in ichthyology, a genus of fishes, belonging to the order of abdominales. The mouth is toothless; there are three rays in the gills; the body... Cyprinus is smooth and white; and the belly-fins have frequently nine rays. There are 31 species, principally distinguished by the number of rays in the vent-fin. The most remarkable are,

1. The carpio, or carp. This was introduced into England about the year 1514, by Leonard Mischal, to whom we are also indebted for that excellent apple the pippin. Ruffia wants these fish at this day. Sweden has them only in the ponds of people of fashion. They chiefly abound in the rivers and lakes of Polish Prussia, where they are sometimes taken of a vast size. They are there a great article of commerce, and sent in well-boats to Sweden and Ruffia. The merchants purchase them out of the waters of the noblesse of the country, who draw a good revenue from this article. The ancients do not separate the carp from the sea-fish. They are sometimes found in the harbour of Dantzig between the town and a place called Helia.

Carp are very long-lived. Gesner brings an instance of one that was near 100 years old. They grow also to a very great size; some authors speak of carp weighing 200 pounds weight, and five feet in length. The carp is a prodigious breeder: its quantity of roe has been sometimes found to great, that when taken out and weighed against the fish itself, the former has been found to preponderate. From the spawn of this fish, caviare is made for the Jews, who hold the sturgeon in abhorrence. The carp is extremely cunning, and on that account is sometimes飞跃ed the river-fox. They will sometimes leap over the nets and escape that way; at other times they will immerse themselves so deep in the mud as to let the net pass over them. They are also very shy in taking a bait; yet at the spawning-time they are so simple as to suffer themselves to be tickled, handled, and caught by any body that will attempt it. This fish is apt to mix its milt with the roe of other fish; from which is produced a curious breed, as has been observed in the offspring of the carp and tench, which bore the greatest resemblance to the first. The same has also been observed of the carp and bream.

In Polish Prussia, and many other parts of Germany, the sale of carp constitutes a part of the revenue of the nobility and gentry: so that the proper management of that fish is reduced to a kind of system, founded on the experience of several generations; of the methods there practised, we have an account in the Philosophical Transactions for 1771, art. 37, communicated by Mr. J. Reinhold Forster; who says, he has seen carp treated and maintained according to those methods, "above a yard long, and of 25 pounds weight;" but had no opportunity of ascertaining their age. "In the pond, however, at Charlottenburg, (he adds,) a palace belonging to the king of Prussia, I saw more than two or three hundred carp, between two and three feet long; and I was told by the keeper they were between 50 and 60 years standing. They were tame, and came to the flore in order to be fed; they swallowed with ease a piece of white bread, of the size of half a halipenny roll."—Mr. Forster, in this paper, also vouches a most extraordinary circumstance, namely, the possibility of the carp's not only living for a considerable time out of water, but of its growing fat in its new element. The author has seen the experiment successfully tried, and attended to the whole process, in a nobleman's house where he then resided, in the principality of Anhalt-Dessau. The fish being taken out of the water, is wrapped up in a large quantity of wet moss, spread on a piece of net, which is then gathered into a purse; in such a manner, however, as to allow him room to breathe. The net is then plunged into water, and hung up to the ceiling of a cellar. At first the dipping must be repeated every three or four hours; but afterwards the carp need only to be plunged into the water once in about six or seven hours. Bread soaked in milk is first given him in small quantities. In a short time, the fish will bear more, and grow fat under this seemingly unnatural treatment. Mr. Daines Barrington, in a note, confirms a part of the preceding account, by mentioning the practice of a certain fish-monger near Claremarket, who, in the winter, frequently exposes a bushel at least of carp and tench, for sale, in the same dry vessel, for six or seven hours; many of which are not sold, and yet continue in health, though breathing nothing but air, during the time above mentioned, for several days successively.

2. The barbus, or barbel, is so extremely coarse as to be overlooked by the ancients till the time of the poet Antonius, who gives it no great character. They frequent the still and deep parts of rivers, and live in society, rooting like swine with their noses in the soft banks. It is so tame as to suffer itself to be taken by the hand; and people have been known to take numbers by diving for them. In summer they move about during night in search of food; but towards autumn, and during winter, confine themselves to the deepest holes. The barbel is about the length of three feet, and will weigh 18 pounds; the belly white; the dorsal fin is armed with a remarkably strong spine, sharply serrated, with which it can inflict a very severe and dangerous wound on the incautious handler, and even do much damage to nets. They are the worst and coarsest of fresh-water fish, and seldom eat but by the poorer sort of people, who sometimes boil them with a bit of bacon to give them a relish. Their roe is very noxious, affecting those who unwarily eat of it with a nausea, vomiting, purging, and a slight swelling.

