmly 
in promoting the whig interefi and revolution principles 
in that country. When the tory party came into power, 
he went abroad again, and accompanied lord Lonfdale 
to Italy. I11 the reign of George I. he was appointed 
refident-minifier at Venice, in which capacity he re¬ 
mained there from 1715 to 1720. On his return, he 
feems to have lived in literary leifure, probably occu¬ 
pied in the compolition of his hifiory. He is thought to 
have died in London in 1737, at a very advanced age. 
Alexander Cunningham left behind him in manufcript, 
a Hifiory of Great Britain from the Revolution in 1688 
to the Acceflion of George I. written in elegant Latin. 
It came into the podellion of Dr. Hollingberry, archdea¬ 
con ot Chichefier, who had an intention of publifliing it 
in its original form, which he changed for that of tranf- 
lating it. The talk was at length confided to the reve¬ 
rend Dr. W. Thomfon, who publiflied his tranflation in 
two volumes 4to. 1787. The hifiory is the work of a 
man perfonally acquainted with many of the tranfaftions 
he relates, or drawing them from authentic fources. 
Hence it contains many particulars not before known ; 
and, for the mofi part, it manifefis an impartial fpirit, 
though it is occafionally tinged with prejudice. The 
narration is perfpicuous, and often animated, and is di- 
verlified with many allufions to clallical literature and 
ancient hifiory. 
It the Alexander Cuningham, editor of an efieemed 
edition o± Horace, at the Hague, in two volumes 8vo. 
1721, was a different perfon from the above, the con¬ 
formity between the two namefakes is extraordinary; 
fince both lived at the fame period, both were travelling 
tutors, able Latiniffs, eminent for Ikill at the game of 
chefs, and long-lived. The latter is fuppofed to have 
taught the civil and canon law in Holland, and to have 
died there. 
CUNNINGHA'MIA, f. In botany, a genus of the 
clafs tetrandria, order monogynia. The generic charac¬ 
ters are—Calyx : perianthium one-leafed, four-toothed, 
very fmall, permanent. Corolla; one-petalled; tube 
fhort; border four-cleft, acute; nectary, a rim furround¬ 
ing, the bafe of the ffyle. Stamina: filaments four, the 
fame length with the border of the corolla, inferted into 
the throat; antherae roundiih. Pifiillum : germ round- 
ifli, inferior; Ayle filiform, bifid; fiigmas obtufe. Pe- 
ricarpium : berry ovate, crowned, one-celled. Seed : 
Angle, ovate, two-celled ; with oblong kernels.— BJfen- 
tial Character. Calyx, very fmall, four-toothed ; corolla, 
four-cleft, with a ihort tube; berry, crowned with a two- 
celled, two-feeded nut. 
Cuninghamia farmentofa, which is the only fpecies 
known, is a fort of ramping (lirub, with a Item about lix 
feet high, and four or five inches in diameter. The bark 
is reddilh, wrinkled, and cloven; the wood is whitilh : 
a? 
