CHE 
the late Benjamin earl Fitzwalter, and was planned with 
the niceft (kill and judgment, to render it fo completely 
elegant, and at the lame time truly commodious. The 
pilafters, cornices, entablatures, and other decorative 
ornaments, are all of done. It has a gallery on each 
floor, by which means an eafy accels is obtained to all 
the different apartments, without the inconveniency of 
making any of them a paflage; the principal rooms are 
large, and well difipofed; the grand hall at the entrance 
is lofty, and the ceiling curioufly wrought; and the 
lioufe contains a great variety of excellent paintings. 
CHELMS'FORD, a town of the American States, in 
Middlefex county, Maflachufetts, fituated on the fouth 
fide of Merrimack river, twenty fix miles from Bolton, 
and by the cenfus contains 1144 inhabitants. There is 
an ingenioufly conftru&ed bridge over the river at Paw¬ 
tucket Falls,-which connects this town with Dracut. 
CHE.LO'NE, /. [^eAwvjj, Gr.] The tortoife. In fur- 
gery it means an inltrument for the purpofe of making 
a gradual extenfion of a fractured limb, and fo called, 
becaule in its flow motion it reprefents a tortoife. 
CEIEEO'NE,/ [from Gr. a tortoife.] In botany, 
a genus of the clafs didynamia, order angiofpermia, natu¬ 
ral order perfonatae. The generic characters are—Calyx: pe- 
rianthium one-leafed, five-parted, very fliort, permanent: 
divifions ereft, ovate. Corolla : monopetalous, ringent. 
Tube cylindric, very fhort. Throat inflated, oblong, 
convex above, flat beneath. Border doled, Email. Up¬ 
per lip obtufe, emarginate; lower almolt equal to the 
upper, very flightly trilid. Stamina : filaments four, hid 
beneath the back of the corolla; the two fide ones a 
little longer. Anthers incumbent. The rudiment of a 
fifth filament, like the point of a dagger, between the 
upper pair of llamens. Piitillum : germ ovate. Style 
filiform, fituation and length of the ltamens. Stigma ob¬ 
tufe. Pericarpium : capfule ovate, two-celled, longer 
than the calyx. Seeds very many, roundilh, furrounded 
with a membranous rim —EJfential Char after. Calyx : 
five-parted. Rudiment of a fifth filament between the 
upper llamens. Capfule, two-celled. 
Species . 1. Chelone glabra, or white chelone : leaves 
petioled lanceolate ferrate, the upper ones oppofite. This 
fort grows naturally in moll parts of North America; 
and is called by Jofcelin, in his New England Rarities, 
the humming-bird-tree. It has a pretty thick jointed root, 
which creeps under ground to a confiderable diflance, 
fending up finooth channelled ftalks, which rife about 
two feet high, with two leaves at each joint. Handing 
oppofite without foot-ftalks; thefe are three inches and 
a half long, and about three quarters of an inch broad 
at their bafe, where they are broadeft, dimimfhing gra¬ 
dually to a lharp point; they have firnall ferratures on 
their edges, which fcarcely appear. The flowers grow 
in a clofe fpike at the end of the fialks; they are white, 
and have but one petal, which is tubular, and narrow at 
the bottom, but fwells towards the top, almoft like the 
foxglove flower; the upper fide is bent over and convex, 
but the under is fiat, and flightly indented in three parts 
at the end. 
a. Chelone obliqua, or red chelone: leaves petioled 
lanceolate ferrate, all oppofite. Difcovered in Virginia 
by Mr. Clayton, who fent it to England: the roots of 
this do not creep fo far as thofe of the firft, the ftalks 
are ftronger, the leaves much broader, and oblique; 
they are deeply fawed on their edges, and ftand upon 
fliort foot-ftalks: the corolla is of a bright purple co¬ 
lour, and therefore makes a finer appearance than the 
firft fort. 
3. Chelone hirfuta, or hairy chelone : ftem and leaves 
hirfute. This approaches to the firft fort, but the ftalks 
and leaves are very hairy, and the flower is- of a purer 
white. It flowers at the fame time. Native of New 
England. 
