Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 03.djvu/209

LEFT CORVINUS 185 COSSACKS callxatinse, or tree crows; (4) corvinas, or true crows, and (5) jryrrhocwacinse. CORVINUS, MATTHIAS. See Mat- thias. CORYLACE.ffi, mastworts; an order of diclinous exogens, alliance Quernales. It consists of trees and shrubs with alter- nate, simple, exstipulate leaves, often with the veins running straight from the midrib to the margin. Male flowers amentaceous, with 5 to 20 stamens; female having the ovary cro%vned by the rudiments of an adherent calyx; ovary with two or more cells. Among the genera are carpinus (hornbeam), co)-y- his (hazel), fagiis (beech), castanea (chestnut), and quercus (oak). They are found in the temperate parts of the Old and New Worlds. In the tropics they grow chiefly on mountains. CORYMB, in botany, that form of in- florescence in which the flowers, each on its own pedicel of different lengths, are so arranged along a common axis as to form a flat, broad mass of flowers with a convex or level top, as in the hawthorn and candytuft. CORYPHjENA, a genus of scomheridse, or by some it is made the type of a family coryphsenidee. The head is great- ly elevated, and the palate and jaws both furnished with teeth. C. hippuris and several other species are found in the Mediterranean and the adjacent parts of the Atlantic. They pursue the flying fish. The first-mentioned species is one of the two animals called the dolphin. CORYZA, a synonym for acute nasal catarrh, or "cold in the head." The af- fection usually subsides without any treatment. COS, now called Stanchio or Stanko, an island in the .^Egaean Sea, on the coast of Asia Minor; area, 95 square miles; pop. about 10,000. It was the birthplace of Hippocrates, and had anciently a cele- brated temple of .^sculapius. In Cos was manufactured a fine, semitrans- parent kind of silk, much valued by the ancients. Cos is also the name of the principal town, a decayed seaport. The island yields grain, wine, silk, cotton, citrons, etc. It was occupied by Italy in 1912 and afterward restored to Greece. The peace treaty with Turkey awards it to Italy, but when that is signed it will be ceded to Greece. COSENZA, a town in Calabria, Italy, 43 miles S. W. of Sibari ; on a hill be- tween Crati and Busento. Its history goes back to 330 B. c, when it was named as the burial place of Alexander of Epirus. Alaric was killed there in 410 A. D., and it became an archbishop- ric in the 11th century. It has a fine Gothic cathedral and law courts. Pop. about 15,000. COSMOGONY, the origin or creation of the world; an investigation or dis- sertation regarding it. Cosmogony and geology, though having certain relations to each other, are still distinct, cosmog- ony inquiring into the first origin of things, and geology commencing at a period when, that origin having taken place, successive events in the earth's history began to leave behind them me- morials from which their character might be more or less clearly reasoned out. COSMOS, order or harmony, and hence the universe as an orderly and beautiful system. In this sense it has been adopted by Humboldt as the title of his cele- brated work, which describes the nature of the heavens as well as the physical phenomena of the earth. COSSACKS, tribes who inhabit the southern and eastern parts of Russia, and, previous to the Russian revolution, paying no taxes, but performing instead the duty of soldiers. Nearly all of them belong to the Gr«co-Roman Church, to which they are strongly attached. They must be divided into two principal class- es, both on account of their descent and their condition — the Cossacks of Little Russia and those of the Don. Both classes, and especially those of the Don, have collateral branches, distributed as Cossacks of the Azoff, of the Danube, of the Black Sea, of the Caucasus, of the Ural, of Orenburg, of Siberia, of the Chinese frontiers, and of Astrakhan. Writers are not agreed as to the origin of this people and of their name, but they are believed to be a mixed Cau- casian and Tartar race. In personal appearance the Cossacks bear a close re- semblance to the Russians, but are of a more slender make, and have features which are decidedly more handsome and expressive. Originally their government formed a kind of deniocracy, at the head of which was a chief or hetman of their own choice; while under him was a long series of oflficers with jurisdictions of greater or less extent, partly civil and partly military, all so arranged as to be able in any emergency to furnish the largest military array on the shoi'test notice. The democratical part of the constitution has gradually disappeared under Russian domination. Each Cos- sack, under the Empire, was liable to mili- tary service from the age of 18 to 50, and obliged to furnish his own horse. In