Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/535

 Cog

COG

Cobra de coral, in zoology, the name of a fpecies of ferpent found in America, and called by the natives ibibohoca ; it is a- bout two foot long, and has a great deal of a fine red in its variegations. See Ibibohoca.

Cobra de cipo, in zoology, the name given by the Portuguefe in America to a fpecies of ferpent more ufually known by its Brazilian name boitjapo. See the article Boitjapo.

COBRAS de capetfo, in zoology, the Portuguefe name of a pe- culiar fpecies of ferpent, called by authors ferpens indicus corona- tus diademate, feu confpicilla in/ignis, and by us, the fpccta.ie fnake, from a ft range refemblance on the back of his head and neck to a pair of fpeitacles. It grows to fomewhat more than the fize of our viper ; its fnout is long; its head flat or~de- prcfled i its bite is very terrible. It is thought by many that there is a ftonc in the back part of its head, which is a remedy for die bite ; but the ftoncs commonly fold with us, under the name oflapides cobra: de capel'a, are well known to be all arti- ficial compofitions.

COBRE vega, in zoology, the name of a fpecies of fnake found in the Weft Indies, and called alio ibijara. It is of the am- phifbena kind, being equally thick at both ends. It lives un- der ground, and its bite is very fatal. Rays Syn. Anim. p. 289.

'' See Ibijara.

Co 13 re de verd, in zoology, the name given by the Portuguefe in America to a fpecies of ferpent called by the natives, and from them by moll authors, boiobi. See the article Boiosi.

COCCEIRA, in botany, a name by winch fomc authors have called ihe coco nut tree, the falma nwifera indica of moll wri- ters. Pi jo, p. 63.

COCCODES, in natural biftory, a name given by Mercatus to thofe ftones of the ammites kind, whofe grains are very large. Vid. Mercat. _Metaldth. Arm. 9. c. 58. p. 318. See the article Ammites.

COCCOTHRAUSTES, in zoology, the name of a very re- markable bird, confiderably larger than the chaffinch, verymort bodied, and large-beaked, whence it is called in Englifh the grop-bcak, or hawfinch. Its head is very large in piopoition to its body, and its great beak tapers from a very thick bafe to a fharp point, refembling the fhapc cf a funnel ; its feet arc of a pale red ; at the bafis of the beak there is a feries of fine orange-coloured feathers, and between the back and the eyes it is black ; the reft of the head is of a redifh yellow ; the neck is grey ; the back of a redifh brown ; the middle parts of all the feathers being whitifh, and the rump of a greyifh yellow. Its breaft and fides are of a greyifh red ; but under the tail, and in the middle of the belly it is whiter.

It is common in Germany, and lives there in the woods and mountains all fummer, in winter it comes into the flat country. It is never feen in England, except in the winter months ; it feeds on the kernels in the ftones of fruits, as cherry-ftones, and the like, and breaks thefe with great dexterity ; it will al- fo eat the feeds of many different plants. Ray's Ornithology, p. 178.

Coccothraustes criftata, in zoology, the name by which naturalifts call the bird ufually known among us by the name of "the Virginia nightingale, it being truly a coccethrauftes, thouph called by the improper name nightingale. Rays Ornithol. p. 179. See Nightingale.

COCCULUS indtcus, a fmall round ifii fruit of the Eaft Indies. It is little ufed in the mops, being efteemed poifonous. Fifher- men have a way of mixing it with pafte : this the fifli fwallow greedily, and are thereby rendered Hfclefs for a time, and float on the water. The good women ufe it with ftavefacre, for destroying vermin in childrens head. Brewers have ufed it alfo in their brewing ; but this is exprefly prohibited by act. of parliament.

COCCUS, in botany, the name of a genus of plants called in the Hortus Malabaricus, teuga ;' the characters are thefe. It pro- duces male and female flowers on the fame plant. The male flowers have the whole ear for their cup. The flower is divided into three fegments, which are of an oval figure, and fharp- pointed ; theftamina are fix Angle filaments, of the length of the flower ; the apices are oblong and incumbent. The ger- men of the piftil is fo fmall in thefe flowers as to be fcarce vi fible. The ftyle is fhnrt and thick, and is obfeurely trifid, and the ftigma is fmal!. Thefe flowers never produce any fruit, yet they are not fimply male flowers, but a fort of hermaphrodite ones, the female organs of which are always abortive. The female flowers grow on the fame fpike with the mate. They are divided in like manner into three parts, but the fegments are very fmall ; the germen of the piftil is of an oval figure, and terminates in a fhort- pointed ftyle ; the ftigma is fmal], and is divided into three parts. The fruit is very large, and membranaceous ; it is of a fomewhat rounded figure, butwith fome obfeure traces of a trigonal form ; the feed is a very large nut of an oval form, pointed, trivalve, and obtufely trigonal, as the fruit is j it has three holes in the bafe, and the kernel is hollow. Linn-si Gener. Plant, p. 514. Hort. Mai. I. r. 4,

Coccus, in the writings of the anticnts, a name given by fome authors to that fine mining red colour ufed to illuminate the capital letters in 1 manufcripts, and more generally known by the name of encaujlum facrum, from its being ufed in the or- namenting.the manufcript bibles, and its refembling the fine red glow of the enamel of that colour.

