COL 
fc The common proverb,” fays Thoret, in his life of 
'this illuitrious navigator, “ which tells us, that thofe 
who promife mountains of gold make promifes that can 
never be accompliihed, is brought to iliame by the dif- 
covery of Columbus ; who, having promifed fuch moun¬ 
tains, did indeed make good his promife to that fove- 
reign who was wife enough to attend to what Columbus 
told him : upon vvhofe name lome perlons have made a 
forcible allufion to the dove, which, being fent from the 
ark of Noah, brought back again fome news of a world 
that had been hidden by the waters.” For a biographi¬ 
cal (ketch of the life of Columbus, fee the article Ame¬ 
rica, vo'l. i. p. 4.13. 
COLUM'BUS (Bartholomew), brother of Chriftopher, 
acquired a reputation by the fea-charts and the fpheres, 
■which he made in a fuperior manner for the time in 
which he lived. He had pafled from Italy into Portugal 
before his brother, whofe tutor he had been in cofmo- 
graphy. Ferdinand Columbus, his nephew, fays, that 
his uncle having embarked for London, was taken by a 
corlair, who carried him into an unknown country, where 
"he was reduced to the extremity of diltrefs, from which 
he delivered himfelf by making charts for navigation ; 
and, having amafled a confiderable fum of money, he 
went to England, prefented to the king a map of the 
world in his own method, explained to him the plan his 
brother had formed of ftriking much farther forward on 
the ocean than had ever yet been done; that the prince 
entreated him to invite over Chriftopher, promifing to de¬ 
fray the whole expence of the expedition; but that the 
latter could not come, becaufe he had already entered 
into an engagement with the crown of Caftile. Part of 
this (lory, and efpecially the propofal made to the king 
of England, feems totally without foundation. However 
this be, it is certain that Bartholomew had a ihare in the 
bounty bellowed on Chriftopher by the king of Caftile ; 
and in 1493 thefe two brothers, and Diego Columbus, 
who was the third, were ennobled. Don Bartholomew 
underwent with Chriftopher the fatigues and dangers in- 
feparable from fuch long voyages as thofe in which they 
both engaged, and built the town of St. Domingo. He 
died in 1514, poflefled of riches and honours. 
COLUM'BUS (Ferdinand), fon of Chriftopher, and 
writer of his life. He entered into the ecclefiaftical ftate; 
and founded a library, which he bequeathed to the church 
of Seville, to this day called the Columbine library. He 
died in 1560. 
COLUM'BUS (Realdus), an Italian anatomical author, 
>vas a native of Cremona. He flouriihed about the year 
3544, and was intimate with Vefalius, whofe public lec¬ 
tures he had frequently an opportunity of hearing. He 
is charged by fome with want of gratitude to Vefalius, 
from whom he is faid to have ftolen every thing that is 
valuable in his own anatomical works; but others main¬ 
tain, that he had a clearer idea of the parts than Vefalius, 
and defu ibed them more accurately; and it is certain that 
his Latin is very pure. 
COLUMEL'LA, f. [dim. of columna , a column.] The 
clitoris; fo called from its lhape. Alio the uvula, and 
the falling down of the uvula. 
COLUMEL'LA (Lucius Junius Moderatus), a native 
of Gades, who wrote twelve books on agriculture, of 
■which, the tenth, on gardening, is in verfe. The ftyle 
is elegant, and the work difplays the genius of a natu- 
ralift, and the labours of an accurate obferver. 
CO'LUMN,/. \_columna, Lat.] Around pillar; fuch 
as compofe the five architeftonical orders. See Archi¬ 
tecture, vol. ii. p. 67, &c.—Some of the old Greek co¬ 
lumns, and altars, were brought from the ruins of Apollo’s 
temple at Delos. Peacham. —Round broken columns clafp- 
ing ivy twin’d. Pope. —Any body of certain dimenfions 
preifing vertically upon its bale.—The whole weight of 
any column of the atmofphere, and likewife the fpecific 
gravity of its bafis, are certainly known by many expe¬ 
riments. Bentley. — In the military art, the long file or 
4 
COL 835 
row of troops, or of baggage, of an army in its marcho 
An army marches in one, two, three, or more, columns, 
according as the ground will allow. With printers, a 
column is half a page, wheiudivided into two equal parts, 
by a line palling through the middle, from the top to 
the bottom; and, by feveral parallel lines, pages are of¬ 
ten divided into three or four columns. 
