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CONINGTON

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a ifornia, with its allied species (see SEQUOIA). The character referred to is too external and adapadition to these we may mention also the tive to be of much importance, and the term is too avanese Cedar (Cryptomeria japonica, the Vir-wide in its application to be of much use. It is an Bald Cypress ( Taxodium distichum). Among the Cupressine we have first the Iresses proper, which includes besides the wellwn genus Cupressus (see CYPRESS) the closely Retinospora of Japan. Juniperus (see JUNI salone forms another sub-family; while Thuja - ALBOR VILE) with its immediate allies Thu

- and Libocedrus constitute a third; and Latris with Actinostrobus and Fitzroya make

the fourth.

Passing now to the sub-order of yews (Taxoidea) we have again two main divisions, the yews proper Taxea, and the Podocarpeæ. Among the latter shad only mention the oriental genus Podosis, and the beautiful Dacrydium cupressinum < New Zealand; but the former are of much ester vanety and importance (see YEW). Besides - species of Taxus, we have expecially the Chinese Japanese Cephalotaxus, the curious Ginkgo vatrurias adiantifolia of the same region, toMaer with the Chinese and Californian species of In addition to the general article GYMNOSPERMS, „1 to those devoted to particular genera or species conifers, the reader should especially consult

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• Pflanzenfamilien, both for a full summary ar present knowledge and copious references. be the purposes of the English horticulturist Vetery Manual of Coniferæ is most exhaustive, •

Gordon's Pinetum, and Hemsley's Handbook andy Trees, dr. (Lond. 1877), will be found of

rvice to the amateur.

Conington, JOHN, a great classical scholar, was born at Boston, 10th August 1825. He was marated at Beverley, and for five years at Rugby, a ned a demyship at Magdalen College, Oxford, - 143 and next year carried off, in the same term, - Hertford and Ireland scholarships. In 1846 he himself to University College, where he was • retexi to a fellowship two years later. Other nctions he won were the chancellor's prize for 33 verse, for an English essay, and for a Latin

Determining not to take orders, he tried te staly of law, but soon abandoned it in disgust. 1. 184 he was appointed to the newly-founded A of Latin Language and Literature at Oxford, h he filed until his untimely death at his native piace, October 23, 1869. The impulse that ington's lofty and contagious enthusiasm gave assical scholarship and real culture in England; alar more considerable than any thing he was to effect in the way of performance. His ae personality and the singular charm of his in Gait serious nature made a profound and anent impression upon his friends and pupils. • greatest work is his edition of Virgil (3 vols. with its singularly subtle and suggestive His edition of the Agamemnon (1848) and - Ar (1837) of Eschylus are of less moment, g indeed the latter is admirable. In his last as he gave himself much to translation, the

its of which were his metrical version of the r of Horace (1863); the Eneid (1866), in tt hallad metre: the Iliad (1868), in the Senserian stanza; and the Satires and Epistles of fruce (1969), in the couplet of Pope. Of these inst is without doubt the most valuable. His of Persims was published in 1872, and in the year his Miscellaneous Writings (2 vols.), with anart Life by Professor H. J. S. Smith. Confrostres, a term often applied to a section Passerine birds, characterised by a strong conical It meludes numerous families, and such as weaver birds, finches, sparrows, and larks.

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Coniston Grits and Flags, a series of siliceous sandstones, grits, flags, and conglomerates, belonging to the Silurian system of Cumberland, &c. They take their name from Coniston in Lanca shire, and attain a maximum thickness of probably not less than 7000 feet. They are characterised--the finer grained beds (flags) especially-by the presence of many species of graptolites and other fossils. They are believed to be on the same geological horizon as the Denbighshire grits and flags of Wales. See SILURIAN SYSTEM.

Coniston Lake, in the English Lake District, lies in North Lancashire, at the east foot of the Coniston Fells, 9 miles W. of Bowness on Windermere, and 10 by rail NNE. of Foxfield Junction. It is 5 miles long, mile broad, 147 feet above the sea, and its greatest depth is 260 feet. Its waters abound with trout and perch. On the east shore stand Ruskin's home, Brantwood, and Tent House, once Tennyson's residence. The Old Man of Coniston, to the north-west, is 2633 feet high. Conium. See HEMLOCK.

