In biology, "cohort" is a term for a group of allied orders or families
of plants or animals.

COIF (from Fr. _coiffe_, Ital. _cuffia_, a cap), a close-fitting
covering for the head. Originally it was the name given to a
head-covering worn in the middle ages, tied like a night-cap under the
chin, and worn out of doors by both sexes; this was later worn by men as
a kind of night-cap or skull-cap. The coif was also a close-fitting cap
of white lawn or silk, worn by English serjeants-at-law as a
distinguishing mark of their profession. It became the fashion to wear
on the top of the white coif a small skull-cap of black silk or velvet;
and on the introduction of wigs at the end of the 17th century a round
space was left on the top of the wig for the display of the coif, which
was afterwards covered by a small patch of black silk edged with white
(see A. Pulling, _Order of the Coif_, 1897). The random conjecture of
Sir H. Spelman (_Glossarium archaiologicum_) that the coif was
originally designed to conceal the ecclesiastical tonsure has
unfortunately been quoted by annotators of Blackstone's _Commentaries_
as well as by Lord Campbell in his _Lives of the Chief Justices_. It may
be classed with the curious conceit, recorded in Brand's _Popular
Antiquities_, that the coif was derived from the child's caul, and was
worn on the advocate's head for luck.

COIMBATORE, a city and district of British India, in the Madras
presidency. The city is situated on the left bank of the Noyil river,
305 m. from Madras by the Madras railway. In 1901 it had a population of
53,080, showing an increase of 14% in the decade. The city stands 1437
ft. above sea-level, is well laid out and healthy, and is rendered
additionally attractive to European residents by its picturesque
position on the slopes of the Nilgiri hills. It is an important
industrial centre, carrying on cotton weaving and spinning, tanning,
distilling, and the manufacture of coffee, sugar, manure and saltpetre.
It has two second-grade colleges, a college of agriculture, and a school
of forestry.

The DISTRICT OF COIMBATORE has an area of 7860 sq. m. It may be
described as a flat, open country, hemmed in by mountains on the north,
west and south, but opening eastwards on to the great plain of the
Carnatic; the average height of the plain above sea-level is about 900
ft. The principal mountains are the Anamalai Hills, in the south of the
district, rising at places to