Cubitt
SIR WILLIAM, an English engineer; born in Dilham, Norfolk, in 1785, was a miller, cabinet-maker, and millwright until 1812, when he became a chief-engineer. In 1823 he joined the Institution of Civil Engineers. The imlogne port, the Bute docks at Cardiff, and the water-works for Berlin are among his works. He also invented the treadmill, and constructed the South- Eastern railway; and for his services in connection with the erection of the Great Exhibition buildings he was knighted in 1851. He died Oct. 13, 1861.
CUCKOO (Cuculus canorus), a well known bird. The head and upper parts are of dark ash, the throat, the under side of the neck and fore part of the breast of a paler ash or brown, the rest of the breast and the belly white, with transverse undulating black lines, the quill feathers with white on their inner webs, the tail ash, white, and black commingled, feet yellow; length, 14 inches. The cuckoo forces foster-parentage on other species of birds.
CUCKOO FLOWER or LADY'S- SMOCK (Cardamina pratensis), a common and pretty meadow plant, order Cruciferæ, with pale lilac or white flowers. C. pratensis is abundant in Great Britan and is found in swamps N. of New York.
CUCUMBER CUCUMBER (Cucumis sativus), an article of food, having yellow unisexual male and female flowers in the axils of the leaf stalks. The leaves are large, the stems weak and trailing. It is a native of the S. of Asia and of Egypt. It is mentioned by Vergil. It is said to have been common in England during the reign of Edward III., A. D. 1327-1377.
Having gone out of culture during the Wars of the Roses, it was re-introduced under Henry VIII. from the Netherlands, between 1509 and 1547, probably about 1538.
CUCKOO