Carder

A person who cards wool. "The spinsters, carders , fullers, weavers."-Shaks. tations of the four great cla es of men: and the names attached to these figures in England arose from a misapprehension of the names originally a igned to - One who plays at cards; a gamester. them. Thus, by the hearts are meant the gens de chœur (cœur), the choir-men or ecclesiastics, and hence these are called cop as , or chalices, by the Spaniards; whose word espada , sword, indicating the nobility and warriors of the State, has been corrupted into the English spade . The clubs were originally trèfles (trefoil leaves), and denoted the peasantry; while the citizens and merchants were marked by the diamonds ( carreaux , square tiles). The word knave, (Ger. knab , boy,) was used, of course, in its older sense of servant, or attendant on the knights. The French C. long retained the names of the four kings David, Alexander, Cæsar, and Charles, who marked respectively the Jewish, Greek, Roman, and Frank empires. The queens, Argine, Judith, Esther, and Pallas, are not so easily accounted for. The first name furnishes an anagram of regina , or queen; the others may have been chosen as types of the moral qualities of wisdom, purity, and courage. The modern pack of C. consists of fifty-two cards, in four suits -two red, hearts and diamonds, and two black, spades and clubs ; each suit consisting of three court or picture cards, the king, queen, and knave, and ten other cards distinguished by the number of their "pips" or spots, from ten to one respectively. The lowest of these is always called the "ace," and the two and three are often called the "deuce" and "tray." The natural rank of the cards in each suit is, king highest, and so on down to ace lowest; but in many games this rank is varied, as in Whist, where the ace is put highest of all, above the king; in Ecarté, where it is put between the knave and the ten; and in Bézique, where it is made the highest, but where the ten is put between it and the king. In Quadrille, the rank of some of the C. is variable in every hand. Sometimes the pack of C. is reduced to thirty-two, by excluding the six, five, four, three, and two of each suit; it is then called a "piquet pack." An immense variety of games are played with C., some involving chance only, some combining chance and skill, the best of them furnishing very agreeable and intellectual amusement. Some are round games , in which any number of persons may join, as Poker , Hearts , Loo, Pope Joan, .: some are for four persons, as Whist (the best of all, a fine game), and regular Euchre ; some for two as Piquet , Écarté, Bézique, Cribbage ; and games have been introduced even for one person, called Solitaire , or Patience. Card, n. [Du. kaarde ; Lat. carduus , a thistle; It. car do .] A teazle; an instrument for combing, opening, and breaking wool or flax. -. a. To comb or open wool, flax, hemp, . with a card. "The while their wives do sit Beside them, carding wool." - May . Cardamine, n . [Gr. kardia , heart, dam as , to strength- en; from its stomachic properties.] ( Bot . ) A genus of plants, order Bra icacea. C. pratensis, the Cuckoo- flower, Lady's-smock, or Bitter-cre , found in swamps N. of New York, blo oms in April or May, when its flowers, which are flesh-colored, white, or a little pur- ple, in a terminal raceme, present a very pleasing ap- pearance. The leaves are anti-scorbutic, and are some- times eaten as water-cre .