4. Chelone pentftemon : leaves ftem-clafping; panicle 
dichotomous. Stem a foot and a half high, putting out 
CHE 143 
feveral fide-branches. Flowers purple. Native of North 
America. 
5. Chelone campanulata : leaves oppofite, feflile, ovate- 
lanceolate, extremely acuminate, deeply lerrate. The 
whole plant fmooth. Stems round, a foot and a half 
high, purple, wand-like. It may, perhaps, only be a va¬ 
riety of the foregoing. Native of Mexico. Cultivated 
in the gardens of Paris and Madrid. 
Propagation and Culture. The three firft forts flower 
in Auguft, and, when the autumn proves favourable, the 
feeds wall fometimes ripen in England ; but as the plants 
propagate fo faft by their creeping roots, the feeds are 
feldom regarded. The beft time to tranfplant the roots 
is in autumn, that they may be well eftablilhed in the 
ground before the fpring, otherwife they will not flower 
lb ftrong, efpecially if the feafon proves dry; but, when 
they are removed in the fpring, it fhould not be later 
than the middle of March, by which time their roots 
will begin to pufh out new fibres. They will thrive in 
almoft any foil or fituation, but their roots are apt to 
creep too far, if they are not confined, and fometimes 
intermix with thofe of other plants; and then their ftalks 
ftand lo far diftant from each other, as to make but little 
appearance; therefore they lhould be planted in pots, 
which will confine their roots, fo that in each pot there 
will be eight or ten ftalks growing near each other, when, 
they will make a tolerably good appearance. This plant 
being very hardy, is not injured by cold; but it mult 
have plenty of water in hot weather. As thefe plants 
flower in the autumn, when there is a fcarcity of other- 
flowers, it renders them the more valuable, efpecially 
the fecond fort, whofe flowers make a very pretty ap¬ 
pearance, when they are ftrong: and if fome of them 
have a lhady fituation in the funjmer, they will flower 
later. The feeds of the fourth fort fhould be fown in au¬ 
tumn. When the plants are grown ftrong enough to 
remove, they fhould be tranfplanted into a fhady border, 
which will prevent their flowering the fame year ; and, 
in the autumn, they may be planted in the borders of 
the flower-garden. The roots feldom lall above two or 
three years. 
CHELO'NE, in fabulous hiftory, a nymph changed 
into a tortoife by Mercury, for not being prelent at the 
nuptials of Jupiter and Juno, and condemned to perpe¬ 
tual filence for having ridiculed thefe deities. 
CHELO'NION,/. [yjXanov, from yj.'karn the tortoife.] 
A hump, or gibbofity in the back, is fo called from its 
refemblance to the fliell of a tortoife. 
CHELO'NIS, a daughter of Leonidas king of Sparta, 
who married Cleombrotus. She accompanied her father, 
whom her hufband had expelled; and foon afterjwent 
into baniflmient with her hufband, who had, in his turn, 
been expelled by Leonidas. 
CHELONO'PHAGI, f. A people of Carmania, who 
feed upon turtle, and cover their habitations with the 
fliell s. Pliny. 
CHEL'SEA [17. d. Shelfly, from fhelves of land; it is 
alfo called Chelche-hyth, probably from cealc chalk, ea 
water, and jPy^, Sax. q. d. a chalky port near the water.] 
A large and populous village, or rather town, in Mid¬ 
dlefex, fituated on the Thames, only two miles from 
London. The celebrated botanical-garden, belonging 
to the company of apothecaries, which is enriched with 
a great variety of plants, both indigenous and exotic, is 
on the beft lbil of Chelfea. It was given, in 1721, by 
fir Hans Sloane, bart. on condition of their paying a 
quit-rent of five pounds, and delivering annually to the 
royal fociety fifty fpecimens of different forts of plants, 
of the growth of this garden, till the number fhould 
amount to 2000. In 1733, the company erefted a mar¬ 
ble ftatue of the donor, by Ryfbrack, in the centre of the 
garden, the front of which is confpicuoufly marked, to¬ 
ward the river, by two noble cedars of Libanus. In a 
molt eligible and plealant fituation, is the palace of the 
bifhops of Wincheller. Adjoining to this, fir Thomas 
More. 
