CER
C E R
It is of a variegated colour, of a mixture of white, brown, and yellow ; but the long wing and tail feathers are black : its legs are greenifh; but the membrane which connects the toes is brown. A'drov. tie Avib.
CEPULA, a name by which Gefner and fome other authors have called the common tasnia. It is derived from the Italian cepoie; the common name of the fame fifh in the markets of Rome. Gefner de Pifc p. 106.
CEPUS, in zoology, a name given by fome to thofe monkeys nf the ("mailer kind, which have more or lefs green among their other colours. There is a very pretty kind of this, which is for the moll part of a reddifh colour, but has a great deal of green on its back, and of a greenifh grey on its breaft, belly, and the inner part of its legs. Rays Syn. Quad. p. 157.
CERACHATES, in the natural hiftory of the antients, the name of a fpec es of agate of a plain yellow colour, and ve- ty much refembling yellow wax ; foundalfo frequently to this day, and called by Dr. Hill the achates flavefcens, without any farther addition, as being never variegated with any other co- lour than thefeveral {hades of yellow. It is naturally of a pure, but not very bright yellow, and fo exactly refembles yellow wax, that a rough piece of it at a yard's diilance is fcarcctobe diftinguimedfrom apiece of wax: it is confidera- bly hard, but has not much tranfparence. We have it from the Eaif -Indies, as alfo from New Spain, and fome other parts of America, and our jewellers Ibmetimes work it into toys of fmall value. Hill's HUE of Foil", p 4S6.
CEROFERARIU3, in ecclefiaftical writers, an inferior order of minjfters in the antient church, appointed to walk in cer- tain parts of the office with lighted tapers in their hands. The cerofcrarii are reprefented by Ifidorus, as the fame with what were otherwife denominated acolythi. Ifid. Orig. 1. 7. c. 12. See Acolythi.
Their bufinefs was to light the tapers, and march before the deacon, &c. when the gofpcl was to be read, or the eucharift adminiilered, as a demonhration of the joy caufed by thegof- pel light. DuCange, Gloff. Lat. T. 1. p. 937. Pitifc.Lex. Ant. T. 1. p. 4°3. Magr. Vocab. Ecclef. p. 63. Bingham maintains, that the ceroferaru, cr taper-bearers in the latter ages, were not fo properly a particular fpecies of acolythi., as the fucceffors of the antient acolythi under another name, and with a great diminution of their office. Bingh. Orig. Ecclef. 1. 3. c. 3. §. 4.
The word is formed of the Latin cerem, a taper or wax can- dle, zndfero, I bear.
CEROTUM, Ki^V, in the antient pharmacy, the fame with cerate. See Cerate, Cyd.
CERAMIUM, Kfgapw*, an antient meafure, anfwering to what was otherwife called amphora and cadm. Beverin Synt. de Ponder, p. 135. Cafl. Lex. Gorr. Med. Defin. p. 221. See Amphora, &c.
CERASTES, the horned fnahe, in zoology, the name of a fpe- cies of ferpent, which has on its forehead two protuberances, looking like fhells, but of a more folid texture, and from their refemblance of horns, have given it its name : thefc are often jno larger than grains of barley: its teeth are like thofe of the viper, and are placed in the fame order: it is of the number of viviparous ferpents, and is remarkable among the ferpent elate for its long enduring thirft. It is fqund in Lybia and Arabia, particularly about the town of Suez. Belon. Obf. 1. 2. c. 54.
Cerastes was alfo a name given by the antient Greeks to a flag when at its full growth, or at the end of its fourth year. Thefe authors had peculiar names for this creature in every year o'f its growth ; in the firft, they called it nebros ; in the fecond, pattalea ; in the third, dicrotus ; in the fourth, cladius ; and at the end of the fourth, when they fuppofed it to be come to its full maturity, ccrajles. The interpreter of Apollonius tells us, that author means by the word certifies, a large and full grown flag with great horns. The modern huntfmen have taken up the old cuftom, of giving names to this animal according to the growth of its horns.
CERASUS, the chary tree, in botany, the name of a genus of trees, the characters of which are thefe : the flower is of the rofaceous kind, or compofed of feveral petals arranged in a circular form : the piftil arifes from the cup, and finally be- comes a roundiih or beart-fafbioned flefby fruit, containing a ftone of the fame fhape with its kernel. The fpecies of cherry enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe : I . The garden cherry, with round red and fharp tailed fruit. 2. The garden cherry, with large round red fruit. 3. The cherry whofe fruit has no ftone. 4. The late acid cherry, with blood-red juice. 5. The late infipid cherry. 6. The lateoiWry, with very long and foliated pedicles. 7. The great heart cherry, 8. The watery cherry. 9. The white fweet cherry. 1 0. The great wild cherry, with fweet black- ifh juice, j 1. The Sicilian cherry, with chefnut-coloured fruit. 1 2. The cherry with great red turbinated fruit. 1 3. The round, glofly, black cherry. 14. The cherry with great ob- long and crooked black fruit. 15. The cherry with a large fruit, carinated on each fide. 16. The early cherry, with a fmall, oblong, infipid fruit. 17. The May cherry^ with a hafd fweet fruit. 18. The wild duller birds cherry, with
fruit not eatable. iq. The wild duller cherry, with red not eatable fruit. 20. The garden dufter cherry. 21. Thecluf- ter cherry, with fmall very red fruit. 22. The garden cherry^ with rofe-coloured flowers. 23. The double-flowered garden cherry. 24. The great double-flowered wild ehe-ry. 2>. The northern Englifh cherry, with a fmall, red, late ripening fruit.
