CERBERA. 
till September; but they possess little interest, 
and are nearly akin to water-milfoil. 
CERBERA. A genus of ornamental, tropical, 
evergreen shrubs and trees, of the dog’s bane 
tribe. The Ahouai species, C. Ahowa?, is a native 
of Brazil and the West Indies, and was intro- 
duced to the hothouses of Britain in 1739. Its 
stem is irregular, sends out many crooked and 
rambling branches, and usually attains a height 
of from 10 to 20 feet; its leaves are thick, suc- 
culent, smooth, lucid green, full of milky juice, 
and about three inches long, and nearly two 
broad; and its flowers are produced in loose 
bunches at the ends of the branches, and have a 
cream-yellow colour, and a shape somewhat lke 
those of oleander, and bloom in June and July. 
“The wood of this tree,’ says Miller, “stinks 
most abominably; and the kernels of the nuts 
_are a most deadly poison, so that the Indians 
always caution their children against eating 
them, for they know of no antidote to expel this 
poison; nor will any of them use the wood for 
fuel: they take the kernels out of the shells, | 
into which they put small stones, then bore a 
hole through each shell, and string them; these 
|. they tie about their legs to dance with, as the 
| morris-dancers use bells.” —The odallam or man- 
ghas, C. odallam, is a native of India and of some 
parts of the West Indies, and was brought from 
| the former of these countries to Britain about 
the middle of last century. Its stem is woody, 
_ about 20 feet high, and profusely branched at 
the top ; its leaves are long, spear-shaped, round- 
| ed at their ends, thick, succulent, and lucid 
green; and its flowers have a white colour, and 
are produced in twos and threes, on long foot- 
stalks, at the ends of the branches.—The tanghin 
species, Cerbera Tanghin—called by Poiret Tan- 
ghinia veneniflua, and popularly the Madagascar 
ordeal-tree—was introduced to Britain from Ma- 
dagascar in 1826. It usually grows to the height 
of about 30 feet, and carries pink-coloured flowers 
in May. The kernels of its fruit are rather larger 
than almonds, and are so virulently poisonous 
that one kernel would destroy upwards of twenty 
persons. The priests of Madagascar, who act 
also as physicians, administer this poison to ac- 
cused or suspected persons as an ordeal, in the 
notion that it will convict the guilty, and clear 
the innocent. The timber of this species is hard, 
veined, and fit for cabinet-work and inlaying.— 
A species introduced to Britain from the Span- 
ish West Indies about the same time as the 
Ahouai, was popularly known, in Miller’s time, 
as the French physic-nut ; the bark of either the 
Odallam or Cerbera lactaria is purgative; the in- 
spissated juice of a species popularly known in 
Mexico as Ycotli, is a very virulent poison; and 
the genus in general borrows its name from the 
mythological dog Cerberus, on the strength of 
its highly poisonous character. Nine species, of 
from 3 to 30 feet in height, have been introduced 
to Britain, and six others are known to botanists. 
CEREUS. 759 
CERCIS. See Jupas-Tren. 
CEREAL GRASSES. Grasses whose seeds are 
used as corn. The mythological goddess of corn 
and harvests, among the pagan Romans, was Ce- 
res; and the festivals held at Rome in her hon- 
our were termed Cerealia. The grasses which 
yield corn, or which were cut down in harvest 
in order that their seeds might be thrashed out 
and used as food, were hence called cerealian 
grasses, or abbreviatedly cereal grasses. The 
chief of these at present cultivated, on a large 
scale, in Hurope are wheat, barley, oats, dantho- 
nia, rye, and maize; the principal cultivated on 
a small scale in Europe, are canary-grass and 
millet; and the principal cultivated, on a large 
scale, in the southern parts of the temperate 
zone, and within the tropics, are millet, setaria, 
sorghum, and rice. 
CEREBRUM. See Bratn. 
CERES. See Crruau GRAssEs. 
CERESIA. A small genus of grasses, of the 
spartina tribe, or with terminal spikes. Only 
one species, C. elegans, is known in Britain; and 
this was introduced in 1816, from Peru. But it 
has the appearance of an evergreen herb, grows 
to the height of about two feet, flowers in July 
and August, and ranks as an ornament of the 
greenhouse. The name ceresia alludes to the 
pagan goddess Ceres. 
CEREUS. A large and interesting genus of 
the opuntia or cactus tribe. Upwards of fifty 
species have been introduced to Great Britain ; 
and probably about a score of other species are 
known to botanists. The introduced species con- 
stitute a very important division of the cactus 
family, whether for their grotesqueness, their 
flowers, or their fruit; and, with scarcely an ex- 
ception, they require to be cultivated in a hot 
greenhouse. The royal, the polygonal, the re- 
pand, and the hexagonal, have usually a height 
of respectively 10, 10, 20, and 35 feet, and three 
or four others have a height of 6 or 7 feet; but 
all the rest vary in height from about 6 inches 
to 4 feet. A few have a trailing or rambling 
habit ; but most have the erect and compact 
habit of shrubs or undershrubs. The multangu- 
lar, the Peruvian, the woolly, the repand, and 
Royen’s, are remarkable principally for their 
fruit; the noble, the flagelliform, the great-flow- 
ering, Colvill’s, Napoleon’s, the triangular, the 
showiest, the splendid, the bristled, the crenated, 
and some hybrids are remarkable for the bril- 
liance and size of their flowers; and all or most 
of the others are remarkable chiefly for their 
very curious and grotesque appearance.—The 
great-flowering, known also as the night-flower- 
ing, C. grandiflorus, was introduced from Jamai- 
ca in 1700; it has a trailing habit, and is usually 
about a foot in height; and it produces very 
splendid whitish-yellow flowers, and blooms from 
June till August. So many as ten of its magni- 
ficent flowers are sometimes simultaneously in 
bloom; and even several series of such blooms 
ian a Ea 
