872 CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE. 
whole tribe, Its stem is strong and stocky ; its 
leaves are thick, rough, and very bright ; its tu- 
bular flowers are half bright scarlet and half 
light green, in a similar manner to those of C. 
“speciosa, but are shorter and not so thin; and its 
whole appearance, even when out of flower, is 
not a little handsome. But a race of exquisite 
hybrids have been raised in England, principally 
by Mr. Milner; and these have greatly eclipsed all 
the natural species except C. bzcolor and C. spect- 
osa, and constitute a large proportion of the 
choicest correeas at present in cultivation. One 
of the most imposing of the hybrids is C. longr- 
flora, its leaves are ovate, obtuse, and covered 
on the upper surface with a slight ferruginous 
down; and its flowers are very long, and are 
covered with a similar down to that which is on 
the leaves, and have a delicate rose colour, alto- 
gether untinted with any other hue. Others of 
the fine hybrids and varieties are known as C. 
Milnerii, C. Harrissit, O. grandiflora, C. Cunning- 
ham, C. rosea, O. rosea major, C. quadriformis, 
and C, speciosa major. 
CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE,-—chemically Bz- 
chloride of mercury. A most powerful medicinal 
preparation, acting in even very small quantity 
as a virulent poison. It is prepared by sublim- 
ing a mixture of two equivalents of chloride of 
sodium and one equivalent of bisulphate of per- 
oxide of mercury; these substances producing, 
by mutual change of elements, an equivalent of 
corrosive sublimate and two equivalents of sul- 
phate of soda. Corrosive sublimate is a colour- 
less, semi-transparent, crystalline substance ; it 
has an acrid, burning taste, and leaves upon the 
tongue a nauseous metallic flavour ; it is upwards 
of five times the weight of its own bulk of water ; 
it can be dissolved in twice its weight of boiling 
water, but cannot be dissolved in less than twenty 
times its weight of cold water; and, when taken 
into solution in hot water, it subsides, in the 
process of cooling, into prismatic crystals. It is 
sometimes most advantageously administered, in 
small doses, for farcy in horses; it is often used, 
in solution, as an external application, to cure 
scab and mange, to destroy vermin, and to dis- 
pose deep and refractory ulcers to heal; and it is 
occasionally employed, in very weak solution, to 
remove cloudiness from the eyes of animals. But 
in all cases, especially of internal exhibition, it is 
vastly too active a substance to occupy a place 
among the home-drugs of a farm, and still less 
among the medicaments of a quack; andit ought 
to be known by any but professional persons, only 
that it may be shunned and dreaded in precisely 
the same degree as arsenic. 
CORSELET. See Tuorax. 
CORTEX. See Bark. 
CORYANTHES. A very curious, singularly 
splendid, and recently introduced genus of tropi- 
cal epiphytous plants, of the orchis tribe. The 
spotted species, C. maculata, was brought to Bri- 
tain from Demerara in 1829. Its stem is usually 
CORYDALIS. 
about a foot high; and the parts of its flowers | 
are so curious in form and colouring, and so very 
varied in appearance, that an observer who, for 
the first time, observes them pendant on the 
trunks of trees in their native region, doubts 
whether they are flowers, insects, or birds. “The 
lip is furnished near its base with a yellow cup, 
over which hang two horns constantly distilling 
water into it, and in such abundance as to fill it 
several times; this cup communicates by a nar- 
row channel formed of the inflated margin of 
the lip, with the upper end of the latter; and 
this also is a capacious vessel very much like 
an old helmet, into which the honey that the cup 
cannot contain may run over.” The helmet-like 
vessel has suggested the name Coryanthes, which 
signifies ‘helmet -flower.—A species, fully as 
curious as the preceding, though not so florally 
splendid, C. macrantha, has been introduced from 
the Caraccas. 
CORYCARPUS. A genus of grasses, of the 
fescue tribe. Only one species, the reed-like, C. 
arundinaceus, is known; and this was brought 
from North America about 36 years ago, and 
was called by Michaux Festuca diandra. Its root 
is perennial ; its culm rises to the height of be- 
tween two and three feet; its flowers appear 
from April till July ; and its seeds have a curious, 
helmet-like appearance, and are alluded to in the 
name corycarpus. 
CORYDALIS. <A genus of hardy ornamental 
plants, of the fumitory tribe. The hollow-rooted 
species, Corydalis tuberosa, formerly called /uma- 
ria cava, was introduced to Britain from the 
south of Europe near the close of the 16th cen- 
tury; and it was, for a long time, a favourite as 
an ornamental plant, but was eventually super- 
seded by more showy novelties. Its root is tu- 
berous, large, and hollow in the middle; its stem 
is about six inches high, and does not ramify; a 
single ramose leaf, somewhat like that of the 
common fumitory, but with broader lobes, gar- | 
nishes the bottom of the stem; and its flowers 
are produced in a spike at the top of the stem, 
have a pale purplish colour, and appear from | 
February till May. A variety of this species, C.- 
t. albiflora, has white-coloured flowers, and is 
considerably taller than the normal plant. A 
peculiar alkaline principle, to which the name of 
corydalin has been given, exists in the root of 
Corydalis tuberosa, as a soluble: malate, and can 
be precipitated from its aqueous solution by mag- | 
nesia, and purified by alcohol. 
The yellow corydalis, C. lutea, is a perennial- 
rooted indigenous herb, with a stem about 20 
inches high, and with yellow flowers blooming 
from April till October, occasionally to be seen on 
old walls in England.—The tendrilled species, C. 
claviculata, is a climbing annual plant of British 
thickets, growing to the height of 6 or 8 feet, 
and carrying whitish-yellow flowers in June and 
July.—The bulbous species, C. bulbosa, formerly 
called Fumaria solida, is a beautiful tuberous- 
