Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/507

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frequently in boggy places, in the northern parts of the world. The flowers con fill* of one leaf each, and are t>£ the globofe campaniform kind; the- fruit is divided into five cells, and contains very numerous, and very fmall feeds* of a rourtdifl] fhape; and the whole plant, in its manner of growth, much refembles our Solomon's feal. One thing very lingular is ob- ferved in this plant, which is, that it retains its leaves all the winter, but fneds them in the middle of fununer. In the latter end of May, and beginning of June, the flowers are feen to wither, and at this time there arife a number of new fhoots from the alas of the lower leaves ; thefe all rife up to bear leaves, and by the middle of July are well covered with them. In the mean time the old leaves fall off, and the ftalks of the former year are lcit naked, except that they have the fruit on them. The new fhoots have, befides leaves, the buds of the next year's flowers, and thofe Co perfect, that on opening them the minute parts of the ftamina may be perceived. In Augufl: and September, when the cold comes on, the leaves become blackifh, and the whole plant feems to be decaying ; but in the fucceeding fpring, as foon as the fun has appeared bright for a few days, the leaves re-aflumc their former green, the whole plant feems to revive, and is foon feen covered with flowers, and exhibiting a beautiful appearance. The ftalks of the for- mer year die down to the origin of thefe new ones ; fo that though the plant annually grows feveral inches in height, yet it is never the taller for its great age, as much dying of the height of a former year as is added anew for the fuc- ceeding one. A£t. Petrop. V. i. p. 243.

Buxbaum, who firft defcribed this plant, called it chamedaphne, the dwarf bay, from its low Mature, and its refemblance to the common bay-tree in the {hape of its leaves, which are oval and pointed. CHAMiEDROPE, in botany, a name given by fume of the an- tient writers to the common germander. See Germander. CHAM/EDRYS. See Germander.

CHAMELEON thijlle,in botany, the name of a kind of thiftie, of which there are two kinds defcribed by Diofcorides, and others of the antient Greeks, and called the white and the black chameleon thiftlcs. The white chamoleon is an innocent plant, its root efculent, and a gum which exfudates from it in the hot countries, not only innocent but agreeable, the women, ufing it to perfume their breath, and chewing it in their mouths as we do maftick.

]t may feem ftrange to fome to find this plant thus mentioned as ft fafe, efculent, and ufcful one ; whereas Pliny and many other writers have declared it to beapoifon. The later au- thors are to be excufed in this, as having followed r liny. The error of this author who has milled the others may be eafily difcovered by tracing his accounts up to the Greeks from whom he borrowed the greater part of what we find in him, and ' whom he often, as in this cafe, has copied carelefsly, and tran- slated badly.

The Gieeks in general have ranked birdlime among the flow poifons, and the name of birdlime with them is ixos, i£©*iu the mafculine, or ixias, i&as in the feminine : the latter, however, is mod ufed. Some of the autiems obfervinf the vifcous gum exfudated from the white c'-.amoleon, called it from this the birdlime c' amxlcon, or ixias chamalem, by way of diftinction from the other, or black kind, which did not yield this vifcous gum. It is plain that they meant only to ex- prefs the vifcous nature of birdlime, not its poifonous quality, by this word, the gum itfelf being known to be fafe, and in common ufe among the women of their time. NotwithftanJing however, that they call birdlime always v i£i«f, ufing the word alone as a fubflantive, and that of the feminine gender, and the chameleon thHtle that yielded this a l%ia.% xpfUutiw. The word ixias there ufed as a mafculine adjccYwe ; yctfubftantive or adje&ive, mafculine or feminine, ixias was ixias with Pliny, and he has tranflatcd it into the poifon, whether fpoken of the birdlime, in which lenfe the Greeks from whom he copies ufed it, as the name of a poifon, or as the name of the chanutkon, in which lenfe they efteemed it the name of an efculent plant. The Arabian phyficians call the poifon ixias, that is birdlime, and the efculent ixias, or cLam&leon thiftie, by the fame name ■aldcbac; hut this is probably owing to the error of the tranflator of Diolcorides into Arabic ; for Avifenna, in his chapter of ar- tanita, excufes his own errors, by frankly confeifing that he ufed this translation, not the original ; and we may find by his blunders in that chapter, that he did not underftand Greek. Scrihonius Largus, in his treatife of poifon-, unwilling to admit the ixias, falls into the fame error with Pliny, and the old Arabian tranflator of Diolcorides, and fays, that there is much danger in the ixias which fome writer call the chameleon thiftie. It is probably owing to this error that the later writers on the materia medica, have all men- tioned the lachrymal or tears of the white chameleon as a poi fon, whereas there is no account that at all favours this amoiu the antients ; for they all mention the maftich of the chame- leon, as they call it, as a fafe and plcafant fubftance. They caution people againll the black c. am a. Icon thiftie indeed, as an unfafe plant, but this never yields this vifcous fubftance, but only the white kind. Nicander diftinguiihes them in this man- ner, and Galen even prefcribes the white cbam-leon as a reme- dy againfl the poifon of the ixias or birdlime. No one fure can

be fo hardy as to aiTert that the author here prefcribes die fS\- fon itlelf in a fecond dofe again!!: the firft. See Ixias. CHAM/ELUCE, in botany, a name by which fome authors have called the colt's foot, or tuflilago. Ger. Eauxc. Ind. z. See Tussilaco. CHAM/EACTE, in botany, a name given by fome authors to

the dwarf elder. Dale Pharmac. p. 319 CHAM/EMEL1J M, chamomile, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : the flower is •-'■ the radiated kind ; the difk is compofed of flofcules, and the outer edge of femiflofcules, all ftanding upon embryo feeds, and all inclofed in one common fquammoie cup. The em- bryo's finally ripen into feeds, and are affixed to the thalamus of the flower. To -this it is to be added,that the leaves are fine- ly divided, and the whole face and appearance of the plant has fomething peculiar,which readily diftinguifhes it from the other plants with radiated flowers.

