764. COL 
The markets are held on Wednefdays and Saturdays; 
avd here are four fairs yearly, viz. on the ad of April for 
wholesale tailors; jth of July for horfes ; 23d of July for 
cattle; and 20th of October for cheel'e, butter, and toys. 
Belides its twelve churches, here are five meeting-houfes; 
alfo one Dutch and one French church. Its other public 
edifices are, 1. Bay-hall, where the goodnefs of the ma- 
nuraiture of baize made in this town is afcertained by a 
corporation efiabiifned for this purpofe, called governors 
of the Dutch Bay-hall. z. The guildhall of the town, 
called by them the Moot-hall. 3. A capital work-houfe 
for the poor. 4. A free grammar-fchooi for the inflruc- 
tion of the fons of free-burgeffes; which has good allow¬ 
ance fjor the matter. Here are alfo leveral charity-fchools, 
and well-endowed alms-houfes. This town is governed 
by a mayor, recorder, town-clerk, twelve aldermen, eigh¬ 
teen affifrants, eighteen common-council, two coroners, 
four ferjeants, and two claviers. The mayor and aider- 
men for the time being, with forty-eight guardians, are 
alfo a corporation for the benefit of the poor. It is a li¬ 
berty of itfelf, containing four wards and fixteen pariihes, 
within and without the walls. 
Front ColcheSter the land projects a great way into the 
fea,. fou'th and fouth-eaft, and makes that promontory of 
land, called the Nafe, well known co feamen who ufe the 
northern trade. Here is feen a fea open as an ocean, with¬ 
out any oppofite fiiore, though it is no more than the 
mouth of the Thames. This point called the Nafe, and 
the north-eaft point of Kent near Margate, called the 
North-Foreland, make the mouth of the river, and the 
port of London, and is above iixty-miles over. At Wal¬ 
ton, under the Nafe, they find on the Shore copperas-ltones 
in great quantities; and there are feveral large works, 
called copperas-Loufes, where it is manufactured. 
COL'CHESTER, a townftiip of the American States, 
in Ullter county, New York, on the Popachton branch of 
Delaware river, fouth-weft of Middletown ; and about 
fifty miles fouth-welt by fou'th of Cooperftown. By the 
ltate cenfus of 1796, one hundred and ninety-three of its 
inhabitants are electors. 
COL'CHESTER, a large townfliip of the American 
States, in New London county, Connecticut, fettled in 
1701 ; about fifteen miles weltward of Norwich, twenty- 
five fourh-eafl: of Hartford, and twenty north-well of New 
London city. ’o 
COL'CHESTER, a town of the American States, in 
Chittenden county, Vermont, on the ealt bank of lake 
Champlain, at the mouth of Onion river, and north of 
Burlington, on Coichelter bay, which fpreads north of 
the. town. 
COL'CHESTER, a poll-town of the American States, 
in Fairfax county, Virginia, fituated on the north-ealt 
bank of Ocqucquam creek, four miles from its confluence 
with the Potowmack;. and is hereabout 100 yards wide, 
and navigable for boats: iixteen miles fouth-welt of Alex¬ 
andria,. 106 north by ealt of Richmond, and 172 from 
Philadelphia, 
COL' HESTER RIVER, a river in Nova-Scotia. 
COL'CHI, in ancient geography, a town of the Hither 
India ; thought to be Cochin, on the coalt of Malabar. 
COL'CHICUM, f. [from Colchis, a city of Armenia, 
where this plant is luppofed to have been very common.] 
In botany, a genus of the clafs hexandri’a, order trigynia, 
natural order fpathacese. The generic characters are— 
Calyx: none, except fluttered.fpathes. Corolla: fix-part¬ 
ed ; tube angulated, rooted ; divifions of the border lance- 
ovate, concave, ereCt. Stamina: filaments fix, fubuiate, 
fhorter than the corolla; antherse oblong, four-valyed, 
incumbent. Piltillum : germ buried within the root ; 
Ityles three,, thread-form, length of the ftatnens.; Itigmas 
reflex, channelled. Pericarpium capfule three-iobed, 
connected internally by a future, obtule, three-celled, fu¬ 
tures gaping inwardly. Seeds : many, nearly globular, 
wrinkled .—EJfential Charafter. Spathe; corolla fix-parted, 
with a rooted tube; capfule three, connected, inflated. 
