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and there are are six hundred species, two of which are specially
cultivated, viz., Opuntia Cochinellifem (Nopal plant), largely grown
in Mexico, as the food plant of the Cochineal insect {Coccus Ca6ti),
which produces a beautiful crimson dye; and C. vulgaris, or Prickly
Pear, which is cultivated for its grateful Gooseberry-like fruits in
barren rocky parts of North Africa and Southern Europe.____
Peruvian sorcerers make rag dolls, and stick the thorns of Cacflus
in them, or hide these thorns in holes under or about houses, or in
the wool of beds and cushions, that those they wish to harm may be
crippled, maddened, or suffocated.
C a l f ’ s -s n o u t .— See Antirrhinum.
C A M E L L IA .—The flower of the beauteous Rose of Japan
{Camellia Japónica) has been well described as—
“ The chaste Camellia’s pure and spotless bloom^
That boasts no fragrance and conceals no Thorn.”
The tree was introduced into Europe in 1639, and is named after
G. J . Kamel, or Camellus, a Moravian Jesuit, and traveller in Asia,
who, returning to Spain from the Isle of Luzon, sought an audience
of Queen Maria Theresa, and presented her with a mother-o’-
pearl vase, in whichr’grew a small shrub with glossy green leaves,
bearing two flowers of dazzling whiteness. Plucking the fair
bloom, she ran to the king’s chamber, which he was pacing in one
of his periodical fits of melancholy. “ Behold the new flower of
the Philippines,” she cried, as her husband welcomed her with a
fond embrace; “ I have kept the best for you; the other you shall
present to-night to Rosalez,_who plays so well in Cinna, at the
Theatre del Principe.” Ferdinand pronounced the flower of which
his wife was so enraptured to be “ beautiful but scentless,” but
spite of the latter defect, the plant was assiduously cultivated in
the hothouses of E l Buen Retiro, and called after the giver, the
Camellia. In Japan, the Camellia is a large and lofty tree, greatly
esteemed by the natives for the beauty of its flowers and evergreen
foliage, and grown everywhere in their groves and gardens: it is
also a native of China, and figures frequently in Chinese paintings.
The Camellia Sasanqua, the Cha-Hwa of the Chinese, has fragrant
flowers, and its dried leaves are prized for the scent obtained from
them; a decoaion is used by the ladies of China and Japan as a
hair-wash. This shrub so resembles the Tea-plant, both in leaf
and blossom, that they are not readily distinguished: the leaves
are mixed with Tea to render its odour more grateful.
C A M P A N U L A .—One of the chief favourites in the family
of Campanulaceae, or Bell-flowers, is Campanula Speculum, or
Venus’s Looking-glass. The English name was given to this little
plant probably because its brilliant corollas appear to reflecft the
sun’s rays, although some authorities state that it is so called from
the glossiness of the seeds. Still another derivation is the resemIfblance
of the flower’s round-shaped bloom to the form of the mirror
of the ancients, which was always circular; and the plant being
graceful and extremely pretty, it was appropriated to the Goddess
of Beauty. The classics, however, ignore all these derivations,
and give us the following account of the origin of the
“ Floral bough that swingeth
And tolls its perfume on the passing air.”
In one of her rambles on earth, Venus accidentally dropped a
certain mirror which she was carrying, and which possessed the
quality of beautifying whatever it reflecited, A shepherd picked it
u p ; but no sooner had he gazed upon its wondrous reflecting surface,
than he forgot forthwith his favourite nymph, and it is to be presumed
himself as well; for, like another Narcissus, he became
enamoured of his own visage, and could do nothing but admire his
own charms. Cupid, who had discovered his mother’s loss, and
found out how matters stood with the foolish shepherd, became
fearful of the consequences of such a silly error; he, therefore,
broke the magic mirror, and transformed the glittering fragments
into those bright little flowers, which have ever since been called
Venus’s Looking-glass. Miller mentions seventy-eight kinds of
Campanula, the best known of which are the Canterbtiry-bells,
Coventry-bells, the Heath-bell, and the Giant Throat-wort, a flower
mentioned by Sir Walter Scott in his poem of ‘ Rokeby’:—
“ He laid him down,
Where purple Heath profusely strown,
And Throat-wort, with its azure bell,
And Moss, and Thyme, his cushion swell.”
(See also C a n t e r b u r y B e l l s ).
C AM PH O R .—The Camphire or Camphor-tree {Laurus Cam-
phora) is principally found in China and Japan. Camphor is
obtained by boiling the wood of this tree, in which the gum
exists, ready formed. The Arabians at a very early period were
acquainted with the virtues of the Camphor-trees of Sumatra and
Borneo, the produce of which is known as Native Camphor.
C a m p io n ,—See Lychnis, and Ragged Robin.
C A N D Y -T U F T .—The Iberis, or, as we call it in English,
Candy-tuft (from Candia, whence we first received the plant), is
singularly devoid of any poetical or traditional lore. Old Gerarde
tells us that Lord Edward Zouche sent him some seeds which he
sowed in his garden, and reared in due course. He calls it Candie
Mustard, Thlaspi Candice, the latter being one of the names by which
the plant was known in France. In that country, more importance
seems to have been attached to the flower, or, at any rate, more
notice was taken of it by poets and literati, for we find that one of
the species was distinguished as being the emblem of architeciture,
from the fact that its flowers are disposed in stories from the base
to the summit of the stalk, resembling in some little degree the
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