except, perhaps, in the reported dimensions of the tail and body; but this difference most probably arises from the age or sex of the specimens, or from the measures of Mr. Barrow being taken in a straight line, whilst mine followed the different curvature of the head, neck, and body. The name, Meer-kat, by which it appears this animal is known to the colonists, signifies a monkey, and is of very general acceptation in South Africa, being applied indifferently to the present species, the Cape Herpestes, Ground Squirrels, and various other small burrowing animals. Both the passages here quoted confirm the burrowing habits of the Cynictis Steedmannii, which I had already inferred from the form of the claws." CYNIPS QUERCUS. [GALLS.] CYNOCEPHALUS. [BABOON, vol. iii., p. 227.] CYNOMORIA'CEÆ, an obscure order of Rhizanths, distinguished from Balanophorace by their distinct stamens, and the imperfect perianth of the male flowers. The order is represented by Cynomorium coccineum, the Fungus melitensis of the old herbalists, a plant once in repute for its astringent properties, but now valued only for its rarity and the botanical interest that attaches to it. Dr. Walsh tells us that it grows most plentifully on a detached rock on the south-west side of the island of Gozo. It is there much celebrated for its medicinal properties: the time of the discovery of its virtues is not known, but, from some antient MSS., it appears to have been at a very remote period. It had been the usage of Malta to banish to Gozo all females of dishonest character, and here, according to tradition, they found a vegetable substance of an astringent quality, which proved very efficacious in removing the consequences of their irregular life. It was prepared in earthen pots, some of which have since been dug up in various places, marked with Phoenician characters indicating their use. The plant was also applied by them to the purposes of divination. It was laid between the breasts, and, from some accidental circumstances of position, &c., they augured good or bad fortune. This practice was reproved, and said to be finally abolished, by a Capuchin missionary. This curious vegetable was subsequently esteemed as a remedy in dysentery, and its curative powers were long held in very high repute. About the year 1740, the Knights of Malta set such a very high value on this fungus, that they interdicted the approach of any person to the place where it grew, and guarded the passage with the strictest jealousy. In April, when the fungus was ripe, it was carefully gathered by persons appointed for that especial duty, and the precious morsels were deposited in a government office, from whence some portions were sent as presents by the grand-master to different sovereigns, and the remainder distributed among the hospitals of the island. Even after the English took possession of Malta, and succeeded to the territorial rights of the order, and, amongst other things, to the possession of this rock, a custode was appointed to take care of it as heretofore, with a salary, which always makes an item in the public accounts of Malta. The fungus is thus continued to be guarded and regularly gathered, deposited in the stateoffice, and distributed among the hospitals; and when Dr. Hamilton, through the kindness of an official person in Gozo, was permitted to visit this rock, he was accompanied by the custode. The rock, as shown by the doctor's sketch, is difficult of approach: it is an isolated precipice, about 600 feet in height, detached from the neighbouring shore, and presenting very steep and inaccessible sides, in some places projecting considerably over the sea, so that the circumference of the base is less than that of the upper parts. It stands on the verge of a noble circular basin, formed by the surrounding cliffs, into which the sea enters by the chasms at each side of the fungus rock, the whole presenting the aspect of the crater of a volcano, raised from beneath, or extinguished by the irruption of the sea.' CYNOSU'RA (xvvòc épá, the tail of the dog), a name given to the lesser Bear. According to Aratus and Hyginus, Cynosura was one of the nymphs of Mount Ida, who nursed Jupiter. But it is at least as probable that before the Greeks adapted their mythology to the constellations, they had from some oriental source the habit of figuring Ursa Minor as a dog, and that the tail of the dog was the pole star. [URSA MINOR.] Many persons may probably know this word only from the two lines of Milton's Allegro Where perhaps some beauty lies, ae Cynosure of neighbouring eyes These lines have puzzled many, though the reference to the pole star and the property of the magnet gives the image a degree of fitness for poetry which the etymology of the word alone would hardly suggest. CYNOSU'RUS CRISTA'TUS, a well-known pasture grass, called by farmers crested dogstail or gold-seed, exceedingly abundant in all natural and artificial grass land. It grows with a slender smooth stem to the height of one or two feet, and is terminated by a somewhat cylindrical spike-like panicle of short clusters of flowers; each cluster consists of two flowered spikelets resting upon Finnate bracts. The glumes are two, about the length of the florets; the paleæ 2, of which the lowest is sharp-pointed. The styles are feathery; the fruit is a small, yellow, smooth shining seed-like body, whence the common name of gola seed. Although this grass forms so constantly a portion of all good pastures, it