COL 
Species. 1. Colchicum autumnale, or common meadow 
faffron : leaves flat, lanceolate, ereCt. This has a bulbous 
root, about the fize and lhape of the tulip, but not fi>. 
fliarp-pointed at the top, the fkin or cover is alfo of a. 
darker colour. Thefe bulbs are renewed every year, for 
thole which produce the flowers decay, and new roots are 
formed above. The flowers come out in autumn ; thefe 
arife with long {lender tubes from the root, about four, 
inches high, fliaped like thole* of faffron, but larger; the. 
number of flowers is generally in proportion to the fize? 
of the roots, from two to feven or eight; in March the 
green leaves appear, thefe are commonly four to a full- 
grown root; they are folded over each other below, but 
fpread open above ground, (landing crofs-ways; they are 
of a deep green, and when fully grown, are five or fix 
inches long, and one and a half broad. The ieed-veflel 
comes out from between the leaves in April, and the 
feeds ripen in May, foon after which the leaves deca)r. 
With the other leaves one or two generally arife, of the 
fame length, but only one-fourth of the width, which are 
a kind qf braCteal leaves to the feed-bud. The feed-yef-. 
fel, which arifes with the leaves, is fefiile at their bafe, 
large, fomewhat ovate, but with three very blunt angles. 
The feeds lie buried all winter within the bulb, in fpring, 
they grow up on a fruit-fialk, and are ripe about the time 
of hay harveft. May not the very great length of the 
ftyles account in iome meafure for the delay in the ripen¬ 
ing of the feeds?. As this plant bloffoms late in the year, 
and probably would not have time to ripen its feeds before 
winter, providence has contrived its ftruCture fuch, that 
it may be performed at a depth within the. earth, out of 
the reach of the ufual effeCts of froll; and, as ieeds buried 
at fuch a depth are known not to vegetate, a no lefs ad¬ 
mirable provifion is made to raife them above the liirface 
when they are perfected, and to fowthem at a proper feafon. 
Monf. de Juflieu entertains a Angular opinion, that col-, 
cbicum, although it have the habit of crocus, yet bears 
a nearer affinity to veratrum. His accurate account, 
however, of its propagation by the root, may ferve to exr 
plain that of bulbous plants in general, and alfo of the 
orchidae. From the permanent ltriated dilated tuber of 
the old root, fituated on one fide, and clothed with the 
coats of the preceding root-leaves, a new plant fprings 
from the fide from the fame coats, which is tuberous at 
the bafe, throws out fibres at the bottom like other bulbs, 
and is received into the bofom of the former tuber which 
embraces it half round. This has an outer radical fpathe, 
which is cylindric and tubular, cloven at the top on one 
fide, and half under ground; from two to fix flowers half 
emerge from this fpathe without leaves. In the mean 
time the fruits, much later than the flowers, fit on the. 
item riling out of the fpace. As the plant advances, the 
new tuber increafes; the old one, deprived of its nutri¬ 
ment, periflies, and, at the fame time, the former puflies 
forth from its bafe the gem of a fucceeding plant. There 
are commonly two lateral gems from the fame tuber; one 
lower juft deferibed bearing the flower and feed ; the other 
fuperior, caulefcent like the former, but more (lender and 
fcarcely floriferous. 
It is a native of molt parts of Europe. Miller obferved 
it in England, in great plenty, in the meadows near Caf- 
tle-Bromwich,. in Warwickfliire, the beginning of Sep¬ 
tember; and fays, that the country people call tne flowers 
nake'd ladies, becaufe they come up without any leaves. 
They give the fame name to the hepatica, and indiffe¬ 
rently to any plant which has flowers on naked fcapes, 
appearing at a different time from the leaves. It is-found 
alfo with us in many other places; as, near Derby and 
Northampton; Bury in Suffolk; orchards on the borders 
of Malvern-chace, and meadows under Malvern-hills in 
Worcefterfhire ; meadows bordering the Severn, VVorcef- 
terfhire ; Wallington and Hales Owen, Shropfhire; about 
Bath, Briltoi, Warminlter, Shepton-Mallet; Southgate; 
near Comb in Oxfordfliire, with a double fluwer, and lome 
varieties of colour; in Scotland, but not common. 
The 
