Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/573

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bf a Membranaceous cup ; the piftil arifes alio from the cupj and finally becomes a foft fruit, or berry, of an oval fhape, containing a number of ktdney-fhaped feeds. There is only one known fpecies of cucubalus, which is the plant called by many the berry-bearing tbickwecd. Town. Inft. p. 389- See Tab. 1. of Botany, Clafs 8.

CUCULLARIS, in anatomy, a name given by Spigelius, Cow- per, and Albinus, to a mufcle called by Winflowand others, trapeftus j and defcribed by Vefalius under the name of the_/?- cundus fcapulam moveniiwn,

CUCULLUS, in conchyliology, the name of a genus of fhells called by other authors, ccrwf-fhells, and valuta. See the ar- ticle VoLUTA.

GUCULUS, the cuchw, In the Linnasan fyftem of zoology this makes a diftinct genus of birds of the order of the pica : the characters of this genus are, that the feet have two toes be- fore, and two behind ; the bill is frnooth ; the tail whole, and corripofed but of a few feathers ; the tongue membranaceous, and terminated by hairs, and thenoftrils prominent. The cuc- kow, and the jynx, or wry-neck, are the only known birds of this genus. Linncei Syftem. Natur. p. 4f. The cuchw is a bird well known in England by the Angula- rity of its note ; it beak is long, and firait, only it is a little hooked at the end, of a blackifh brown above, and of a yellow- ifh white below ; its mouth is yellow within, and the iris of its eyes of a hazel colour; its noftrils round, open, and Hand- ing out beyond the furface of the bill, by which mark alone it is to-be diftinguifhed from all other birds ; its throat, breaft, and belly, are white, variegated with tranfverfe ftreaks of brown ; the feathers of its head are brown, with white edges, and its rump is grey ; its back, neck, and wings are of a brownifh hue ; its long wing-feathers have white tips, and are variegated with black, brown, and white ; and the tail feathers are beautifully variegated with white. Its feet and legs are yellow. Its food is caterpillars, and other infects. Ray's Or- nithol. p. 63.

It never builds itfelf a neft, but feizes upon that of any other fmall bird, and deftroying its eggs, leaves its own in their place.

Whether it hides in hollow trees, &c. during the winter, with us, or whether it leaves us for a warmer climate, is not cer- tainly known. It is pretended that many have been found in hollow trees, but the truth of it has never been well attefted. CucuLUs^/ttjj in zoology, the name of a large genus of fifties, the characters of which are, that they have two or three fila- ments running from the under part of their gills, which are commonly called fingers ; that they can make a fort of noife ; hence the Latins called them cuculi, from their imitating, in fome fort, the voice of the cuchw. See Tab. of Birds, N° 46. The Englifh gurnard, which is their common name, feems al- fo taken from their grunting ; and one fpecies of them is called the piper, or the muftciem, from its refembling with its voice a fmall pipe. See Gurnard.

They have all large, broad, and thin gill fins, fome of which ferve the fpecies which have them, for flying ; and all of them have large bony heads, of a fomewhat fquare figure, and are ta- pering in fhape from the head to the tail. The corax, bir un- do 3 mifous, and lyra of authors, are all of this genus. Rays Ichthyogr. p. 278. See the article Corax, &c. CUCUMIS, the cucumer, or cucumber, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : the flower confifts of one leaf, fafhioned like a bell, very wide and open at the mouth, and divided into feveral fegments. Some of the flowers of this genus of plants are male, or fteril, having no embryo of fruit; others are female, or fruitful ; thefe have an embryo which ripens into a large flefhy fruit, ufually of a cy- lindric figure, and divided either into three or four cells, and full of oblong feeds.

The fpecies of cucumber enumerated by Mr. Tournefort are thefe: 1. The common garden cucumber, the fruit of which yellow when fully ripe. 2. The garden cucumber, the fruit of which is white, when ripe. 3. The long, crooked cucumber. 4. The wild cucumber, or fquirt, called by authors, cucumis aft- ninm, or the afs cucumber, of the juice of which the elaterium of the mops is made. 5. The wild cucumber, with finuated and jagged leaves. 6. The round-leaved, Egyptian cucumber, called by fome authors chafe. Tourn. Inft. p. 104. The cucumber is one of the four great coolers of the (hops* It is almoft an univerfal ingredient in emulfions, and is found of fervice in fevers, and nephritic complaints. There are three fpecies of this plant cultivated in gardens the common kind, the white one, and the long green one. The firft is what we bring to market in England 3 the fecond is the common Dutch kind, and is greatly preferable to ours, as being much firmer, and having fewer feeds ; and the third is better even than that, but it is raifed with difficulty. The common one, which is what our gardeners almoft folely cultivate, is raifed at three different feafons of the year ; the firft: is on hot beds, under garden frames, for early fruit ; the fecond is under bell, or hand-glaffes, which is for the middle crop; and the third is on the common ground, which is for a late crop, or to pickle. The cucumbers which are ripe be- fore April are unwbolefome, being raifed wholly by the fer- ment of dung, not by the fun's heat; Thofe ripe in April are Suppl. Vol. I.

