COWRY, the name given to the Cypraeidae, a family of marine gastropod molluscs. More than I so living species are known. They live in shallow water, and are found principally in the Indo-Pacific region. A small cowry, Trivia europaea, is found in European waters. They have a striking appearance when seen alive. The edges of the mantle are folded over the shell, covering a large part of its surface, and are provided with branched append ages. A marked difference is found between the shells of young and adult cowries. In the young form the shell is like that of a normally coiled snail, the lip of the aperture being simple and the spire acute and prominent. In the adult the outer lip is very large, the shell is inrolled so that the spire is nearly hidden, and the internal wall between the various whorls is resorbed.
The shells of Cypraea moneta are used by certain African tribes as money (see SHELL-MONEY) and those of other species are widely employed as ornaments. Cypraea aurantium (the orange cowry) is worn as a symbol of rank in the Fiji and the Friendly islands. (G. C. R.) See G. W. Tryon, Manual of Conchology, vol. vii. (1885). COWSLIP (Primula veris) : see PRIMROSE.
or Brosimum Galactodendron (family Moraceae), a native of Venezuela. As in other members of the order, the stem contains a milky latex, which flows out in considerable quantities when a notch is cut in it. The "milk" is sweet and pleasant tasting. Another species, B. Alicastrum, the bread-nut tree, a native of Central America and Jamaica, bears a fruit which is cooked and eaten. The bread-fruit (Artocarpus) is an allied genus of the same family.