26. The wild cherry, with a (mail heart-fafhioned fruit.
27. The-wild bitter cherry^ fuppofed to be the mabaleb : and,
28. The round-Ieav'd alpine cherry. Team. Inft. p. 625. See CufcRRY.
CERATE {Cyd.) — Fee Ceratum.
CERA TEAS', Km&Su*, among antient naturalifts, denotes a horned comet. Plin. Hill. Nat. 1. z. c. 25. Vital Lex. Math, p. 101.
The word is Greek, formed from rs-% v, cornu, a horn. Such is that faid to have appeared when Xerxes pafied his army into Greece. Fah.TheL p. 536.
CERATIOM, among the antients. See Ceratitjm.
CERATTFES, a name given by many authors to the fubflance more ufually called by authors unicornu fojfile, and found in great plenty in the caverns of Hart's forelt in Germany. Hill's Hill, of Faff. p. 36c. See Unicornu f affile.
CER ATI UM, or Ceration, a name given by the antierrt priy- ficians to a fmall weight. The ceration is properly the name of a tree called thecarob, or filiqua dulcis, the fweet pipe tree : this tree bears alongpod, in which are contained feveral feetE among the pulp : thefe feeds are alfo called ceration and jembut by the Arabians, and being dried, they were ufed as a weight to pro- portion the dofes of medicines: thus the fmall weight which took its origin from them, was called ceration ; as that fmall weight, which took its origin from a grain of barley, was called granum. Galen.
Ceratiwm was alfo a fmall filver coin, the third part of an obolus, and the fame with what the Romans called foils. Pitifc. Lex. Ant in voc, ceratium,
CER/\TOCARPL T S, in botany, a name grven by Buxbaum to a new genus of plants, the chara£ters of which are, that the leaves are flender and grafly, the flowers apetalous, and hav- ing no cup, but (landing upon the embryo fruit : the fruit, when ripe, is of a triangular figure, refembling that of the fliepherd's purfe, but running out into horns, and compofed of two valves. Each of thefe fruits contains only one feed, and that of a very lingular figure : it is Ions and flender, and not flat, but rounded, and each of its extremities is bent round in the manner of an arch, which are held together in their approach to one another by a membrane ; the root is fibrofe and annual, the flalk woody and branched, the leaves ligid and hollowed along the middle, and the flowers are yellow. It grows in marfhy places near the Cafpian fea, and in the neigh- bourhood of Aftracan ; and toward autumn the flalks are ufually torn up by the winds, and blown about the marines in great abundance. Act. Petrop. v. 1, p. 244. The author named it aratoca-pus, horned fruit, from the (eed' vcfTels running out into two horns : he obferves, that the de- fcription of the ceratoides of Toumefort's corollary approach- es to this plant in many points, but differs (o much in others, that either Tournefort mull mean another plant, or el fe he mufl have informed hirnfelf but very imperfectly as to this.
CERATOIDES, KsfoiwiJV, in anatomy, the cornea tunica. Cafl. Renov. p. x 5 ^ . See Cornea, Cycl.
Ceratoides is alfo a denomination given to the ds hyoides, or bicorne. Drak. Anthrop. 1. 3. c. 15. p. 351. See Hyoides, Cycl
ChRATOMALAGMA, K-^V^"/^ a cerate or cerecloth. Cafi. Renov. p. 158. Blanc. Lex. Med. p. j 46. Uarehuys, Pharm. Synopf. p. 4.9. See Cerate, Cycl.
CERATONIA, a name given by fome botanical authors to the- carob tree.
CERATOPHYLLUM, in botany, the name by which Lin- naeus calls a genus of plants, called by others dichotopbyllum, and hydroceratophyllum. The characters are thefe: the flowers are fome male, others female, on the fame plant : in the male flowers the cup is divided into many fegments, which are pointed, and equal in fize. There are no petals: the {lamina are flender filaments, double in number to the fegments of the cup, being ufually fixteen or twenty, and are icarce confpi- cuous : the anthene are oblong, erect, and longer than the cup. In the female flowers the cup and corolla are the fame as in the male: the germen of the piftil is comprcfied,- and of an oval figure : there is no ftile, but the ftigma is obtufe and ob- lique: the fruit is an oval nut, of a pointed figure, and hav- ing only one cell. Vaillant defcribes one fpecies of this ge- nu's, the feeds of which have three ipines, one {landing for- ward, and the other two behind. Lbr-iai Gen. PI. p. 459. Vaill. Act. Germ. 1719 DillcnGen. 3.
CERATUM cpidoiicuin, a name given in the late London dif- penfatorv to the compoiition commonly called Turner's cerate, and there ordered to be made in this manner : take oil olive, a pound ; yellow wax and prepared calamy, of each half a pound; melt the wax in the oil, and when the mixture begins to congeal again, fprinklein the powder, and continue ftirring it till the whole is cold. Pe?nbsrton , s Eond. Difp. p. 370.
Ceratum mercuriale, a form of medicine prefcribed in the late London pharmacopoeia, and ordered to be made in the follow-