T he fpecies of chamomile enumerated by Mr. Toiirncfort are thefe: 1. The common chamomile. 2. The noble or fweet- fcented chama?nile. 3. The double flowered, fweet-fcented cbainamik. 4. The yellow-flowered chamomile, with mked flowers. 5. The common, fcentlefs chamomile. 6. The fcentlefs chamomile, with double flowers. 7. The {linking chamomile, called cotula fcetida, 8. The double-flowered, flanking chamomile. 9. The feaftinking chamomile, io. The fcentlefs fca chamomile, ji. The fmall, hairy, Spauifti, white- flowered cha?na:mile. 12. The fouthernwood-leaved, Alpine chamomile. 1 3. The great chamomile, with very fine leaves, and red ftalks. 14. The double-flowered, fine-leaved, rcd- ftalked, great chamomile. 15. The fcentlefs, Alpine chamo- mile, with fine leaves, and large flowers. 10. The narrow- leaved, mountain chamomile. 17. The wormwood-leaved, fca chamomile. 18. The fweet-fcented corn chamomile, with wormwood-like leaves. 19. The flix weed-leaved chamomile. Tourn. Inft. p. 494.

1 he common chamomile is digeftive, laxative, and emollient; it mitigates pain, and promotes the menfes and urine ; the leaves dried are faid to anfwer thefe purpofes better than any other part of the plant : for all others, the flowers are ufed. Thefe are given in infufion, as a gentle emetic, very large quantities of the infufion being drank warm. They are alfo ufed in emollient decoctions, and are a general ingredient in clyfters. The people whofurnifh the apothecaries with them ufually fell the double flowers, but the fingle ones have greatly more virtue. It is very remarkable of the flowers of this plant that like thofe of the common yarrow, they yield by diftilla- tion a fine fky-bluc oil. Qf AM^NERIUM, or Chamjenemon, in botany, the name of a large genus of plants, commonly called hfmiachio filiquo- fce, or podded willow herbs.

The characters of the chamanerions are thefe : the flower is of the rofaceous kind, being ufually compofed of four leaves, dif- pofedin a circular order; from the center of the .flower arifes a piftil, which very often fplits into four parts, and the cup, which is of a cyhndric figure, and ufually furrounded' by four leaves, finally becomes a fruit divided into four cells, and opening in- to four parts,whcn ripe. This contains a great number of feeds, each of which is winged with down, and affixed to a placenta. The fpecies of chamonerion enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe : r. The common, broad-leaved, beautiful, purple vAllow-herb, called anagra by fome authors. 2. The broad- leaved chamanerion, with white flowers. 3. The broad-leaved, Alpine chamonerian. 4. The narrow-leaved, purple, Alpine chamonerion. 5. The narrow-leaved, Alpine cbamane/ ion, with white flowers. 6. The narrow-leaved, Alpine chamo- nerion, with variegated flowers. 7. The hairy cham-xnerion, with large violet-coloured flowers. 8. The hairy chamanerion, with a large purple flower. 9. The large hairy chamonerion, with fmall red flowers. 10. The lefler hairy chamonerion, with fmall flowers, n. The Alpine chamanerion, with leaves growing three at every joint. 12. The Alpine chamanerion, with fhining, dentated leaves. 13. The fmallcr Alpine cha- monerion, with leaves like thofe of the prunella. 14. The great fmooth chamefmrion. 1 5. The great fmooth bam&nerion, with white flowers. 16. The great, fmooth, almond-leaved, Sicilian chamonerion. 17. The lefier fmooth chemaverion. 18. The letter fmooth chamonerion, with white flowers. 19. The fmooth, narrow-leaved chamonerion, 20. 'The origa- num leaved chamonerion. Tourn. Inft. p. 302. CHAM/EP1TYS, ground-pine, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : the flower con- fifts of one leaf, and is of the one lip'd kind; this lip is divided, into three fegments ; the middle of thefe is bifid, and there are fmall jags fupplying, in fome fort, the place of an upper lip. The piftil arifesfrom the bottom of the flower, and is furround- ed by four embryos, which finally become four oblong feeds, and are contained in an open capfule, which was the cup of the flower. To this alfo it is to be added, that the flowers of the ground pirns grow fcatterediy in the alse of the leaves, and are not placed verticulately.

The fpecies of ground pine enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe ; 1. '1 he fwcet-fmelling ground pine, with ferrated. leaves. 2. The white- Howl red, fweet-fcented ground pine, with ferrated leaves. 3. The yelluw-flowered, fweet-fcented

ground