Page:EB1911 - Volume 05.djvu/194

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CANDON—CANE-FENCING
181

naturale, of which two volumes only were completed (1821) when he found that it would be impossible for him to execute the whole work on so extensive a scale. Accordingly in 1824 he began a less extensive work of the same kind—his Prodromus systematis regni vegetabilis—but even of this he was able to finish only seven volumes, or two-thirds of the whole. He had been for several years in delicate health when he died on the 9th of September 1841 at Geneva.

His son, Alphonse Louis Pierre Pyrame de Candolle, born at Paris on the 28th of October 1806, at first devoted himself to the study of law, but gradually drifted to botany and finally succeeded to his father’s chair. He published a number of botanical works, including continuations of the Prodromus in collaboration with his son, Anne Casimir Pyrame de Candolle. He died at Geneva on the 4th of April 1893.


CANDON, a town of South Ilocos province, Luzon, Philippine Islands, on the W. coast, about 200 m. N. by W. of Manila. Pop. (1903) 18,828. Its climate is hot, though healthy. Candon is surrounded by an extensive and fertile plain, and is defended by a small fort. Its inhabitants are noted for their honesty and industry, as well as for their regard for law and order. They carry on an extensive traffic with the wild tribes of the neighbouring mountains. Indigo is grown in considerable quantity, as are rice and tobacco. The weaving of blankets, handkerchiefs, and cotton and silk cloths constitutes quite an important industry. The language is Ilocanc.


CANDYTUFT (Iberis amara, so called from Iberia, i.e. Spain, where many species of the genus are native, and amara, bitter, i.e. in taste), a small annual herb (natural order Cruciferae) with white or purplish flowers, the outer petals of which are longer than the rest. It is a native of western Europe and found wild on dry soil in cultivated ground in the centre and east of England. This and several other species of the genus are known as garden plants, and are of easy culture in ordinary garden soil if well exposed to sun and air. The common candytuft of gardens is I. umbellata, a hardy annual, native of southern Europe, and known in a number of varieties differing in colour of flowers. I. coronaria (rocket candytuft) has long dense heads of white flowers and is also an annual. Some species have a shrubby growth and are evergreen perennials; the best-known is I. sempervirens, a native of southern Europe, a much-branched plant about a foot high with long racemes of white flowers. I. gibraltarica is a showy, handsome half hardy evergreen.


CANE, a name applied to many plants which have long, slender, reed-like stalks or stems, as, for example, the sugar-cane, the bamboo-cane or the reed-cane. From the use as walking-sticks to which many of these plants have been applied, the name “cane” is improperly given to sticks, irrespective of the source from which they are derived. Properly it should be restricted to a peculiar class of palms, known as rattans, included under the two closely allied genera Calamus and Daemonorops, of which there are a large number of species. The plants are found widely extended throughout the islands of the Indian Archipelago, the Malay Peninsula, China, India and Ceylon; and also in Australia and Africa. They were described by Georg Eberhard Rumpf or Rumphius (1627–1702), governor of Amboyna, and author of the Herbarium Amboynense (6 vols. folio, Amsterdam, 1741–1755), under the name of Palmijunci, as inhabitants of dense forests into which the rays of the sun scarce can penetrate, where they form spiny bushes, obstructing the passage through the jungle. The slender stems rarely exceed an inch in diameter and are generally much smaller. They creep or trail to an enormous length, often reaching 500 or 600 ft., and support themselves on trees or bushes by recurved spines borne on the stalk or back of the midrib of the leaf, or by stiff hooks replacing the upper leaflets. In some cases the midrib is elongated beyond the leaflets to form a long whip-like structure, bearing recurved hooks at intervals. The natives, in preparing the canes for the market, strip off the leaves by pulling the cut plant through a notch made in a tree. The canes always present distinct rings at the junction of the sheathing leaves with the stem. They assume a yellow colour as they dry; and those imported from Calcutta have a glossy surface, while the produce of the Eastern Archipelago presents a dull exterior.

Canes, on account of their lightness, length, strength and flexibility, are used for a great variety of purposes by the inhabitants of the countries in which they grow. Split into thin strips they are twisted to form ropes and ships’ cables, an application mentioned by Captain Dampier in his Voyages. A more important application, however, is for basket-work, and for making chairs, couches, pillows, &c., as the great strength and durability of thin and easily prepared strips admit of such articles being made at once airy, strong and flexible. Much of the beautiful and elaborate basket-work of the Chinese and Japanese is made from thin strips of cane, which are also used by the Chinese for larger works, such as door-mats, houses and sheds.

A very large trade with Western countries and the United States is carried on in canes and rattans, the principal centres of the trade being Batavia, Sarawak, Singapore, Penang and Calcutta. In addition to the varieties used for walking-sticks, whip and umbrella handles, &c., the common rattans are in extensive demand for basket-making, the seats and backs of chairs, the ribs of cheap umbrellas, saddles and other harness-work; and generally for purposes where their strength and flexibility make them efficient substitutes for whalebone. The walking-stick “canes” of commerce include a great many varieties, some of which, however, are not the produce of trailing palms. The well-known Malacca canes are obtained from Calamus Scipionum, the stems of which are much stouter than is the case with the average species of Calamus.


CANEA, or Khania, the principal seaport and since 1841 the capital of Crete, finely situated on the northern coast of the island, about 25 m. from its western extremity, on the isthmus of the Akrotiri peninsula, which lies between the Bay of Canea and the Bay of Suda (latitude 35° 31′ N., longitude 24° 1′ E.). Surrounded by a massive Venetian wall, it forms a closely built, irregular and overcrowded town, though of late years a few of its streets have been widened. The ordinary houses are of wood; but the more important buildings are of more solid materials. The Turks have a number of mosques; there are Greek churches and a Jewish synagogue; an old Venetian structure serves as a military hospital; and the prison is of substantial construction. The town is now the principal seat of government; the seat of a Greek bishop, who is suffragan to the metropolitan at Candia, and the official residence of the European consuls. The harbour, formed by an ancient transverse mole nearly 1200 ft. long, and protected by a lighthouse and a fort, would admit vessels of considerable tonnage; but it has been allowed to silt up until it shoals off from 24 ft. to 10 or even 8, so that large vessels have to anchor about 4 or 5 m. out. The principal articles of trade are oil and soap, and there is a pretty extensive manufacture of leather. The fosse is laid out in vegetable gardens; public gardens have been constructed outside the walls; and artesian wells have been bored by the government. To the east of the town a large Arab village had grown up, inhabited for the most part by natives of Egypt and Cyrenaica, who acted as boatmen, porters and servants, but since the fall of the Turkish government most of these have quitted the island; while about a mile off on the rising ground is the village of Khalepa, where the consuls and merchants reside. The population of the town is estimated at 20,000. Canea probably occupies the site of the ancient Cydonia, a city of very early foundation and no small importance. During the Venetian rule it was one of the strongest cities in the island, but it fell into the hands of the Turks in 1646, several years before the capture of Candia. In 1856 it suffered from an earthquake. The neighbouring plain is famous for its fruitfulness, and the quince is said to derive its name Cydonia from the town. (See also Crete.)


CANE-FENCING (the Fr. canne), the art of defending oneself with a walking-stick. It may be considered to be single-stick fencing without a guard for the hand, with the important difference that in cane-fencing the thrust is as important as