Coleoptera. An order of insects (Beetles) which have four wings, the upper pair being crustaceous and forming a shield. Etym., κολεος, coleos, a sheath, and πτερον, pteron, a wing.
Conformable. When the planes of one set of strata are generally parallel to those of another set which are in contact, they are said to be conformable. Thus the set a, b, Fig. 98, rest conformably on the inferior set c, d; but c, d rest unconformably on E.
Congeners. Species which belong to the same genus.
Conglomerate, or Puddingstone. Rounded water-worn fragments of rock or pebbles, cemented together by another mineral substance, which may be of a siliceous, calcareous, or argillaceous nature. Etym., con, together, glomero, to heap.
Coniferæ. An order of plants, all of which have disks in their wood fibres, by which they are recognized in a fossil state. Their ovules are naked (see Gymnogens). Most of the northern kinds bear the seeds in cones; but the yew does not, nor do a host of tropical and south temperate species. Etym., conus, a cone, and fero, to bear.
Cosmogony, Cosmology. Words synonymous in meaning, applied to speculations respecting the first origin or mode of creation of the earth. Etym., κοσμος, kosmos, the world, and γονη, gonee, generation, or λογος, logos, discourse.
Crag. A provincial name in Norfolk and Suffolk for certain tertiary deposits usually composed of sand with shells, belonging to the Older Pliocene period.