COM 
maimer, appearing as foon. as the rivers are open. The 
young fly before the end of Augufr, and they all depart 
in September. 
27. Colymbus flriatus, the frriped diver; weight be¬ 
tween two and three pounds; bill three inches long, and 
black; head and neck light grey, ftriped regularly down¬ 
wards with long, narrow., black lines ; back and fcapulars 
dufky and plain ; primaries, tail, and legs, dufky; cheeks, 
and whole under tide of the body, glofiy white. It inha¬ 
bits the inland lakes of Hudfon’s Bay, about one hun¬ 
dred miles fouthward of York Fort. Lays, in June, two 
eggs ; flies high, and pafi'es backwards and forwards, 
making a great noife, which is faid to portend rain ; it is 
detetled by the natives, who look on this note as Jiiper- 
naturai: named, at Hudfon’s Bay, mathcmoqua. 
28 Colymbus Sinenfis, the Chinefe diver; bill dufky; 
irides afh-colour; the upper parts of the head, neck, bo¬ 
dy, wings, and tail, dufky greenifh brown ; the middle of 
the feathers much darker; the fore-part of the neck the 
fame, but coniiderably paler; chin pale rufous; breatf, 
and under parts of the body, pale rufous white, marked 
with dufky rufous fpots; the quills and tail are pale brown ; 
legs afh-colour. Native of China. 
COM, or Kom, a town of Pertia, in the province of 
Irak Agemi, celebrated for its lilk manufactures, chiefly 
velvets: ninety miles fouth of Cafbin, and 150 north of 
Ifpahan. 
CO'MA,/ [from x«, or ;ce a, to lie down ] This word 
anciently denoted any total fuppreffion of the powers of 
fenfe ; but now it means a lethargic drowlinefs. The co¬ 
ma vigil is a difeafe where the patients are continually in¬ 
clined to deep, but cannot. In botany, it means the top 
of a branch, or flower when it refembles a lock of hair, 
from y.a^n, a lock of hair. 
COM'A AU'REA, / in botany. See Athanasia, 
Chrysocoma, and Gnaphalium. 
CO'MA BERENICES, Bcrenice’s Hair,/. A mo¬ 
dern conftella'cion of the northern hemifphere ; compofed 
of unformed liars between the Lion’s taii and Bootes. It 
is laid that this conlleilation was formed by Conon, an 
allronomer, to conlole the queen of Ptolemy Euergetes, 
for the lofs of a lock of her hair, which was ltolen out of 
the temple of Venus, where (lie had dedicated it on ac¬ 
count of a viblory obtained by her hulband. The liars in 
this conlleilation are, in Tycho’s catalogue fourteen, in 
Hevelius’s twenty-one, and in the Britannic catalogue 
forty-three. 
COMA'CHIO, a town of Italy in the duchy of Ferrara, 
fituated in a marfliy country, called the Valley of Comacbio, 
the fee of a bifhop, fuffragan of Ravenna; it was taken 
by the imperiaiilts in 1708, but reftored by Charles VI. 
to pope Benedict XIII. twenty-eight miles ealt of Ferrara, 
and forty-nine fouth of Venice. Lat.44.42. N. Ion. 29. 
52. E. Ferro. 
COMA'NA, anciently a city of Cappadocia, famous 
for a temple of Bellona, where there were above 6000 mi- 
nillers of both fexes. The chief prieft among them was 
very powerful, and knew no fuperior but the king of the 
country. This high office was generally conferred upon 
one of the royal family. Strabo. 
COMA'NA, a town and province in the northern di- 
vifion of Terra Firma, South America. It lies oa the 
aorth-eafternmofl part of the fea-coalt. 
CO'MAR, or Komar, in Hindoollan, a zemindar’s 
demefne of land. 
COMAR'GO, a town of New Leon, in North America, 
fituated on the fouth fide of Rio Bravo, which empties 
into the gulf of Mexico on the well fide. 
COMAROI'DES,/ in botany. See' Potentilla. 
COM ART, f. This word feems to fignify treaty; ar¬ 
ticle 5 from con and mart, or market: 
By the fame comart , 
And carriage of the articles defign’d, 
His fell to Hamlet. Sbakcfpeare. 
