CUPANIA. 
shrubs, and belongs principally to Southern 
Africa and the warmer parts of South Amer- 
ica. The bark of some of its species pos- 
sesses much tannin and is very astringent. Not 
more than about a dozen species have been in- 
troduced to Britain; and these are distributed 
among the genera cunonia, callicoma, ceratope- 
talum, bauera, and weinmannia. Only one spe- 
cies of the genus cunonia, C. capensis, is known 
in the gardens of Britain; and this is an orna- 
mental, evergreen, white-flowering, Cape-of-Good- 
Hope tree, of naturally about 25 feet in height, 
CUPANIA. A genus of beautiful, evergreen, 
tropical shrubs and trees, of the soap-berry tribe. 
Seven or eight species have been introduced to 
the hothouses of Britain, from Mexico and both 
of the Indies; and about as many more have 
been scientifically described. The introduced 
species carry white flowers, and vary in height 
from two to eight yards. 
CUPHEA. A genus of very beautiful exotic 
plants, of the salicaria tribe. Upwards of a dozen 
species have been introduced to British gardens; 
and nearly a score of additional species have been 
botanically described. Five of the introduced 
species are half-hardy annuals; and most of the 
others are hothouse, evergreen undershrubs. The 
flower of each species is very irregular in con- 
figuration, and has a spur or protuberance at the 
posterior base of the calyx; and the seed-vessel 
is correspondingly curious.—The lance-leaved 
species, C. lanceolata, is a native of Mexico, and 
was introduced to Britain in 1796, and, after be- 
coming lost, was recently reintroduced. Its root 
is annual or biennial; its stem is erect, cylindri- 
cal, branching, and purple; its leaves are oppo- 
site, lanceolate, obtuse, entire, and two inches 
long; and its flowers are solitary and peduncu- 
late, and have an imposing appearance and a 
beautiful purple violet colour,—and each has four 
petals at top like a pansy, and four small ones at 
bottom. The whole plant is profusely clothed 
with soft clammy purple hairs, and emits a pow- 
erful balsamic odour., It was formerly treated as 
a stove plant, but it now grows and matures its 
seeds in the open border.—The very clammy spe- 
cies, C. viscosissuma, is a purple-flowered annual, 
of about a foot in height, introduced from Amer- 
ica, seventy yearsago. The procumbent species, 
C. procumbens, is a pale-purple-flowered annual 
of about a foot in height, introduced from Mexico 
in 1816. The silene-like species, C. selenovdes, is 
a bluish-flowered annual, of about two feet in 
height, introduced in 1836.—The hairy species, 
C. strigillosa, is a neat-growing stove plant, intro- 
duced in 1844. Its leaves are oval heart-shaped, 
and of a lively green colour; and its flowers are 
tubular,—and when grown in a stove are yellow- 
ish,—but when grown in a cooler temperature, 
are vermilion-coloured on the exposed side, and 
yellow beneath. 
CUPRESSUS. See Cypress. 
- CURAGUA. See Inpran Cory. 
- 915 
.CURB. A disease in the limbs of the horse 
It consists in an extension of the ligaments of 
the hock; it sometimes is partly or perhaps 
wholly occasioned by the kind of distortion or 
malformation in the limbs popularly termed 
“sickle hams;” but it is more frequently caused 
by violent jerking of the ligaments of the hock, 
or of the sheath of the tendons passing down- 
ward from them, in leaping, rearing, kicking, or 
sudden and excessive straining. ‘The lameness 
connected with curb is in some instances consid > 
erable, in most somewhat inconsiderable, and in 
all such as to constitute a greater or less de- 
gree of unsoundness. The proper treatment of 
it is the same as that of other ligamentary ex- 
tensions. 
CURCULIGO. A genus of tender, evergreen, 
herbaceous, ornamental plants, of the hypoxis 
tribe. The name curculigo is formed from a 
word signifying “a weevil,” and alludes to the 
beetle-like shape of the seeds. The orchis-like 
species, C. orchioides, is a native of India, and 
was introduced to Britain about 25 years ago. 
It grows 6 or 8 inches high, and carries a yellow 
flower in June and July. Its tuberous and 
wrinkled root has a somewhat bitter and muci- 
laginous taste; and is prescribed, by the Hindoo 
physicians, in the form of electuary, for purify- 
ing and sweetening the blood. Five or six other 
species, varying in height from a few inches to 
upwards of a yard, and all carrying yellow flow- 
ers, have been introduced from India and the 
Cape of Good Hope. 
CURCUMA. See Turmeric. 
CURD. The coagulum of milk, comprising its 
caseous ingredients, and constituting the mate- 
rial for cheese. See the article Currss. Curd, 
as obtained either by the natural souring of 
milk, or by the chemical action of rennet, or of 
an intermixed acid, is a white, insipid, odourless 
substance, soluble by alkalies, insoluble in water, 
and convertible by alcohol into a very fetid mat- 
ter, of the colour and consistency of spermaceti. 
Nearly the whole of the curd of milk may be 
completely separated from the whey by means of 
steady and prolonged heat at the boiling point of 
milk. “Tt still,” says Dr. Thomson, “retains its 
sweet taste; but much of the milky flavour is 
dissipated. If it be now evaporated over the 
steam-bath, it deposits a number of crystals of 
sugar of milk. Towards the end of the evaporation, 
some crystals of chloride of potassium, and some 
of common salt, make their appearance. Ac- 
cording to Scheele, it contains also a little phos- 
phate of lime, which may be precipitated by am- 
monia. * * ‘The sugar of milk constitutes, at 
an average, about 3'5 per cent., while the saline 
ingredients do not exceed 0°22 per cent. of whey. 
The water, of course, constitutes about 93°3 in 
the 100 parts.” A very good cement for glass 
and china consists of the viscid residuum of the 
filtered and evaporated solution of equal parts of 
curd and alcohol. 
