in botany: A genus of the tetragynia order, belonging to the tetrandra class of plants; and in the natural method ranked among those the order of which is doubtful. The calyx is tetraphyllous; the corolla funnel-shaped; the styles four; the seeds two and bilocular. There is but one species, a native of India. It is an annual plant, whose branches trail on the ground, extending about six inches from the root. They are adorned with small blue flowers growing in clusters, which come out from the wings of the leaves. They are propagated by seeds sown on a hotbed; when the plants come up, they may be removed each into a separate pot, and plunged into a hot-bed of tanner's bark, where they are to remain constantly.

COLDINGHAM, supposed to be the "Colonia" of Ptolemy, and called by Bede the city Coldana and of Colud (Coludum), situated on the borders of Scotland, about two miles from Eymouth, was a place famous many ages ago for its convent. This was the oldest nunnery in Scotland, for here the virgin-wife Etheldreda took the veil in 670; but by the ancient name Coludum it should seem that it had before been inhabited by the religious called Culdees. In 870 it was destroyed by the Danes, but its name rendered immortal by the heroism of its nuns; who, to preserve themselves inviolate from those invaders, cut off their lips and noses; and thus rendering themselves objects of horror, were, with their abbeys Ebba, burnt in the monastery by the disappointed savages. After this it lay deserted till the year 1098, when king Edgar founded on its site a priory of Benedictines in honour of St Cuthbert, and bestowed it on the monks of Durham.

Mr Pennant's description of the black, joyless, healthy moor, where it was situated, might be sufficient to guard the fair inhabitants of the nunnery were it still subsisting. That description, however, is now altogether inapplicable: The whole tract, five miles over, has been face improved, and converted into corn fields; the cheerful village of Old Cambus is no more; a decent inn with good accommodations has been established at a convenient distance; and the passage of the steep glen called the Peat, which terminates the moor on the road towards Edinburgh, and was formerly the terror of travellers, is now rendered safe and easy by means of a bridge extending from one side of the chain to the other.

COLDINGEN, a town of Denmark, in North Jutland, and diocese of Ripen. It is remarkable for its bridge, over which pass all the oxen and other cattle that go from Jutland into Germany, which brings in a considerable revenue to the king. It is seated on an eminence, in a pleasant country abounding with game. E. Long. 9. 25. N. Lat. 55. 35.