Conjugal Rights. See MARRIAGE. Conjugation, a term in Grammar applied to a connected view or statement of the inflectional changes of form that a verb undergoes in its

various relations. See the articles GRAMMAR and INFLECTION.

Conjugation of Cells, a mode of reproduction in which two apparently similar cells unite, as in Amoeba, Diatoms, Spirogyra, &c. See ALGÆ, DESMIDS, DIATOMS, and REPRODUCTION.

Conjunction, in Astronomy, is one of the Aspects (q.v.) of the planets. Two heavenly bodies are in conjunction when they have the same longi tude--that is, when the same perpendicular to the ecliptic passes through both. If they have, at the

same time, the same latitude-that is, if they are both equally far north or south of the ecliptic they appear from the earth to be in the same spot of the heavens, and to cover one another. The sun and moon are in conjunction at the period of new moon. In the case of the inferior planets Mercury and Venus, there is an inferior conjunction when the planet is between the earth and the sun, and a superior when the sun is between the earth and the planet. In general, a heavenly body is in conjunc tion with the sun when it is on the same side of the earth, and in a line with him; and it is in opposi tion to the sun when it is on the opposite side of the earth, the earth being in a line between it and the sun. Planets are invisible when in conjunction with the sun, except in rare cases when an inferior planet passes over the sun's dise, and may be seen as a speck on his surface. Conjunctions are either geocentric or heliocentric, according as they are actually witnessed from the earth, or as they would be witnessed if observed from the sun. In observ.

ing a conjunction from the earth's surface it is

usual to reduce the observation to what it would be if made from the earth's centre; by this means the exact times of conjunction are more accurately fixed, and the observations of one astronomer made available to every other, wherever he may be on the earth's surface. Grand conjunctions are those where several stars or planets are found together. Chinese history records one in the reign of the Emperor Tehuen-hiu (2514 2436 B.C.), which astronomers calculate to have actually taken place.

Conjuring, as understood at the present day, signifies the production of effects apparently miraculous by natural means.

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The art of producing apparently supernatural phenomena has been cultivated from remote antiquity. The earlier professors of the art claimed bona fide supernatural powers; and in ages when the most elementary principles of physical science were unknown beyond a very limited circle, it was not difficult to gain credence for such a pretension. The modern conjurer makes no such claim, but tells the public frankly that his marvels are illusory, and rest either on personal dexterity or on some ingenious application of natural principles. Of the conjurers of remote antiquity we have few reliable records; though it is a tolerably safe conjecture that the prestige of the ancient mysteries rested in no small degree upon effects of natural magic. It may also be gathered that the conjurers of old were familiar with certain forms of optical illusion, in which the use of plane and concave mirrors, and a partial anticipation of the principle of the magiclantern, played prominent parts. Chaucer mentions illusions of his own day of which the above seems the most probable solution. In the accounts of very early writers, however, large deductions must be made for the comparative ignorance of the observer, and the desire, common to all narrators of extraordinary occurrences, to make the marvel as marvellous as possible. Perhaps the earliest really trustworthy authority is Reginald Scot, who in his Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584) has enumerated the stock feats of the conjurers of his day. The list includes swallowing a knife; burning a card and reproducing it from the pocket of a spectator; passing a coin from one pocket to another; converting money into counters, or counters into money; conveying money into the hand of another person; making a coin pass through a table, or vanish from a handkerchief ; tying a knot, and undoing it by the power of words; taking beads from a string, the ends of which are held fast by another person; making corn to pass from one box to another; turning wheat into flour by the power of words;' burning a thread and making it whole again; pulling ribbons from the mouth; thrusting a knife into the head or arm; putting a ring through the cheek; and cutting off a person's head and restoring it to its former position. Strange to say, many of these feats, which were doubtless already old in the time of Scot, are still performed, with more or less variation of detail, by conjurers at the present day.

