CHRYSURUS. 
Homer’s beauties, and alludes to the bright gold- 
en colour of the flowers; and the name Esch- 
scholtzia is in honour of the botanist Eschscholtz, 
who accompanied Kotzebue in his voyage round 
the world. The latter of these names, besides 
being almost unpronounceable, was pre-occupied, 
in the milder form of Elsholtzia, by a genus of 
the labiate family, and ought therefore to be dis- 
continued, The Californian species, Chryseis Ca- 
lifornica, was introduced to Britain from Calli- 
fornia in 1826; and two other species, C. crocea 
and C. compacta, have since been introduced from 
the same country. But the three species differ 
from one another only in minute features, and 
possess so nearly a common character as to have 
been very generally regarded as mere varieties. 
All are brilliant, very handsome, and well worthy 
of cultivation; all have a creeping habit, brittle 
stems, and golden-coloured flowers; and all, though 
ranking with some botanists as biennials, and 
with others as tuberous-rooted perennials, are 
capable of as prompt, facile, and hardy cultiva- 
tion, as the least fastidious and most rapidly 
flowering of the common hardy annuals. The 
Californian species is already <o be seen in mul- 
titudes of the smallest class of parterres, and 
well deserves all the popularity it has so rapidly 
attained. The saffron-coloured species is distin- 
guished from the Californian almost solely by 
the tint of its flowers; and the compact species, 
by the comparative smallness of its flowers, and 
by having the segments of its leaves very slightly 
toothed, instead of deeply lobed. 
CHRYSOBALANUS. See Cocoa Pivm. 
CHRYSOCOMA. See Goupytocks. 
CHRYSOPHYLLUM. See Srar-Apptt. 
CHRYSURUS. A small genus of hardy, an- 
nual grasses, of the dog’s-tail-grass tribe. The 
hedgehog species, C. echinatus, grows wild on the 
sandy fields of England. It has a height of 2 or 
24 feet, and flowers in August, but has a weedy 
character. The elegant species, C. elegans, but 
esteemed by some botanists a Cynosurus, was in- 
troduced from the south of Europe in 1816, grows 
a foot high, and has a handsome appearance. 
Two other species are known, and have been in- 
troduced. } 
CHYME, in animal economy. In the process 
of digestion, the food is subjected to a tempera- 
ture usually above 90° of Fahrenheit. It is 
mixed with the gastric juice, a liquor secreted 
by the glands of the stomach, and is made to un- 
dergo a moderate and alternate pressure, by the 
contraction of the stomach itself. It is thus 
converted into a soft, uniform mass, of a greyish 
colour, in which the previous texture or nature 
of the aliment can be no longer distinguished. 
The chyme, as this pulpy mass into which the 
food in the stomach is resolved is termed, passes 
by the pylorus into the intestinal canal, where 
it is mixed with the pancreatic juice and the 
bile, and is still exposed to the same temperature 
and alternating pressure. The thinner parts of 
- ee 
Ce 
CHURN. 805 
it are absorbed by the slender tubes termed the 
lacteals. The liquor thus absorbed is of a white 
colour; it passes through the glands of the me- 
sentery, and is at length conveyed by the thoracic 
duct into the blood. This part of the process is 
termed chylification, and the white liquor thus 
formed chyle. It is an opaque, milky fluid, mild 
to the taste. By standing for some time, one 
part of it coagulates; another portion is coagu- 
lated by heat. ‘The chyle, after mixing with the 
lymph conveyed by the absorbent vessels, is re- 
ceived into the blood, which has returned from 
the extreme vessels, before this passes to the 
heart. All traces of it are very soon lost in the 
blood, as it mixes perfectly with that fluid. It 
is probable, however, that its nature is not im- 
mediately completely altered. The blood passing 
from the heart is conveyed to the lungs, where it 
circulates over a very extensive surface presented 
to the atmospheric air, with the intervention of 
a very thin membrane, which does not prevent 
their mutual action. During this circulation, 
the blood loses a considerable quantity of carbon, 
part of which, it is probable, is derived from the 
imperfectly assimilated chyle, as this, originating 
in part from vegetable matter, must contain car- 
bon in larger proportion than even the blood it- 
self. See the article Nutrition. 
CHURN. A machine for separating the buty- 
raceous matter from cream or milk, and, in con- 
sequence, making butter. Churns are exceed- 
ingly various in size and construction, and con- 
siderably diversified in the kind of power by 
which they are worked, and the manner in which 
that power is applied. 
The plunge-churn worked by hand is the sim- 
plest, and was, for a long time, the most common ; 
but, in almost all dairies except those of mere 
cottages, it has been completely superseded. It 
consists of an upright, wooden, cylindrical vessel ; 
a lid or cover, with a small central aperture ; 
and a long moveable handle, inserted through 
this aperture, and terminating in a circular and 
plentifully perforated board, of a size nearly to 
fit the cylinder, and yet to admit of being freely 
moved up and down among the cream or milk, 
The simple perpendicular motion of the handle, 
playing constantly up and down like a piston, 
abundantly agitates the cream or milk by means 
of the perforated board; but the process is both 
laborious and somewhat tedious. 
The barrel-churn consists of a wide cylinder or 
unbulged barrel, mounted horizontally upon a 
frame ; an axle inserted through the centre of 
the barrel, from end to end; fans or arms, at- 
tached lengthwise to the axle, just broad enough 
to revolve within the barrel, and constituting 
with the axle a kind of fan-wheel; and external 
appliances, principally a toothed-wheel and a fly- 
wheel, for putting and maintaining the fly-wheel 
in revolving motion. A short horizontal handle 
is attached to one of the spokes of the fly-wheel ; 
and a single person, by keeping hold of this and 
