f a siliceous, calcareous, or argillaceous nature. _Etym._,
_con_, together, _glomero_, to heap.

CONIFERAE. An order of plants, all of which have disks in their wood
fibres, by which they are recognized in a fossil state. Their ovules
are naked (see GYMNOGENS). Most of the northern kinds bear the seeds
in cones; but the yew does not, nor do a host of tropical and south
temperate species. _Etym._, _conus_, a cone, and _fero_, to bear.

COSMOGONY, COSMOLOGY. Words synonymous in meaning, applied to
speculations respecting the first origin or mode of creation of the
earth. _Etym._, [Greek: kosmos], _kosmos_, the world, and [Greek:
gone], _gonee_, generation, or [Greek: logos], _logos_, discourse.

CRAG. A provincial name in Norfolk and Suffolk for certain tertiary
deposits usually composed of sand with shells, belonging to the
Older Pliocene period.

CRATER. The circular cavity at the summit of a volcano, from which
the volcanic matter is ejected. _Etym._, _crater_, a great cup or
bowl.

CRETACEOUS. Belonging to chalk. _Etym._, _creta_, chalk.

CROP OUT. A miner's or mineral surveyor's term, to express the
rising up or exposure at the surface of a stratum or series of
strata.

CRUST OF THE EARTH. See "Earth's crust."

CRUSTACEOUS. Animals having a shelly coating or crust which they
cast periodically. Crabs, shrimps, and lobsters are examples.

CRYPTOGAMIC. Asexual, flowerless, or Acotyledonous plants; a term
applied to half the vegetable kingdom in contradistinction to
Phaenogamic, sexual, or flowering plants. It includes Fungi,
Sea-weeds, Lichens, Mosses, Ferns, &c., which have no obvious
flowers, and no cotyledons (seed-lobes) to their spores or seeds.
_Etym._, [Greek: kryptos], _cruptos_, concealed, and [Greek: gamos],
_gamos_, marriage.

CRYSTALS. Simple minerals are frequently found in regular forms,
with facets like the drops of cut glass of chandeliers. Quartz being
often met with in rocks in such forms, and beautifully transparent
like ice, was called _rock-crystal_, [Greek: krystallos],
crystallos, being Greek for ice. Hence the regular _forms_ of other
minerals are called crystals, whether they be clear or opake.

CRYSTALLIZED. A mineral which is found in regular forms or crystals
is said to be crystallized.

CRYSTALLINE. The internal texture which regular crystals exhi