by D. Stur at over 45,000 ft. In the east and south of the Schiefergebirge (a general term for the slaty mountains of the Hundsrück and Taunus range, the Westerwald and part of the Eifel district), the Culm shales pass upwards into a coarser deposit, the “Culm-grauwacke,” which attains a considerable thickness and superficial extent. Culm fossils appear in the Carnic Alps, in the Balkans and parts of Spain, also in Spitzbergen and part of New Guinea.
The most characteristic fossil is of course Posidonomya Becheri; others are Glyphioceras sphaericum, Rhodea patentissima, Asterocalamites scrobiculatus (Schloth), Lepidodendron veltheimianum, Gastrioceras carbonarium.
See E. A. N. Arber, “On the Upper Carboniferous Rocks of West Devon and North Cornwall,” Q.J.G.S. lxiii. (1907), which contains a bibliography of the English Culm; E. Holzapfel, Paläont. Abhandl. Bd. v. Heft i. (1889); H. Potonié, Abhandl. preuss. geol. Landesanst., Neue Folge, 36 (1901); D. Stur, “Die Culm Flora,” Abhandl. k.k. geol. Reichsanst. viii. (Vienna, 1875). (J. A. H.)
CULMINATION (from Lat. culmen, summit), the attainment
of the highest point. In astronomy the term is given to the
passage of a heavenly body over the meridian of a place. Two
culminations take place in the course of the day, one above and
the other below the pole. The first is called the upper, the second
the lower. Either or both may occur below the horizon and
therefore be invisible.
CULPRIT, properly the prisoner at the bar, one accused of
a crime; so used, generally, of one guilty of an offence. In
origin the word is a combination of two Anglo-French legal
words, culpable, guilty, and prit or prist, i.e. prest, Old French for
prêt, ready. On the prisoner at the bar pleading “not guilty,”
the clerk of the crown answered “culpable,” and stated that he
was ready (prest) to join issue. The words cul. prist (or prit) were
then entered on the roll as showing that issue had been joined.
When French law terms were discontinued the words were taken
as forming one word addressed to the prisoner. The formula
“Culprit, how will you be tried?” in answer to a plea of “not
guilty,” is first found in the trial for murder of the 7th earl of
Pembroke in 1678.
CULROSS (locally pronounced Coo-rus), a royal and police
burgh, Fifeshire, Scotland, 612 m. W. by S. of Dunfermline and
212 m. from East Grange station on the North British railway
company’s line from Dunfermline to Stirling. Pop. 348. Until
1890 it belonged to the detached portion of Perthshire. Attractively
situated on a hillside sloping gently to the Forth, its
placid old-world aspect is in keeping with its great antiquity.
Here St Serf carried on his missionary labours, and founded a
church and cemetery, and here he died and was buried. For
centuries the townsfolk used to celebrate his day (July 1st) by
walking in procession bearing green boughs. Kentigern, the
apostle to Cumbria and first bishop of Glasgow, was born at
Culross, his mother having been driven ashore during a tempest,
and was adopted by St Serf as his son. These religious associations,
coupled with the fertility of the soil, led to the founding
of a Cistercian abbey in 1217. Of this structure the only remains
are the western tower and the choir, which, greatly altered as
well as repaired early in the 19th century, now forms the parish
church. It is supposed that a chapel of which some traces exist
in the east end of the town was dedicated to Kentigern. James
VI. made Culross a royal burgh in 1588. In 1808 there was
discovered in the abbey church, embalmed in a silver casket,
still preserved there, bearing his name and arms, the heart of
Edward, Lord Bruce of Kinloss, who was killed in August 1613
near Bergen-op-Zoom in a duel with Sir Edward Sackville,
afterwards earl of Dorset. Robert Pont (1524–1606), the Reformer,
was born at Shirresmiln, or Shiresmill, a hamlet in Culross
parish. Nearly all its old industries—the coal mines, salt works,
linen manufacture, and even the making of iron girdles for the
baking of scones—have dwindled, but its pleasant climate and
picturesqueness make it a holiday resort. Dunimarle Castle,
a handsome structure on the sea-shore, adjoins the site of the
castle where, according to tradition, Macbeth slew the wife
and children of Macduff. Culross belongs to the Stirling district
group of parliamentary burghs.
 |
| Ransome’s Spring Tine Cultivator. |
CULTIVATOR,[1] also called Scuffler, Scarifier or Grubber, an agricultural implement employed in breaking up land or in stirring it after ploughing. The first all-iron cultivator, known as Finlayson’s grubber, was a large harrow with curved teeth carried on wheels, and was brought out about 1820. It was designed to meet the need for some implement of intermediate character between the plough and harrow, which should stir the soil deeply and expeditiously without reversing it, and bring the weeds unbroken to the surface. The chief modern improvement has been the imparting of vibratory movement and hence greater stirring capacity to the tines, either by making them of spring steel or by fitting springs to the point of attachment of the tine to the framework of the machine. In its modern form the implement consists of a framework fitted with rows of curved stems or tines, which may be raised clear of the ground or lowered into work by means of a lever, and differs from the harrow in that it is provided with two wheels, which prevent the tines from embedding themselves too deeply in the soil. The stems may be fitted either with chisel-points or with broad shares, according as it is required to merely stir the soil or to bring up weeds and clean the surface. In the disk cultivator revolving disks take the place of tines. The implement is usually provided with a seat for the driver and is drawn by horses, but steam power is also commonly applied to it, the speed of the operation in that case increasing its effectiveness. The method is the same as that of steam-ploughing (see Plough).
CUMAE (Gr. Κύμη), an ancient city of Campania, Italy, about
12 m. W. of Neapolis, on the W. coast of Campania, on a volcanic
eminence, overlooking the plain traversed by the Volturno.
There are many legends as to its foundation, but even the actual period of its colonization by the Greeks is so early (ancient authorities give it as 1050 B.C.) that there is some doubt as to who established it, whether Chalcidians from Euboea or Aeolians from Κύμη (Cyme), and it should probably be regarded as a joint settlement. It was certainly, as Strabo says, the oldest of the Greek colonies on the mainland of Italy or in Sicily. Livy tells us (viii. 22) that the settlers first landed on Pithecusae (Ischia) and thence transferred their position to the mainland, which seems a probable story. We find it in 721 B.C. founding Zancle (Messina) in Sicily jointly with Chalcis, and it extended its power gradually over the coast of the Gulf of Puteoli and the harbours of the promontory of Misenum. Puteoli itself under the name Dicaearchia was probably founded by Cumae. In the 7th century, according to the legends, Parthenope, whither the demos of Cumae had taken refuge after an unsuccessful rising against the aristocracy, was attacked by the latter and destroyed, but soon rebuilt under the name of Neapolis (New City, the present Naples).[2] The most fertile portion of the Campanian plain was also under its dominion; the name “fossa Graeca” still lingered on in 205 B.C. to testify to its ancient limits. Cumae was now at the height of its power, and many fine coins testify to its prosperity. In 524 B.C. it was the object of a joint attack by the Etruscans of Capua, the Daunians of the district of Nola, and the Aurunci of the Mons Massicus. A brilliant victory was, however, won in the hilly district outside the town, largely owing
- ↑ From Late Lat. cultivare, through cultivus, from colere, to till, cultivate; whence cultus, worship, form of religion, cult.
- ↑ Mommsen, however (Corpus Inscrip. Latin. x., Berlin, 1883, p. 170), rightly throws considerable doubt on the existence of Parthenope and even of Palaeopolis, of which there is some mention in Roman annals; under both he is inclined to trace Cumae itself.
