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COCKPIT

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 628 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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COCKPIT , the See also:

term originally for an enclosed See also:place in which the See also:sport of See also:cock-fighting (q.v.) was carried on. On the site of an old cockpit opposite See also:Whitehall in See also:London was a See also:block of buildings used from the 17th See also:century as offices by the See also:treasury and the privy See also:council, for which the old name survived till the See also:early 19th century. The name was given also to a See also:theatre in London, built in the early See also:part of the 17th century on the site of See also:Drury See also:Lane theatre. As the place where the wounded in See also:battle were tended, or where the junior See also:officers consorted, the term was also formerly applied to a See also:cabin used for these purposes on the See also:lower See also:deck of a See also:man-of-See also:war. COCKROACH'. (Blattidae), a See also:family of orthopterous See also:insects, distinguished by their flattened bodies, See also:long See also:thread-like antennae, and shining leathery integuments., Cockroaches are nocturnal creatures, secreting themselves in chinks and crevices about houses, issuing from their retreats when the See also:lights are extinguished, and moving about with extraordinary rapidity in See also:search of See also:food. They are voracious and omnivorous, devouring, or at least damaging, whatever comes in their way, for all the See also:species emit a disagreeable odour, which they communicate to whatever See also:article of food or clothing they may See also:touch. The See also:common cockroach (Stilopyga orientalis) is not indigenous to See also:Europe, but is believed to have been introduced from the See also:Levant in the cargoes of trading vessels. The wings in the male are shorter than the See also:body; in the See also:female they are rudimentary. The eggs, which are 16 in number, are deposited in a leathery See also:capsule fixed by a See also:gum-like substance to the See also:abdomen of the female, and thus carried about till the See also:young are ready to See also:escape, when the capsule becomes softened by the emission of a fluid substance. The larvae are perfectly See also:white at first and wingless, although in other respects not unlike their parents, but they are not mature insects until after the See also:sixth casting of the skin. The See also:American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) is larger than the former, and is not uncommon in See also:European. seaports trading with See also:America, being conveyed in cargoes of See also:grain and other food produce.

It is very abundant in the Zoological Gardens in London, where it occurs in See also:

conjunction with a much smaller imported species Phyllodromia germanica, which may also be seen in some of the cheaper restaurants. In both of these species the See also:females, as well as the See also:males, are winged. In addition to these noxious and obtrusive forms, See also:England has a few indigenous species belonging to the genus Eclobia, which live under stones or fallen trees in See also:fields and See also:woods. The largest known species is the drummer of the See also:West Indies (Blabera gigantea), so called from the tapping See also:noise it makes on See also:wood, sufficient, when joined in by several individuals, as usually happens, to break the slumbers of a See also:household. It is about 2 in. long, with wings 3 in. in expanse, and forms one of the most See also:noisome and injurious of See also:insect pests. Wingless females of many tropical species See also:present a See also:close superficial resemblance to woodlice; and one interesting apterous See also:form known as Pseudoglomeris, from the See also:East Indies, is able to See also:roll up like a See also:millipede. The best mode of destroying cockroaches is, when the See also:fire and The word is a corruption of Sp. cucaracha. In America it is commonly abbreviated to " See also:roach."lights are extinguished at See also:night, to See also:lay some See also:treacle on a piece of wood afloat on a broad See also:basin of See also:water. This proves a temptation to the See also:vermin too See also:great to be resisted. The chinks and holes from which they issue should also be filled up with unslaked See also:lime, or painted with a mixture of See also:borax and heated See also:turpentine. See generally See also:Miall and Denny, The Structure and See also:Life See also:History of the Cockroach (1887); G. H.

See also:

Carpenter, Insects: their Structure and Life (1899) ; See also:Charles Lester Marlatt, Household Insects (U.S. See also:Department of See also:Agriculture, revised edition, 1902) ; See also:Leland See also:Ossian See also:Howard, The Insect See also:Book (1902). COCK'S-See also:COMB, in See also:botany, a cultivated form of Celosia cristata (natural See also:order Amarantaceae), in which the inflorescence is monstrous, forming a See also:flat " fasciated " See also:axis bearing numerous small See also:flowers. The plant is a See also:low-growing herbaceous See also:annual, bearing a large, comb-like, dark red, See also:scarlet or purplish See also:mass of flowers. Seeds are sown in See also:March or See also:April in pans of See also:rich, well-drained sandy See also:soil, which are placed in a hot-See also:bed at 65° to 70° in a moist See also:atmosphere. The seedlings require plenty of See also:light, and when large enough to handle are potted off and placed close to the See also:glass in a See also:frame under similar conditions. When the heads show they are shifted into 5-in. pots, which are plunged to their rims in ashes or coco-See also:nut fibre refuse, in a hot-bed, as before, close to the glass; they are sparingly watered and more See also:air admitted. The soil recommended is a See also:half-rich sandy See also:loam and half-rotten cow and See also:stable manure mixed with a dash of See also:silver See also:sand. The other species of Celosia cultivated are C. pyramidalis, with a pyramidal inflorescence, varying in See also:colour in the great number of varieties, and C. argentea, with a dense white in-florescence. They require a similar cultural treatment to that given for C. cristata.

End of Article: COCKPIT

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