The conjurers of Scot's time, and even of much later date, were accustomed, in order to facilitate the substitutions on which a great part of their tricks depended, to wear an apron with pockets, known (from its resemblance to a game-bag) as the gibécière. A later school suppressed this tell-tale article of costume, and used instead a table, with cover reaching nearly or quite to the ground. This table concealed an assistant, who worked most of the required transformations, &c., either handing the needful articles to the conjurer as he passed behind the table, or pushing them up through traps in the table-top. Conus the elder, a French conjurer who flourished at the close of the 18th century, made a further improvement by discarding the concealed assistant, and using an undraped table with a secret shelf (now known as the servante) behind it, on which his substitutions were made. His immediate competitors did not follow his example, a whole generation of later conjurers, including Comte, Bosco, and Philippe, retaining the suggestive draped table. Its death-blow, how ever, was struck by Robert Houdin (1805-71), with whom about 1844 a new era began. His miniature theatre in the Palais Royal was remarkable for the elegant simplicity of its stage arrangements, and in particular for the complete suppression of the boite à compère ('wooden confederate), as Robert Houdin

CONNAUGHT

sarcastically terms it. The new style took with the public, and by degrees Robert Houdin's contemporaries found themselves compelled to follow his example.

To Robert Houdin belongs the credit of devising some of the best-known and most ingenious pieces of magical apparatus, as also that of the applica tion of electro-magnetism, then little understood, to the production of magical effects. The wellknown magic drum, that beats without visible drumsticks, the magic clock and bell, and the chest, light or heavy at command, are all fruits of his inventive genius.

The most modern school of conjurers, following the lead of Wiljalba Frikell, and at present represented by Hartz, Hermann, Buatier de Kolta, Verbeck, Lynn, Bertram, &c., generally aim at producing their magical results with the minimum of visible apparatus. There are, however, signs of a reaction in favour of more spectacular illusions, such as those of Messrs Maskelyne and Cooke, in which the resources of optical and acoustic, as well as mechanical science, are laid under contribution in aid of conjuring proper. See the articles MAGIC and JUGGLERS.

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For practical information as to the methods of conjurers, see Hoffmann's Modern Magic (6th ed. 1886) and More Magic (1889); Sleight of Hand, by Edwin Sachs (24 ed. 1885); Robert Houdin's Secrets de la Prestidigita tion et de la Magie (1868; reprinted in 1878 under the title of Comment on devient Sorcier) and Magie et Recueil de Tours de Physique Amusante (published by De Physique Amusante (1877); and an anonymous work, La Rue of Paris). The three last-named works have been translated into English by Hoffmann, under the titles of The Secrets of Conjuring and Magic, The Secrets of Stage Conjuring, and Drawing-room Conjuring respectively. Albany, New York, 30th October 1829, was Conkling, ROSCOE, American politician, born admitted to the bar in 1850, sat in congress as a Republican in 1858-62 and 1864-66, and was elected to the United States senate in 1867, 1873, and 1879. He was now an influential member of his party; in 1876 he received ninety-three votes for the presidential nomination, and, in 1880, by his support of Grant, and his personal opposition to Blaine, divided the Republicans into two sections. In 1881 he and his colleague suddenly resigned from the senate, owing to a dispute with President Garfield on a question of patronage, and sought re-election; but vigorously supported by Vice-president Arthur. after a warm canvass, both were rejected, though Conkling afterwards practised law in New York city. He died 18th April 1888.

Conn, LOUGH, a picturesque Irish lake in the north of County Mayo, together with Lough Cullin (from which it is separated by a narrow neck of land), 13 miles long, and 1 to 3 broad. It lies in a wild romantic region of hills, glens, rocky slopes, precipices, broken ground, and bogs, contains many islets, and has bold shores.

Connara'ceæ, a sub-order of Terebinthacea, including about 25 species, all tropical, of which the most important is Omphalobium Lamberti of Guiana, the source of the zebra-wood of cabinetmakers.

Connaught, the most westerly and the smallest, both in extent and population, of the four provinces of Ireland. It is bounded N. and W. by the Atlantic; E. by Ulster and Leinster, from the latter of which it is separated by the Shannon and S. by Munster. It contains the counties of Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, and Sligo. Greatest length from north to south, 105 miles; greatest breadth, not including Achil Island, 92 miles. Area, 6863 sq. m. The west coast has many fine bays and harbours, and the surface, especially in the western half, is mountainous and

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