is chiefly on account of the fineness and closeness of its herbage that it is valuable, the quantity of hay that it produces being inconsiderable. Mr. Sinclair hence observes, that it is inferior for the purposes of hay, but admirably adapted for permanent pastures. The roots penetrate a great way under ground, from which circumstance it remains green after most other grasses are burnt by a continuance of dry weather. In irrigated meadows it arrives at a greater size than in any other situation.' [Cynosurus cristatus.] CYNTHIA (Zoology), one of the subgenera into which Savigny has divided the Ascididae. The subgenus Cynthia consists of those ascidians whose body is sessile, and which have the branchial sac plaited longitudinally, and the reticulation continuous. Their external envelope or test is coriaceous. The structure comes nearest to that of Boltenia. [BOLTENIA.] Example, Cynthia Momus. This Ascidian does not attach itself to rocks, but makes shift to float about in the Gulf of Suez by attaching itself to fuci and other submarine plants. (See Savigny's Mémoire sur les Animaux sans Vertèbres, Paris, 1816; and Mr. W. S. Macleay's Anatomical Observations on the Natural Group of Tunicata,' Linn. Trans., vol. xiv. p. 527.) N. B. M. Latreille has used the term Cynthia to distinguish a genus of coleopterous insects. CYPER'ACEE, an extensive natural order of glumaceous Endogens, having much the appearance of grasses, with which they are sometimes popularly confounded. They differ in their stems being usually solid, not hollow, and angular, not round; in the sheaths of their leaves not opening on one side, but forming perfect tubes when the stem is pulled through them; in their male florets having no pale nor any covering to the stamens except a single bract, while the bisexual florets have nothing more than a few hypogynous bristles superadded; and finally in their embryo being enclosed in the albumen, and not lying at one side of it. There are other distinctions besides these, but what have been mentioned are the most remarkable. A large proportion of the order bears the name of sedges, and hence the sedge family or tribe is given to these plants as their English appellation. They are mostly inhabitants of marshy or swampy grounds, a few are met with on dry upland pastures, and a good many are Alpine plants They occur in all parts of the world, and are generally abundant; | but little or nothing has been discovered of their uses; their most common application is to the manufacture of what are called erroneously rush mats and rush bottoms for chairs. The plant used in this country for such purposes is not any kind of rush, but the cyperaceous species, Scirpus lacustris. It is not a little remarkable, that nearly as these plants are allied to grasses, they scarcely at all participate in the nutritious quality of that useful order; it is only among the coarse bad herbage of marshes that they are allowed to form a constituent of hay. opinion, the best which has hitherto appeared, thus notices the very great change of form that the young shell undergoes in its progress to perfection. The shell alters its appearance considerably, according to the age of the individual, and exhibits three very distinct stages. In the young or first stages, which are figured in Ency. Méthod.,' i. 349, f. a. b., 'Mus. Gotwald,' viii. t. 53, b. e. 65, a f. 66, a. c.; the shell is generally smooth, of a plain greyish colour, or with three longitudinal bands, and the upper part of the inner Irp is smooth, convex, the lower part flat or concave; the outer lip thin. In the second stage the shell begins to assume more the character of the genus, as the outer lip begins to be inflected or rather thickened, and approaches nearer the perfect appearance of the species as the second coat of colour is deposited; but differs from it in the want of thickness of the shell and the spire being more distinct, and in the want of the dorsal line, which is usually distinct in the third or perfect state, where the last coat has been deposited, and [Cyperus fuscus.] 1, a spikelet magnified; 2, a flower with its braet; 3, a fruit; 4, a section of a seed. CYPRÆIDE. Cowry Family. Cowries, or sometimes, Gouries, Porcellanen of the Germans, Porcelaines (Porcelain shells) of the French. A family of marine gasteropodous mollusks, well known in commerce from one of the species (C. Moneta) being used in some parts of the East as a circulating medium. [COWRY] Family character. Animal unisexual, elongated; head, distinct, with two conical or subulate tentacula of some length, at the external base of which are situated the two sessile eyes on small projections; mouth vertical, at the bottom of a small cavity, and containing a lingual riband, or lamina, beset with tentacles and prolonged in the abdomen. Branchial cavity open, situated near the back of the neck; gills arranged in a longitudinal pectinated series on the inside of the columella on the left side of the mantle; siphon very short, and formed in the mesial line by the edges of the two lobes. Mantle bilobated, the lobes very large with extended aliform edges, capable of being reflected over the back of the shell so as to join on the mesial dorsal line. Foot oval, elongated, very large. Vent at the extremity of a tube behind the branchial cavity. Male organ situated more forward, and communicating with the orifice of the deferent canal by means of a furrow. Adult shell involute, highly enamelled, oval or oblong, more