CERBERA, in botany, a genus of the Pentandria Monogynia class and order. Natural order of Contortx. Apocinex, Jussieu. Essential character : contorted ; drupe one-seeded. There are five spe cies, of which C. ahouai, oval-leafed cer bera, grows naturally in the Brazils, and also in the Spanish West Indies in plen ty; and there are some of the trees growing in the British Islands of Ameri ca. This tree is about ten feet high, send ing out many crooked diffused branches, which toward the top has thick succulent leaves, about three inches long and near two broad, of a lucid green colour, full of a milky juice, as is every part of the tree. The flowers come out in loose bunches at the end of the branches ; they are of a cream colour. It flowers in July, but never produces fruit in England. The wood of this tree is exceedingly of fensive, and the kernels of the nuts are a most deadly poison.
CEIICAItIA, in natural history, a ge nus of the Vermes infusoria : worm in visible to the naked eye, pellucid, and furnished wAi, a tail. There are 13 species, of which C. gyrinus is round, with a pointed tail ; found in ani mal infusiois ; white, gelatinous, fore part nearh globular. C. catellus ; body three-partid, with a forked tail ; is met with in waers where flowers have been kept ; had moveable, affixed to the body by v point ; abdomen not so wide, but twice as long as the head, and filled with intstines ; tail shorter than the head and narrower than the abdomen, ending n two bristles, which it can unite and seprate at pleasure ; C. mutabilis,
change.ble, cylindrical, red or green, with a pointed slightly bifid tail ; found in stapant pools in such innumerable myriad, as to cover the whole surface with asheet of green or red, giving it sometimes the appearance of being ting ed will blood ; varies its posture from a long c;lindrical body, larger in the mid dle, tt a nearly globular one ; the ex tremitis are pellucid.
cm's, in botany, English Judas tree, a gees of the Decandria Monogynia class ad order. Natural order of Lomen tacete. Leguminosx, Jussieu. Essential characer: calyx five-toothed, gibbous below, corol papilionaceous ; standard short beneath the wings ; legume. Ther are two species, viz. C. siliquas trumcommon Judas tree ; and C. cana dens4 Canada Judas tree, or red bud dingree. These trees are usually plant ed nth other flowering trees, for orna niers to pleasure gardens, and for their singlar beauty deserve a place as well as nuoe other sorts. The wood is also beau tiftly veined with black and green, and, talang a fine polish, may be converted to may uses.