Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 03.djvu/186

LEFT CORDIACE^ 150 COBELLI Georgia Southern and Florida, the Sea- board Air Line, the Atlanta, Birming- ham and Atlantic, and the Georgia, Southwestern and Gulf railroads. It is the center of an extensive cotton-gi'ow- ing region, and its manufactures include cottonseed, oil, and lumber. There are a library and other public buildings. Pop. (1910) 5,883; (1920) 6,538. CORDIACE^, an order or sub-order of perigynous exogens, alliance Solana- les. It is most closely akin to the bora- ginaceas, and next to the convohmlacese. The species are found in the tropics of both hemispheres, in South America straggling into more temperate latitudes. Two hundred species of cordia itself are now known. CORDIERITE, DICHROITE, or lOLITE, a natural silicate of magnesia, alumina, and ferric oxide. It crystallizes in stout orthorhombic prisms, and is of various shades of blue, sometimes with a tinge of gray or brown. CORDILLERAS, a name applied in America to various chains of mountains. The Cordilleras of South America are described under Andes; and the Rocky Mountains are the Cordilleras of North America. Those of Central America ex- tend from Darien to the N. of Mexico, and gradually increase in elevation from the Isthmus of Panama, until they form magnificent plateaus, and reach a height orf more than 17,000 feet in Mexico. CORDITE, an explosive, the component parts of which are nitroglycerine, 58 per cent.: gun cotton, 37, and mineral jelly, 5. Acetone dissolves thid combination, but evaporates in drying. One of the features that make cordite valuable is that its two ingredients, which by them- selves are dangerous to handle, are al- most hai-mless combined. It can hardly be exploded by accident. While in a plastic state it is pressed through a die in the form of a thread or cord and wound upon reels to dry. CORDOBA, a central province of the Argentine Republic, mostly pampa land, rising to the Sierras de Cordoba and de Pocho in the W. Area, 62,160 square miles. Pop. about 770,000. Copper and silver are mined, but cattle-rais- ing and agriculture are the chief in- dustries. The climate is healthy, but very dry; the temperature ranges from 18' to 1.07° F. The capital, Cordoba, lies ir the valley of the Rio Pri- mero, .^6 miles W. N. W. of Rosario. It is regularly built, with open water- courses running through the streets, has street railways, a cathedral with a fine Moorish exterior, numerous other churches, a handsome city hall, the old university building, with walls from 4 to 6 feet thick, a national observatory, and noble baths. The university (1613) sank gi-eatly after the expulsion of the Jesuits (1767), until in 1870 several Ger- man professors settled here. The town possesses also a national college, a school of art, and an academy of sciences, which publishes a valuable "Boletin." Founded by Cabrera in 1573, the town was fa- mous during the Spanish occupation as a seat of learning and the center of the Jesuit missions in South America. Pop. about 105,000. CORDOBA, a town of Mexico, 66 miles W. S. W. of Vera Cruz; in a fruitful valley, 3,045 feet above the sea. For- merly important, it sank greatly after the revolution; but in later years it has recovered its trade. It is surrounded by rich cofFee-plantations. Pop. about 9,000. CORDOVA, an ancient Spanish city on the Guadalquivir, in Andalusia, capital of a province of the same name. A part of the town is of Roman, a part of Moorish origin. The cathedral is a splendid build- ing, originally a mosque, erected in the 8th century by Fing Abderahman. The city is well supplied with schools, hos- pitals, and other institutions. It has always carried on considerable trade; and under the Moors the leather exclu- sively manufactured there (cordovan) was exported in all directions. Cordova, which was founded by the Romans, be- came the capital of Arabian Spain and the center of Arabian splendor and science under the caliphs of the West. With the decay of the Moorish empire it fell into the hands of Ferdinand III. of Castile. The province includes the fertile and beautiful valley of the Gua- dalquivir and the mountains of Sierra Morena. Pop. about 75,000. COREA. See Korea. COREGONtrS, a genus of abdominal fishes, family Salmonidas. The teeth are very small or wanting, the scales very large, the height or front of the first dorsal greater than its breadth. CORELLI, MARIE, an English author ; born in Italy in 1864. In infancy she was adopted by Dr. Charles Mackay, the author. She was educated in London, and on beginning her literary career adopted as a pen name that which subse- quently became her legal name. Her vrritings were greatly admired by Queen Victoria. She has published "A Romance of Two Worlds"; "Vendetta"; "Thelma"; "Ardath, the Story of a Dead Self"; "Wormwood"; "The Soul of Lilith"; "Barabbas"; "The Silence of the Mahara-