Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/323

CARYOPHYLLACE^. 275 CASA GRANDE. phologieally, the Silenoidese and Alsinoidese. In the first the flowers are gamosepalous, in the other they have distinct sepals, and the stamens are often perigjTious. The chief genera of the first group are Silene, Lychnis, Gj-jisophila, and Dianthus. while of the second Stellaria, Ceras- tium. Arenaria, Spergiila, Paronychia, and Scleranthus are the best kno^vn. CAR YOP'SIS (Xeo-Lat., Fr. caryopse, from Gk. Kapvov, kariion. nut + i^is, opsis, appear- ance). The peculiar, seed-like fruit of grasses, as com, wheat, etc., often called a 'grain.' See Fruit. CARYO'TA (Xeo-Lat. noni. pi., from Gk. ra- pvurln, karyotos, nut-like, from Kdpvov, liiryon, nut). A genus of palms, natives of the East Indies. One species (Caryota urens) is remark- able for the acridity of its fruit, which prwluces a burning sensation when its pulp is applied to the skin. It is also highly valuable for the great quantity of juice which flows from the wounded spathes in the hot season, sometimes amounting to 100 pints in 24 hours from a single tree. Sugar (jaggery) is made from this juice by boiling it down, and on this account this palm is sometimes called the jaggery-palm. Wine or toddy is also made by the fermentation of the juice. The trunks yield starch which is much used for food, and is said to be equal to the best sago. The outer part of the stem, which is very hard, is applicable to many purposes. The fibres of the leafstalks are made into ropes, which are very strong and durable: the leaf- stalks, merely stripped of the leaflets, are used as fishing-rods, being light, tapering, and elastic ; and the woolly substance found at their base is sometimes used for calking ships. This palm is found in India and Ceylon, and abounds chiefly in mountainous districts. It rises to a height of 60 feet, with a trunk one foot in diameter and a magnificent spreading head of great, double-pin- nate leaves and triangular leaflets, the apex of the triangle being their point of attachment. From this character of the leaflets the name fishtai) palm has been given it. CA'RYSFORT' REEF. A dangerous coral reef ofl" the southeast coast of Florida, in lati- tude 25° 13' X., longitude 80° 13' W.. lying about 5 miles east of Key Largo (Map: Florida, D 4). It has a lighthouse 112 feet high, with a flash- ing red and white light of the first order. It stands lOG feet above the sea. CASA, kii'sa (from Lat. casa, cottage). The prefix to many names in Italian and Spanish, signifying house or home. CASA, k-i'sa, Giov.xxi dei.l. (1503.5(5). An Italian prelate and poet, sometimes called the Chesterfield of Italy, from his principal prose work, the dalateo, a sort of manual of jiolite conduct. The descendant of an old Florentine family, he studied in Bologna. Padua, and Rome, where he led a gay and dissipated life, until he I took orders in 1534. He found a warm friend I and patron in Cardinal Alessandro Farne.se, I who later, as Paul III., appointed liim succes- r Sively apostolic envoy to Florence, Archbishop of Benevento, and Papal Xuncio to Venice. Un- der Paul IV. he became Secretary of State, and in 1555 had hopes of being made "a cardinal : but lost his opportunity, as some believe, through the licentiousness of certain poems, notably his CapitoU del forno. Delia Casa was a prolific writer, in both Latin and Italian. His works include a Life of Pieiro liiinbo; translations from Thucydides; the much-jjraised Oalateo (1558: new ed. 1882) ; and many poems, which are distinguislied by a strenglli and polisli rarely foimd aiiiuiig his contemporaries. He e.xertcd a marked influence upon the poets of the following generation, notably upon Tasso, wlio was an ad- mirer and close student of his verse. For his life, consult Casotti, in Dpcre (Florence, 1707: republished, with additions, Venice, 1728 and 1752. and Milan, 1800). CASABIANCA, ka'za-byan'kil, Louis (175o- 98). A French naval officer. He was bom at Bastia, Corsica, and with the Comte de Grasse took part in the American Revolution. He was a member of the Xational Convention, and later one of the Coimcil of Five Hundred, in which Kssembly he occupied himself with the organiza- tion of the French Xavy. As captain he com- manded the Orient, the flagship of the fleet which transported Xapoleon and his army to Egypt. In the battle of Abukir, when the fleet was at- tacked by the English, Admiral Brueys was killed, and Casablanca had command of the fleet. Even when he was wounded and the ship caught fire he remained at his post. His ten-year-old son refused to leave his father, and both were killed by the blowing up of the ship. Tlie story forms the theme of Mrs. Hemans's famous poem. CASABLANCA, ka'sa-blan'ka. See Dab-sl- Beida. CASA BRACCIO, kii'sa bra'cho. A novel of Italian life, by Francis Marion Crawford (1895). CASA D'ORO, dO'ro, or CA' DORO. A palace in ^'enice dating from the Fourteenth Cen- tury, noted for its elegance. The fagade, unsym- metrically divided in two vertical sections, is" in- laid with marbles of various colors, and pierced by arches differing in size and arrangement, which are separated in the right division by paneling, and in the left by arcades. CASA GRANDE, gian'da (Sp., great house). A ruined structure of prehistoric origin in the valley of the Gila River, near Florence. Arizona, about 15 miles southeast of Casa Grande station (named from the ruin) on the .Southern Pacific Railway. It may have been seen by white men connected with the Coronado Expedition in 1540; it was certainly discovered by Padre Kino in 1G94, and was revisited by him" in 1G97, when he held a service within it, "though it had been un- occupied during the period covered by tradition. It was again visited in 1775 by Padre Font, but remained little known imtil rediscovered by American cmijirants about 1840: it was well described by .Tohn Russell Bartlett in 1854. In 1889, on the petition of citizens chiefly resident in Massachusetts. Congress provided for the pro- tection of the ruin as a monument of antiquitv; and in 1892 the structure and the adjacent grounds, bearing less imposing ruins, were set apart as a public resenation in care of a cus- todian. The structure as it stood about 1895 is showTi in the plate. It is of cajon or pist- construction (see Akcii.eoi.ocy, American), in walls 3 to 5 feet thick at the grouml, thinning upward; the surfaces were plastered, especially within, with a slip of adolx^ clay. There are five rooms in the ground pLan: portions of three sto- ries remain, and there may have been a fourth in