COLUM'NA (Guy), a native of Medina in Sicily, fol¬ 
lowed Edward I. into England, on his return from the 
Holy Land. About the year 1487 he compiled a chronicle 
in thirty-fix books, and wrote feveral hiftorical tracts in 
relation to England. Columna’s moll curious work is. 
The Hiftory of the Siege of Troy, in Latin, printed at 
Cologne in 1477, quarto, and at Straibourg 1486, folio. 
Thele editions are very fcarce, as are the Italian tranfla- 
tions of 1481, Venice, folio ; Florence 16ro, quarto; but 
the edition of Naples 1655, quarto, is not fo rare. 
COLUM'NAJ HER'CULIS, a name given to two 
mountains on the extremeft parts of Spain and Africa, 
at the entrance into the Mediterranean. They were called 
Calpe and Abyla, the former on the coaft of Spain, and the 
latter on the fide of Africa, at the diftance of only eigh¬ 
teen miles. They are reckoned the boundaries of the 
labours of Hercules, and they were fuppofed to have been 
joined, till the hero feparated them, and opened a com¬ 
munication between the Mediterranean and Atlantic feas. 
COLUM'NAR, or Columna'rian, adj. Formed in 
columns.— White columnar fpar out of a ftone-pit. 
lVoodnuard. 
COLUMNA'RIUM, f. in Roman antiquity, a heavy 
tribute, demanded for every pillar of a houfe. It was firft 
laid on by Julius Caefar, in order to put a ltop to the ex¬ 
travagant expences laid out on fumptuous buildings. 
C'OLUMNE'A, f. (this name was given by Plumier, 
in honour of Fabius Columna, or Fabio Colonna, of the no¬ 
ble family of Colonna in Italy.] In botany, a genus of 
the clafs didynamia, order angiofperma, natural order of 
perfonatse. The generic characters are—Calyx : perian- 
thium one-leafed, five-parted, fubventricofe at the bafe; 
divilions ereCt, equal, lanceolate, permanent. Corolla : 
one-petalled, ringent, villofe; tube long, gibbous above 
at the bafe; border two-lipped : upper lip ftraight, emar- 
ginate ; lower lip three-parted ; lateral divifions lanceo¬ 
late, the intermediate longer and more deeply feparated, 
lanceolate. Stamina: filaments four, of which the two 
longer are hid under the upper lip ; antherse fimple, con¬ 
nected into a little crown. Piftillum : germ ovate ; ftyle 
filiform, length of the upper lip; ftigma bifid, obtufe, 
Pericarpium : capfule two-celled, ovate. Seeds: nume¬ 
rous, fmall, lying on a very large receptacle.— Ejjfential 
Character. Calyx, five-parted; corolla ringent, upper lip 
three-parted, the middle part vaulted, emarginate ; gib¬ 
bous above at the bafe; antherte connected ; capfule two- 
celled ; feeds neftling. 
Species. 1. Columnea fcandcns, or climbing columnea: 
leaves ovate, acute, entire, fubvillofe; leaflets of the ca¬ 
lyx entire, corollas and calyxes pubefcent, upper lip un¬ 
divided. Stem fcandent, rooting, angular, fubquadran- 
gular, ftriated, fucculent, brittle, fomewhat hirfute; leaves 
petioled, oppofite, fmall, fcarcely nerved; flowers pe- 
duncled, folitary, axillary, blood-red, fomewhat villofe. 
Native of the Caribbee iflands, Martinico, and Guiana, 
in moift parts of woods at the foot of the mountains, ft 
is fubparafitical. Miller received feeds of this plant with 
fcarlet flowers from Carthagena in New Spain. Plumier’s 
columnea with a yellowiih flower is only a feminal va- 
riation. 
2. Columnea iongifolia, or long-leaved columnea: leaves 
lanceolate, very long, fubferrate, fmooth. Stem ereCf, 
two feet high, four-cornered, the thicknefs of an eagle’s 
quill, fmooth ; branches axillary, quite fimple, oppofite; 
leaves three inches long, fubfefiile, the upper furface 
rugged backwards, the under fmooth and paler; flowers 
in a raceme, all except the loweft axillary ones oppofite, 
•Solitary, Ipreading; the floral leaves lanceolate, quite en¬ 
tire. 
