a 
\f = 
866 CORDWOOD. 
difficult surgical operation seems to be the only 
remedy. 
CORDWOOD. The topwood, twigs, roots, and 
other small and refuse wood of coppices, disposed 
in heaps and sold for fuel and for the uses of ships 
of war. It acquired its name from the circum- 
stance of its having formerly been measured with 
a cord. A statute heap of cordwood is 8 feet 
long, four feet broad, and 4 feet high. 
COREOPSIS. A genus of ornamental herba- 
ceous plants, of the sunflower division of the 
composite order. About 25 species have been 
introduced to Britain, principally from North 
America and the West Indies; these vary in 
height from 2 to 10 feet; all, with two partial 
exceptions, have yellow-coloured flowers; and 
four are hardy annuals, one is a tender annual, 
two are hardy biennials, one is a tender biennial, 
two are tender climbing perennials, and all the 
others are more or less hardy deciduous peren- 
nials. Two or three of the hardy annuals possess 
a comparatively high degree of beauty; and the 
flowers of the ear-leaved perennial, Coreopsis aurt- 
culata, as well as those of an annual species, for- 
merly called Coreopsis tinctoria, but now called 
Calliopsis bicolor, are used by the people of North 
America for the extraction of a reddish dye. 
Some of the American species are popularly 
called Virginian corn marigold; and a consider- 
able number of species which were formerly com- 
prised in the genus coreopsis, are now distributed 
among nine other genera. 
CORETHROSTYLIS. A recently discovered 
genus of Australian ornamental shrubs. The 
rosy-armed corethrostylis, C. bracteata, was in- 
troduced to Britain from the Swan-river settle- 
ment in 1844. Its leaves are heart-shaped, hairy, 
and fragrant, and stand on long footstalks. Its 
flowers are stellate, have a pinkish-rose colour, 
are produced in forked spikes, and flourish in 
great profusion; and beneath each floral spike is 
a little rosy bract or rose-coloured leaf. This 
shrub seems to possess the degree of tenderness 
which is common among New Holland plants. 
CORIANDER,—botanically Coriandrum. A 
small genus of annual plants, of the umbellifer- 
ous order. The cultivated species, Cortandrum 
sativum, was originally introduced to Britain 
from Italy, but now grows wild in fields about 
Ipswich, and in some parts of Hssex. Its stem 
is erect, smooth, round, branching, and about 
two feet high; its leaves are compound,—the 
lower ones pinnated, with cut cuneiform folioles, 
and the upper ones thrice ternate, with linear 
pointed segments; both its chief and its subor- 
dinate umbels are much rayed; its flowers have 
a reddish-white colour, and appear in June; and 
its fruit is globular and obscurely ribbed, and 
comprises two concave hemispherical seeds. The 
‘whole of the plant, in a green state, has a very 
offensive odour; and the seeds, when ripe and 
_ dry, have an agreeable aromatic smell, and a 
_ somewhat warm and pleasantly aromatic taste. 
CORK-TREE. 
The leaves, when raised in garden culture, are 
used in soups and salads; and the seeds, as ob- 
tained by either garden or field culture, yield an 
essential oil, have carminative and aromatic pro- 
perties, and are extensively used for their agree- 
able dovonee in confectionary, and for their medi- 
cinal properties or for modifying the taste of 
nauseous drugs in pharmacy. 
The cultivated coriander is frequently grown, 
in the south of England, conjointly or mixedly 
with caraway; and it might, no doubt, be suc- 
cessfully and profitably cultivated in the same 
manner in other parts of England and in the 
south of Scotland. See the article Caraway. 
But a mode of joint growth with caraway, seem- 
ingly preferable to that which is practised by the 
English farmers, would be to sow the two crops 
in alternate drills, and so permit the caraway to 
be easily hoed and cleaned after the removal of 
the coriander.—Sowings in the garden may be 
made under a frame in early spring, in the open 
ground at intervals from middle spring till the 
end of August, and again under a frame in Sep- 
tember and October. The sowings may be made 
half an inch deep, and in drills 8 inches apart ; 
and the young plants ought to be thinned out to 
distances of four inches from one another, and 
kept clear of weeds, but will not endure to be 
transplanted.—Iwo uninteresting annuals for- 
merly regarded as corianders now constitute the 
genus biforis; and two other species still re- 
garded as corianders are known to botanists, 
CORIARIA. A genus of plants, constituting 
the natural order Coriariez, or Coriariacez. 
They are somewhat allied to the rutacez, but 
have no dots on their leaves. Only seven spe- 
cies are known; and two of these, the myrtle- 
leaved and the twiggy, occur in British gardens, 
The myrtle-leaved, C. myrtifolia, is a hardy, ever- 
green, ornamental shrub ; and was introduced 
from the south of Kurope in the former half of 
the 17th century. Its stem and branches are 
covered with greyish spotted bark, and usually 
attain a height of from 4 to 6 feet; its wood is 
very brittle, and full of light pith; its young 
shoots are angular, and grow in great number, 
and in groups of three or four; its leaves are 
opposite, oblong, pointed, bright green, and cori- 
aceous; its flowers grow in spikes at the ends 
and sides of the branches, have a greenish colour 
and but little beauty, and bloom from May till 
August; and its berries are succulent and very 
poisonous. The leaves have astringent proper- 
ties, and are employed by dyers for dyeing black. 
The leathery texture of the leaves gives occasion 
to the generic name coriaria, which is formed 
from a word signifying ‘ leather ;’ and a certain 
resemblance which they bear to the leaves of 
myrtle, gives occasion to the specific name myr- 
tifolia,—and also attaches to the plant the popu- 
lar name of myrtle-leaved sumach. 
CORISPERMUM. See Ticksrxp. 
CORK-TREE,—botanically Quercus Suber, A 