COM 84 3 
COMART'CH, a l iver of South Wales, in the county 
of Brecknock, which runs into the Yrvon : eight miles- 
weft of Bealth. 
COM'ARUM,/ [ v.opa.foc of Theophraftus, is an ever¬ 
green-tree.] In botany, a genus of the clafs icofandria, 
order polygynia, natural order fenticofe. The generic 
charadters are—Calyx : perianthiuni one-leafed, ten cleft, 
very large, fp reading, coloured; alternatedivifionsl mailer, 
inferior, permanent. Corolla : petals five, oblong, acu¬ 
minate, three times fmaller than the calyx on which they 
are inferted. Stamina: filaments twenty, fubulate, in- 
ferted into the calyx, length of the corolla, permanent; 
antherae lunular, deciduous. Piftillum : germs numerous, 
roundifh, very fmall, collected into a head ; flyles fimple, 
fliort, from the fide of the germ; fligmas fimple. Peri-’ 
carpi urn: none; common receptacle of the feeds ovate, 
flefliy, very large, permanent. Seeds: numerous, acu¬ 
minate, covering the receptacle— EJfential Character. Ca¬ 
lyx ; ten cleft; petals five, fmaller than the calyx ; re- 
ceptaculum of the feeds ovate, fpongy, permanent. 
There is but one fpecies, called comarum paluflre, or 
marfh cinquefoil; with creeping woody roots, which fend 
out many black fibres, penetrating deep into boggy- 
ground; flems many, herbaceous, about two feet high, 
generally inclining to the ground. At each joint is one 
leaf, compofed of five, fix, or feven, leaflets. The petals 
are not more than a third part of the flze of the calyx. 
It is a native of moll parts of Europe, in boggy ground. 
A few plants are growing upon a bog at Hampitead ; but 
the nearefl place to London where it grows wild in plen¬ 
ty, is in the meadows near Guilford in Surrey. It is found 
alfo at Selburne, in Hampfhire; near Bromfgrove Lickey, 
in Worcellerfhire; Gamlingay, in C.'.mbridgefhire; in- 
Norfolk; near Colchefler, in Eflex ; Gigglelwick Tarn, 
near Settle; in Scotland and Ireland. The roots dye 
wool of a dirty red colour, and have altringency enough, 
with other plants of the fame order, to tan leather. The 
Irifh rub their milking pails w'ith it, to make the milk' 
appear thicker and richer. Goats eat it. Cows and flieep 
are not fond of it. Horfes and fwine refufe it. Flowers- 
in June. There is a variety with thicker and more vil- 
lofe leaves^which grows plentifully in Ireland, and in the' 
north of England ; but, after one year’s growth in a gar¬ 
den, it is not to be diltinguifhed from the cofnmon fort. 
Propagation and Culture. This plant, being a native of 
bogs, cannot well be preferved in a garden, except it be 
planted in a foil congenial to its natural one. The roots 
may be removed from the place of their growth in Ofto- 
ber, and will be in no danger of fucceeding if they are 
planted in boggy ground. 
CO'MATE,/ [from con and mate.'] Companion.—My 
comates and brothers in exile. Sbakefpeare. 
CO'MATE, adj. \_comatus , Lat.] Seeming to have a 
bulb appendant: 
How comaie, crinite, caudate, ftars, are fram’d, 
I knew. Fairfax . 
COMATO'SE, adj. Lethargic ; fleepy to a diieafe.—■ 
Our beil caltbr is from Ruffia; the great and principal 
ufe whereof, is in hyflerical and comatofe cafes. Grewu. 
COMB in the end, and Comp in the beginning, of names,, 
feem to be derived from the Britifh kum, which flgnifies a 
low fltuation. Camden. —In Cornifh, comb flgnifies a valley, 
and had the fame meaning anciently in the French tongue. 
COMB,/ [camb, Sax. kam , Dut.] An inllrument to- 
feparate and adjult the hair: 
By fair Ligea’s golden comb , 
Wherewith fhe fits on diamond rocks. 
Sleeking her loft aliuiing locks. Milton. 
The top or creft of a cock, fo called from its pefilinated" 
indentures.—Cocks have great combs and fpurs, hens lit¬ 
tle or none. Bacon. 
High was his comb, and coral red withal, 
With dents embattled like a caltle-vvalh Dry den. 
The 