3. The tincia, or tench, was treated with the same disrespect by the ancients as the barbel; but is now in much more repute. It has by some been called the physician of the fish, and its slime has been said to be of so healing a nature, that the wounded fishes apply it as a styptic. In this country it is reckoned a wholesome and delicious food; but the Germans are of a different opinion. By way of contempt they call it the floemaker. Gesner even says, that it is infipid and unwholesome. It does not commonly exceed four or five pounds in weight, though some have been known to weigh ten or twenty. They love still waters, and are rarely found in rivers: they are very foolish and easily caught. The tench is thick and short in proportion to its length. The colour of the back is dusky; the dorsal and ventral fins of the same colour; the head, sides, and belly, of a greenish cast, most beautifully mixed with gold, which is in its greatest splendor when the fish is in the highest season. 4. The gudgeon is generally found in gentle streams, and is of a small size, the largest not exceeding half a pound weight. They bite eagerly; and are assembled by raking the bed of the river; to this spot they immediately crowd in shoals, in expectation of food.

5. The braima, or bream, is an inhabitant of lakes, or the deep parts of still rivers. It is a fish that is very little esteemed, being extremely insipid.

6. The rutilus, or roach, is a common fish, found in many of the deep still rivers of this country. They are gregarious, keeping in large shoals. It has never been known to exceed five pounds in weight.

7. The leuciscus, or dace, like the roach is gregarious, haunts the same places, is a great breeder, very lively, and during summer is very fond of frolicking near the surface of the water. It never exceeds the weight of a pound and a half: the scales are smaller than those of the roach.

8. The cephalus, or chub, is a very coarse fish and full of bones. It frequents the deep holes of rivers; and in summer commonly lies on the surface beneath the shade of some tree or bush. It is very timid, sinking to the bottom on the least alarm, even at the passing of a shadow; but they will soon resume their former situation. It feeds on worms, caterpillars, grasshoppers, and other coleopterous insects that happen to fall into the water; and it will even feed on cray-fish. It will rise to a fly. Some of this kind have been known to weigh eight or nine pounds.

9. The alburnus, or bleak. These fish are very common in many of our rivers, and keep together in large shoals. At certain seasons these fish seem to be in great agonies: they tumble about near the surface of the water, and are incapable of swimming far from the place; but in about two hours they recover and disappear. Fish thus affected, the Thames fishermen call mad bleaks. They seem to be troubled with a species of gordius, or hair-worm, which torments them so, that they rise to the surface and then die. The bleak seldom exceeds five or six inches in length. Artificial pearls are made with the scales of this fish, and probably also with those of the dace. They are beat into a fine powder, then diluted with water, and introduced into a thin glass bubble, which is afterwards filled with wax. The French were the inventors of this art.

During the month of July there appear in the Thames, near Blackwall and Greenwich, innumerable multitudes of small fish, known to the Londoners by the name of white bait. They are esteemed very delicious when fried with fine flour, and occasion, during the season, a vast resort of the lower order of epicures to the taverns at the places where they are taken at. There are various suppositions concerning these fishes, all of which terminate in reckoning them the fry of some other fish. Mr Pennant thinks they are of the carp kind, though he cannot determine the species to which they belong. They have a greater similarity to the bleak than to any other, but he thinks they cannot be the young fry of this species; because the bleak is found in many of the British streams, but the white bait only in the Thames. The usual length of this fish is only two inches.

10. The auratus, or golden fish, are now quite naturalized in Britain, and breed as freely in the open waters as the common carp. They were first introduced into England about the year 1691, but were not generally known till 1728, when a great number were brought over, and presented first to Sir Matthew Dekker, and by him circulated round the neighbourhood of London, from whence they have been distributed to most parts of the country. They come originally from China. The most beautiful kinds are taken in a small lake in the province of Che-kyang. Every person of fashion keeps them for amusement, either in porcelain vessels, or in the small basins that decorate the courts of the Chinese houses. The beauty of their colours, and their lively motions give great entertainment, especially to the ladies, whose pleasures, by reason of the cruel policy of that country, are extremely limited. In form of the body, the golden fishes bear a great resemblance to the carp. They have been known in this island to arrive at the length of eight inches; but in their native place they are said to grow to the size of the largest herring. The colours vary greatly; some are marked with a bright blue, with brown, and with bright silver; but the general colour is gold, of a most amazing splendor.

CYPREPEDIUM, the lady's slipper, in botany; a genus of the diandria order, belonging to the gyndandra clas of plants. There are three species; of which only one, viz. the calceolus, is a native of Britain. It grows in rough ground, in different parts of the island. The other species are natives of America. None of them are easily propagated in gardens, and therefore must be transplanted from those places where they are natives.