CARTHAMUS. 
place two single cross-bars, the one before and 
the other behind the wheels; and, when used 
for its’ proper purpose as a hay or corn cart, it 
permits the full breadth of the load to be laid 
from the commencement, and, in consequence, 
facilitates ladening, brings the centre of gravity 
lower than in the tilt-cart with hay-frame, and 
lessens the risk of upsetting from ruts, stones, or 
other small inequalities of surface—The cage- 
cart for carrying lambs and poultry to market, 
and some other carts of very peculiar construc- 
tion, have so restricted a use and so specific a 
character as not to require description; and 
| carts for carrying water and distributing liquid 
manure, will be more suitably noticed in articles 
of their own,—Warer-Cart and Liquip-Man- 
URE-CART. 
CARTAGEH. See Cart and Carrier (Common). 
CARTHAMUS. A genus of plants, of the 
thistle division of the composite order. A 
number of species formerly included in it are 
| now assigned to three other genera; and though 
about twenty known species are still included 
in it, only two of these, the dyer’s and the 
_ sharp-spined, both ornamental annuals, exist in 
Great Britain. The dyer’s species, Carthamus 
tinctorius, also popularly called dyer’s safflower 
and bastard saffron, is a native of Egypt, and 
was introduced thence to Britain about the 
middle of the sixteentth century. Its stem 
is smooth and hard, and branches toward the 
top; its leaves are ovate, and slightly spinous; 
its flowers have a vermilion or dark orange col- 
our, and appear in June and July; and its leaves 
are ovate, whitish brown, and about one-fifth of 
an inch in length. It is extensively cultivated 
in the Levant, and in Spain, France, and South- 
ern Germany, and might perhaps be profitably 
cultivated in the fields of some parts of Britain. 
It loves a rich soil of medium porosity, and ought, 
about the beginning of April, to be sown in rows 
_ two feet apart, and afterwards thinned out to 
_ distances of six inches between plant and plant. 
Its flowers, which constitute its chief feature of 
value, are gathered when fully expanded, and are 
dried on a kiln under pressure, and formed into 
small round cakes, for salein the shops; and though 
themselves of a vermilion or deep orange colour, 
they dye numerous shades of colour, from yellow to 
several kinds of red. The flowers are frequently 
mixed up with the styles and stigmas of the saf- 
fron crocus, so as to form a large proportion of 
the substance sold in the shops under the name 
of saffron ; and they are used also, in Spain and 
other countries, for colouring dishes and confec- 
tions. A fixed oil, of inferior value, is obtained 
from the seeds. 
CARTILAGE,—popularly Gristnz. An animal 
substance, nearly or quite identical in chemical 
| composition with coagulated albumen, but smooth, 
white, uniform, minutely fibrous, elastic, harder 
than most other animal substances except bone, 
and serving to give rigidity or tension to mem- 
$a TU 
| 
branous organs, and especially to give elasticity 
and articulated play to the action of bones. It 
possesses little vascularity, and small power of 
vitality, yet undergoes changes consequent upon 
both healthy and morbid action, and is furnished 
with a covering membrane called perichondrium ; - 
but whether, when partially destroyed, it is re- | 
producible by organic secretion is not known. | 
If fresh bones be digested in muriatie acid till 
all the earthy salts contained in them be dis- 
solved, a flexible mass, retaining their original 
figure, and consisting partly of cartilage but 
chiefly of gelatine, will remain; and if this flex- 
ible mass be slowly boiled in water, its gelatine 
will pass into solution, and its cartilage will be 
separated as a residuum. 
Cartilages, as they exist in the animal frame, 
are either articular, non-articular, or temporary ; 
and the non-articular are either attached or un- 
attached. Articular cartilages exist, in the form 
of a layer or tip, at the extremity of every arti- 
culated bone, and are thickest at the point of 
greatest pressure; and they enable the concave 
end of the one bone and the convex end of the 
other to slide easily upon one another, and pre- | 
vent, by their elasticity, all bad effects from fre- 
quent abrasion and concussion. The attached 
non-articular cartilages are situated at the ends 
of non-articulated bones or between immoveably 
joined bonés, as on the sides of the foot and be- 
tween the bones of the ribs; and they give to all | 
such bones a flexibility or power of flexile play 
which they otherwise would not possess. The 
unattached non-articular cartilages give tension 
and rigidity to parts, such as the ears and the | 
larynx, which are unsustained by interior bone. 
Temporary cartilages are succedanea for portions | 
of bones in young animals, and they possess com- 
paratively great vascularity and absorbability, 
and in consequence are easily ossified, or readily 
make way by absorption for the secretive de- 
position of the matter of bones. 
lages of all parts of the horse, and particularly 
of his feet, are more liable to ossification than 
those of any other animal whose cartilaginous | 
history is known; and they always become more 
or less ossified as horses advance in age, so as to 
occasion the stiffness of limb and great difficulty 
of movement by which all old horses are painfully 
and very observably distinguished. Ossification 
of the cartilages of the horse’s foot may occur at 
any period, as a consequence of inflammation 
from bruises or other injuries; and when it takes 
place, it invariably constitutes what is techni- 
cally called an “ unsoundness.” 
CART-LODGE. A small out-house for shelter- 
ing carts from the weather. Carts kept under 
proper shelter when not in use, last far longer 
than if allowed to stand exposed in the yard. See 
the article ImprzmEnts. 
CARUM. See Caraway. 
CARUNCLEH. The fleshy tubercular substance 
at the inner corner of the eye. It directs the 
The carti- | 