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good fruit, and are raifed in the Mowing manner : toward the latter end of January, a quantity of frelh horfe June muft be procured, with the litter among it, and a fmall proportion of Tea coal afhes ihould be added to it. In four or five davs the dung will begin to heat, at which time a little of it may be drawn flat on the out fide, and covered with two inches thick- nefs of good earth : this muft be covered with a bell glafs, and after two days, when the earth is warm, the feeds muft be fown on it, covered with a quarter of an inch of frefh earth, and the glafs then fet on again. The glafs muft be covered with a mat at nights, and, in four davs; the young plants will appear ; when thefe are fcen, the reft of the dung muft be made- up into a bed tor one or more lights. This muft be three feet thick and beat clofe together, and covered three inches deep with fine frefh earth ; the frame muft then be put on, and co- vered at night, or in bad weather with mats. When the earth is hot enough, the plants from under the bell muft be tranfplanted into it, and fet at two inches diftance. The glades muft be now and then a little raifed to aive air td the plants, and turned often, to prevent the wet from thefteam of the dung from dropping down upon them The plants muft be watered at times with water, fet on dung till as warm as the air in the frame : and as the young plants grow up, the (talks of them fhould be earthed up s which will give them great ad- ditional ftrength. If the bed is not hot enough, fome frefh litter fhould be laid round its fides ; and if too hot, fome holes fhould be bored into feveral parts of it with a flake, which will let out the heat, and when the bed is thus brought to a proper coolnefs, the holes are to be flopped up again with frefh datvr. When thefe plants begin to (hoot their third, or rough leaf, an- other bed muft be prepared for them like the firft, and wdieri it is properly warm through the earth, the plants of the other bed muft be taken up, and planted in this, in which there muft be a hole in the middle of each light, of about a foot Jeep, and nine inches over, filled with light and fine frefh earth, laid hol- low, in form of a bafon : in each of thefe holes there muft be fet four plants ; thefe muft be, for two or three days, fhaded from the fun, that they may take firm root, after which they muft have all the fun they can, and now and then, a little frefh air, as the weather will permit. When the plants are four or five inches high, their ftalks ihould be gently pegged down to- ward the earth, in as different directions as may"be from onb another, and the branches afterwards produced, fhould be treated in the fame manner. In a month after this, the flowers will appear, and, foon after, the rudiments of the fruit. The glaflis muft now be carefully covered at nights, and, in the day time, they fhould have gentle waterings, fprinkling over the whole plants. Thefe will produce fruit till about midfummer, at which time thole of the fecond crop will come in to fupply their place : there are to be raifed in the fame manner as the early crop, only they don't require quite fo much care and trouble. This fecond crop fliould be fowed in the end of March, or beginning of April. Miller's Gardener's Die! . The feafon for fowing the cucumbers for the laft crop, and for pickling, is toward the latter end of May, when the weather is fettled : thefe are fown in holes dug to a little depth, and filled up with fine earth, in form of a balbn, eight or nine feeds in each hole. Thefe will come up in five or fix davs, and tiil they are about a week old, arc in great danger from the fpar- rows ; after this they require only watering now and theri, and keeping clear from weeds. There fhould be only five plants left at firft in each hole, and when they are grown a lit- tle farther up, the worft of thefe is to be pulled up; that there may finally remain only four. The plants of this crop will begin to produce fruit in July.

Cucumis capparis, in the botanical writings of the Arabians, a name given by Avifenna, and others, to the plant which pro- duced the fruit called bel. This fruit was like the capers in fhape, and had a hard fhell over its kernel, like thit of a hazel nut. Such is the defcription they give of it, and of the/e/and fel, two other fruits as like it in fhape and other refpefls, as in virtue. Some have fufpefled all thefe to be the fruits of the turpentine trees of various fpecies : but this cannot be, becaufe thofe trees were common in the countries where the writers lived, and yet they had the hi, &c. brought from the Eaft In- dies, and exprefly mention a plant, not a tree, as producing it. See the articles Bel, Fel, and Sel.

CUCURBITA the gourd. See the article GouttD.

CUCURBITINI lumbrlci, are broad Worrhs that breed in the' in- terlines, like the feed of a gourd. Blamard.

CUCURI, in zoology, the Brafilian name of a fifth of the (hark kind, but not mifchievous; called caffuon by the Portuguefe. It is of about two feet and a half long. The head ends in an hyperbolic figure, and the mouth is placed far below its end ; it has only one row of teeth, and thofe very fmall ; its eyes are of the fize of a large pea; its belly is of a filver white and its back and fides afti coloured ; its tail is afh coloured, as are alfo all its fins, except the two final! ones, under its bel- ly, which are white, lliuughby's Hift. Pifc. p. c-j.

CUCURUCU, in zoology, the name of a ferpent found in A- merica, growing to ten or twelve foot long. It is very thick alfo in proportion to its length, and is of a yellowifh colour, flrongly variegated with black fpots, which are irregularly mixed among the yellow, and often have fpots of yellow 7 Q_ within