CHICHESTER, England, a municipal bor ough and episcopal city, near the southwest cor ner of the county of Sussex, 28 miles west of Brighton. It is well built and has wide streets. Its old wall, still in good preservation and lined with lofty elms, gives it a very picturesque appearance. Its principal edifice is the cathe dral, an ancient Gothic structure, founded in 1078, with one of the most graceful spires in England, and containing among many monu ments one of the poet Collins, who was born and died here. It has a fine old octagonal market-cross. The site of the city was known as Regnum during the Roman occupation, and was the headquarters of Vespasian. During the great Civil War the city changed hands three times in the course of 13 months (1642-43). It is now the headquarters of the Sussex County counsel. Pop. 12,591.
(an onomatopceic word, imitating the note of the bird), a local name for the black-cap titmouse. See TITMOUSE.
the popular name of Cicer arietinum and other plants of the same genus, growing wild along the shores of the Mediter ranean and in many parts of the East, and producing a short puffy pod with one or gener ally two small wrinkled seeds. It is an im portant article of French and Spanish cookery, and the plant is cultivated in Europe, Egypt, Syria, India, Mexico, etc. When roasted it is the common parched pulse of the East. It is sometimes used as a substitute for, or as an adulterant of, coffee. In Mexico it is an im portant food, known under the name garbanzo. The herbage serves as fodder for cattle. The chick-peas are leguminous plants of the vetch tribe, differing from the vetches mainly in the fruit. A dozen species are known, having the flowers solitary or in small axillary groups.