Coccus maldivia, the maldivia nut, in the materia medica, dig name of the fruit of the palma maldivienfis of Johnfton, an oval-figured fruit, of a iweet tafte, and famous for its virtues in nervous difbrders. Dale, Pharm. p. 2>6.

Coccus Polonlcm, an infect which may propely enough be call- ed the cochineal of the Northern part of the world. As the co- chineal ioves onlv the hot climates, this creature affeas only the cold ones. It is colle&ed for the ufe of dyers, but the crops of it are much fmallcr, more difficultly made, and the drug itfelf greatly inferior to the true cochineal. It is com- monly known by the name of coccus Polomcus, or the fcarlet grain of Poland. Poland is indeed the place where it is gather- ed in greateft abundance, but it is not the only one ; it is found in many other of the northern countries, and may ve- ry pofllbly be produced in fome of the more temperate ones* where it is not known, as it is very much hid by nature from the eyes of common obfervers.

This kermes of Poland, if it may be fo called, is found affixed to the root of a fmall plant, and ufually to the fame plant, which has been thence called the polygonum cocciferum. Authors have informed us of the fame berry, as it is often called, alfo growing at the roots of the moufc ear, rupture- wort, pimper- nel, and pellitory of the wall, and that it is in no other than dry fandy places, that it is found at the roots of thefe plants. Breynius, in 1731, printed at Dantzick, a very curious ac- count of this production, which proves it incomeftably to be an animal, and give us many reafons for knowing it to be of the progalUinfe£ clafs. Reaumer, Hift. Inf. Vol. 4. p. 1 1 1. Toward the end of June, the coccus Pohmcus is found in a ftate to be gathered. Every one of the creatures is then nearljr of a fpherical form,and of a fine violet colour ; fome of them, however, are not larger than poppy feeds, and others of the fize of a pepper corn, and -each of them is lodged either in part, or entirely in a fort of cup, like that of an acorn. More than half the fui face of the body of the animal is ufually covered by this cup. The outfide of this covering is rough, and of a blackifti brown, but the infide is fm ooth, polifhed, and mining. On fome plants they find only one or two of thefe, and on others more than forty j and they are fometimes placed near the origin of the/talks of the plant.

Breynius began his obfervations on the animals in this ftate, feveral of them being put into vefTels of glafs; and by the 24th of July there was produced from every one of them ahcxapode or fixlegg'd worm, with two antenna; on its head. Several of thefe were kept a fortnight, and mewed no inclination to eat any thing. They run about, however, very fwiftly for fome time, but then began to be more quiet, drew up their bodies fhorter, and ceafed to run about any longer. They were now of a purple colour ; but in this ftate, though they did not walk about, their bodies were fubjecl to various contortions. At length, when they were become wholly motionlefs, their bo- dies became covered with a fine down ; this was white, and formed them a perfect covering, which was fometimes of a fpherical, fometimes of an irregular figure ; it was always, how- ever, very elegant, and the downy matter plainly enough tran- fpired out of the animal's body, as is the cafe in the other progall-infefts. The creatures remained in this ftate of reft, and covered with this down, for five or fix days ; but at the end of that time every one of them laid more than a hundred and fifty eggs. Thefe eggs were depolited upon the paper on which the animals were placed, and were enveloped, in fome mca- fure, with a downy matter. Id. Ibid. p. 113. When the creatures had laid all their eggs, they died, and a- bout the 24th of Auguft there came from every egg a fmall infect, which, to the naked eye, appeared no other than a fmall long, red point ; it might be obferved, however, very plainly to move about. Thefe young animals lived about a month, though all the time wholly without fuflenance.

Mr. Breynius was induced, at firft, to believe, that thefe ani- mals came to be in a ftate to produce perfect eggs, from whence young ones would be hatched, without any congrefs with the male ; but farther obfervations convinced him of the error of this opinion. He faw afterwards a fort of v^ry fmall flics with two white wings, bordered with red, produced from feveral of the cocci. Thefe flies are plainly of the fzme kind with the male gall-infects. Ibid. p. 114.

It has been before obferved, that thefe cocci differ in fize. It is the fmall ones not larger than poppy-feeds which produce thefe' flies ; the others give the worms defcribed before ; and one ob- fervation of Mr. Brcynius's gives a plain proof that thefe flies are the male infe£t of the fpecies, fince all thofe of the females which had been a day, or two, accompanied by thefe flies, quickly covered themfelves with down, and began to lay their eggs, whereas thofe which had not this commerce with the flies, remained in the lame ftate, or elfe got only a very thin and flight covering of down, and never laid any eges This is u Very ftrong proof, and, indeed, fuch as could not have been expected ; fince in other infedts, the want of a male does not prevent the female from laying her eggs, the only con- fluence is that they are barren. Ibid p. 1 15. & f e q. All that is wanting from farther obfervation to make the hi-

, ftory of this creature compleat, is to be informed of that part of its life which it paffes between the time of its beinghatched from the egg, and that of its being found in its ealb at the