CAPON. 
nity, in the aggregate, can have fictitious capital 
only in case of its members having an excessive 
credit in a foreign country. But the members 
may, among themselves, have a fictitious capital, 
by too great a facility of credits in their dealings 
with each other, and the fiction, in this case, is 
in their false promises of payment, 
CAPIVI. See Coparpa. 
CAPON. A castrated male chicken. He is cas- 
trated as soon as he leaves the hen, or at least as 
soon as he begins to crow. Capons seem to have, at 
one time, been almost as common among the domes- 
tic poultry of our yards, as oxen are, at present, 
among the cattle of our fields; they appear, also, 
to have been universally regarded as superior to 
other chickens in at once. size, good temper, and 
readiness to fatten ; and they were regarded like- 
wise as very serviceable for breeding chicks, duck- 
lings, young turkeys, young pheasants, and young 
partridges, and as superior to the natural pro- 
tectresses of these broods, both in conducting 
them to good feeding grounds, and in defending 
them against kites and buzzards. 
to other chickens; many view the probable ad- 
vantages of them as not worth the trouble of 
castration ; and many, who otherwise would be 
disposed to keep capons, either dislike to inflict 
the pain of castration, or cannot contrive to get 
the act performed. 
CAPPARIS. See Caprr. 
CAPPED HOCK. See Caputer. 
CAPRIFOLIUM. A genus of beautiful and 
fragrant plants, represented by the well-known 
woodbine or honeysuckle, and forming the type 
of the natural order Caprifoliaceze. See the ar- 
ticle Honrysucxir. The name caprifolium means 
goat-leaf, and is a fanciful allusion to a supposed 
| resemblance between the woodbine’s and the 
goat’s manner of climbing. The order Caprifo- 
liaceze comprises eleven genera, and has within 
the gardens and shrubberies of Britain nearly 
one hundred and twenty species. Most of the 
plants included in it possess great beauty or a 
large amount of other pleasing recommendations; 
and are either twining or erect shrubs, with 
cymes of white blossoms, or clusters of odorifer- 
ous yellow, white, or scarlet flowers. Some of 
the most widely diffused are the honeysuckles, 
the alder, the loniceras, the dogwoods, the vibur- 
nums, and the symphorias. 
CAPSELLA. See SHupHerp’s Purse. 
CAPSICUM. A genus of cultivated and pun- 
gent-fruited plants, of the nightshade tribe. 
Nearly thirty species are known to botanists, and 
upwards of twenty of these, besides some varie- 
ties, have been introduced to Great Britain from 
India, China, Egypt, South America, and the 
West Indies; and all, or very nearly all are cul- 
tivated in their native countries, and may be 
| fruited in Great Britain, for the produce of their 
berries, the well-known cayenne pepper of com- 
merce. About three-fourths of the introduced 
But many per- | 
| sons now regard capons as not a particle superior 
CAPSICUM. 
species are evergreen, hothouse under-shrubs, of 
from one foot to four feet in height,—most of 
them carrying white flowers at some time be- 
tween April and the latter part of July; and all || 
the remainder are annual plants, of various de- 
grees of tenderness or hardiness. 
The species called emphatically the annual, 
Capsicum annuum, appears to yield much more of 
the cayenne pepper of commerce than any other 
species. This is a native of both Indies, and 
was introduced to Britain about the middle 
of the 16th century. Its stem is herbaceous, 
smooth, roundish, crooked, branching, and from 
twelve to thirty inches in height; its leaves 
are smooth, ovate, entire, and stand on long, 
irregularly produced footstalks; its flowers are 
axillary, solitary, and white, and appear in 
June and July; and its fruit is a long, pendu- 
lous, two-celled, pod-like berry, sometimes of a 
yellow colour, but generally of a shining orange- 
scarlet.—The frutescent species, Capsicum frutes- 
cens, probably produces better cayenne pepper 
than any other of the East India species. It 
is cultivated in every part of Hindostan; and 
was introduced thence to Britain about the | 
middle of the 17th century. It is an evergreen 
under-shrub, of about the same height as the 
annual species, and carries pale yellow flowers 
from June till September. A variety of it 
called the subtwisted, C. f. torulosum, carries 
white flowers, and grows to about twice the 
height of the normal plant, and was introduced | 
to Britain from India in 1820.—The berried spe- 
cies, Capsicum baccatum, produces the best kind 
of cayenne pepper which arrives, ready prepared, 
in the ports of Britain. It grows only in the West 
Indies, and was introduced thence to Britain 
about 15 years ago. Itisanunder-shrub of three 
or four feet in height, and carries white flowers 
from June till September. Both the fruit of this 
species and that of the frutescent species is very 
commonly known in commerce under the name 
of bird pepper.—The large-fruited species, Capsi- 
cum grossum, is extensively grown in India for 
pickling, and was introduced to Britain about 
the middle of last century. It has the lowest 
growth of any in the genus, and, though an un- 
der-shrub, is only a biennial; and it carries white 
flowers, and blooms in July. Two varieties of 
it, the globe-fruited and the yellow-fruited, at- 
tain twice its own height, and are also cultivated 
in India, 
tender and fleshy skin than that of any other 
species, and is therefore eminently adapted for 
pickling. But the fruit of the hardier and more 
common species is extensively raised in Spain, 
Portugal, and the south of France, both to be 
eaten green, and to be pickled as a substitute for 
capers; and the fruit of many of the species and 
varieties is indiscriminately thrown together, or 
mixed up in India, to form inferior kinds of cay- 
enne pepper. | 
The ripe fruit of the Capsicum baccatum, as 
The fruit of this species has a more | 