or less rounded or cylindrical with a small and imbedded spire; aperture longitudinal, nearly straight, toothed, or plaited, on each side, with a channel or groove at each end, inner lip flattened or sub-concave, outer lip involute. No operculum. (Cyprima (Trivia) Pediculus) 4, the animal seen from above; 6, side view of the same. Mr. Gray, whose arrangement we select, as being, in our [Cyprea Exanthema, illustrating the stages of growth] a, young shell in the first stage seen from above: view of the back: & the same sh wing the columella and the thin edg of the unit op, & a advanced stage; view of back The apex is already g, and the thickened lips are fortfied; d. still further advanced. the manile has begus to scerete the enameled spotted onal on te se, but the traBetere stripes are still visible; e. the perfect shell, all traces of the transverse stripes fut under the enameling of the thickened spotted coat; f, view of under side vẩ the perfect shell • By the mantle. the aperture is more plaited on both sides. The colouring, or at least, the disposition of the colouring here, is a much more certain characteristic of species than either the general outline of form or size, the latter of which is exceedingly various. In this family I have often observed full-grown specimens of C. Arabica from one to three inches long; this peculiarity is attempted to be explained by Lamarck and others, who assert that when the animal has formed a complete shell, as it has not the faculty of enlarging its size, it is obliged to quit its shell and form a new one, in the same manner as the Annulosa cast their skins, and by that means the same animal forms many shells; but I believe there is not the slightest ground for this notion.' Mr. Gray has recently observed, that sometimes, though rarely, the young shells of Cypræa, especially C. Arabica, have the inner edge of the outer lip thickened and furnished with a compressed sharp-edged series of teeth. Geographical Distribution, Habits, &c.-Cypræidæ abound both in the old and new world, but their greatest development both in point of size and number of species takes place in warm climates. A very few species are inhabitants of the European seas The family are littoral, and are generally found under stones or rolled corals. Genera CYPREA (Cowry). Generic character.-The young shell smooth, the adult with both lips toothed; the anterior and posterior canal distinct, recurved; the front end of the columella lip smooth, edged by a single large oblique fold, separated from the teeth by a deep groove. (Gray.) Sub-genus. 1. Shell with the back warty (rarely smooth), base ridged. Under this section Mr. Gray enumerates three species. Example.-Cypræa Cicercula, Vetch Cowry. Description.Shell subglobose, yellow, brown dotted, with a dorsal groove, and scattered tubercles over each ex The front of the columella broad, deeply impressed; shell tremity; base four-spotted, partly grooved. mostly smooth. a. Shell smooth; columella-pit transversely ridged; teeth of inner lip generally long. (Gray.)* Under this division of the sub-genus Mr. Gray arranges twenty-seven species, including some of the rarest forms,Cypraea Aurora (the Morning Dawn, or Orange Cowry), and Cypraea Princeps, for example,-together with Cypræa Tigris (the Tiger Cowry), and other common species. Example.-Cypraea Mappa, the Map Cowry. Description. Shell more or less ventricose, ovate, varied with deep brown or yellow lines, and spots. Dorsal line laciniated. Margin thick, spotted with black; teeth yellow. Locality, Indian Ocean. α b Only two species are enumerated by Mr. Gray, and one of these, C. rugosa, Brod., is fossil. Example.-Cypraea Childreni, Children's Coury, Gray. Description.-Shell oblong, thin, pellucid, pure rosecoloured, with very thin, distant, continued ribs; lips whitish. Varies with an indistinct dorsal groove. Mr. Gray observes, that Pig is the common name Front of the columella narrow dilated into a sharp- these shells on the coast, and that they are called Porcelis toothed ridge; shell smooth. in Italy. He adds, that Porcellain, the common name for Spire conical; apex sub-mamillary, blunt; shell, when young, smooth; the adult with both lips finely crenulated; the columella concave slightly radiatedly plaited or smooth, with two or three folds in front; the anterior canal straight, the hinder indistinct. Seven species. Example, Erato scabriuscula, Roughish Tear-shell, Gray, Marginella Cypræo'a, Sow. Description.-Shell ovate, turbinate, livid, purplish, minutely tubercular; spire conical; dorsal line impressed; mouth wide, whitish, inner lip largely plaited its whole length; teeth large, young, smooth; lip thin, toothless. Locality, South Pacific, St. Elena. [Erato scabriuscula.] [Ovulum verrucosum.j Y. Outer lip inflexed, rounded, narrow, toothed; rest like sect. B. Four species. Example, Ovulum Margarita, Sow.; Pearl Poached Egg, Gray. Shell ovate, subglobose, white, pointed in front, ventricose; base convex; hinder tubercle rugose; front of columella concave; outer lip rounded. This with [Ovulum Margarita.] six brown dots artificially made is Ovula punctata of Duclos, Bull. Sci.; Guerin Mag. 27. Locality, Friendly Islands. 8. Outer lip slightly inflexed, narrow, keeled externally, with edge shelving inwards; the rest like the former. Seven species. Example, Ovulum pyriforme, Sow., OVULUM (Ovula, Lam., commonly called Poached Eggs). | Pear-shaped Poached Egg, Gray. No. 499. (THE PENNY CYCLOPÆDIA.] VOL. VIII.-E |