CEILING

(Fr. ceil, a canopy or covering.) In Architecture,the upper horizontal or curved surface of an apartment opposite the floor, usually finished with plastered work. In executing ceiling the best mode is that in which the setting coat is composed of putty and plaster, technically called gauge. Common ceilings are executed with plaster without hair, the same as the finishing coat in walls left for paper. CELASTRACEiE. (Celastrus, one of the genera.) A natural order of shrubby Exogens, formerly confounded with Tiliamnaceee, but separated by Brown, chiefly because of the relation that the stamens bear to the petals and the different aestivation of the calyx. Allied, according to lirongniart, to Malpighiaceat, through Hippocratece, a small onler which scarcely differs from this order. Celastracem are natives of the warmer climates, especially of the trollies, and their general characters appear to be of a stimulating aerid nature: none of any popular interest. [s. 219]