C R E 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



C R E 



383 



cover, inclosing a mealy pulp, filled with kidney-shaped seeds : 

 it has a strong smell of garlic, which is communicated to the 

 animals that feed upon it, and to which the tree owes its 

 name. Native of the West Indies. 



3. Crateva Marmelos ; Prickly Crateva. Thorny : leaves 

 serrate. This species grow to a great height, with a large 

 trunk, sending out many long branches, garnished with tri- 

 foliate leaves ; the leaflets are oblong, entire, and end in acute 

 points, between which the branches are armed with long sharp 

 thorns, which come out by pairs, and spread asunder ; the 

 flowers are produced in small clusters from the side of the 

 branches, five or seven standing upon a common branching 

 peduncle ; they have each five acute petals, which are reflex, 

 and are sweet-scented, green on the outside, and whitish 

 within ; after the flower is past, the germen swells to a large 

 fruit the size of an orange, having a hard shell, which incloses 

 a fleshy viscous pulp, of a yellowish colour, having many 

 oblong flat seeds situated within it. The pulp of this fruit 

 has an agreeable flavour when ripe, and is frequently eaten 

 in India ; where the fruit is served up, mixed with sugar 

 and orange, and accounted one of their greatest delicacies. 

 Native of the East Indies. 



4. Cratega Religiosa. leaflets and petals lanceolate-ellip- 

 tic, acute at both ends. Trunk of a middling height, upright ; 

 branches spreading, round, ascending, covered with an olive 

 bark dotted with white ; common petioles spreading, semi- 

 cylindric, smooth and even, a hand in length ; partial petioles 

 very short ; cyme terminating, subcorymbed, and sometimes 

 solitary flowers from the axils of the upper leaves ; flowers an 

 inch and half in diameter, greenish-white, with red stamina; 

 fruit globular, the size of a small plum. Native of the East 

 Indies, and the Society Isles. In the latter it is planted at 

 the burial places of the natives, and supposed to be sacred 

 to their idols. In Otaheite it is called pura-au, or purata- 

 ruru ; and the fruit of it is eaten by the natives. 



5. Crateva Obovata. Leaflets and petals obovate ; ger- 

 men oblong ; leaves and leaflets petioled ; peduncle heaped 

 at the top ; style longer than the filamenta. In other respects 

 it has the habits of the rest. Native of Madagascar. 



Crepis ; a genus of the class Syngenesia, order Poly- 

 gamia ^Equalis. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : common 

 double ; exterior very short, spreading, deciduous ; interior 

 ovate, simple, furrowed, permanent ; scales linear, converg- 

 ing. Corolla: compound, imbricate, uniform ; corollets her- 

 maphrodite, very many, equal ; proper, one-petalled, ligu- 

 late, linear, truncate, five-toothed. Stamina: filamenta, five 

 capillary, very short ; antherse cylindric, tubular. Pistil : 

 germen somewhat ovate '; style filiform, length of the stamina : 

 stigmas two, reflex. Pericarp : none ; calix roundish. Seed : 

 solitary, oblong, fusiform, sometimes columnar; down hairy, 

 generally stipitate. Receptacle : naked, with cells or pits. 

 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix .- calicled with deciduous 

 scales. Down -. hairy, stipitate. Receptacle : naked. Some 

 of these plants are weeds in gardens and pastures, and but 

 few of them are cultivated. They may all easily be propa- 

 gated by sowing their seeds in the spring, where they are 

 designed to remain, so that if six or eight seeds be sown in 

 each patch, and when the plants come up they may be 

 reduced to three or four, and if these be kept clean from 

 weeds, they will require no other culture, except putting down 

 small sticks, to which the stalks are to be fastened in order to 

 prevent their being broken by winds or rains. If the seeds 

 be sown in autumn, or permitted to scatter, the plants will 

 come up, and live through the winter without any shelter, 

 and will flower early in the spring. The species are, 



1. Crepis Pygmaea. Leaves ovate, entire, villose, petioled; 



stem procumbent. Height not more than six inches ; flowers 

 yellow. Native of the mountains of Italy. 



2. Crepis Bursifolia. Leaves pinnatifid, crenate ; scape 

 naked, few-flowered. Stems a span in height, having on them 

 a few short laciniate leaves. Perennial : found in the county 

 of Nice ; and near Palermo ; and in other parts of Sicily. 



3. Crepis Barbata ; Spanish or Bearded Crepis, or Pur- 

 ple-eyed Succory Hawk-weed. Involucres longer than the 

 calix ; scales setaceous, scattered. This is an annual, putting- 

 out leaves next the root, nine inches in length, and almost two 

 broad in the middle, of a light green colour ; stems a foot and 

 a half high, dividing into many branches, and having leaves 

 with the same form as the others, but smaller and sessile. The 

 flowers are produced at the ends of the branches ; they are 

 yellow, and purplish at the base, but the florets in the disk 

 are almost entirely of a dark purple. There are two varieties 

 of this species, one in which the flowers are of a deep yellow, 

 and the other in which they are of a sulphur colour, inclining 

 to white, but both have a very dark purple bottom or middle, 

 and make a pretty appearance in the flower garden, where 

 they come forth in June and July, and ripen seeds Lu autumn. 

 Native of the South of Europe. 



4. Crepis Vesicaria. Involucres scariose, the length of 

 the calix ; flowers corymbed ; bractes ovate. Root thick ; 

 stem short ; flowers yellow. Native of Apulia. 



5. Crepis Alpina. Involucres scariose, the length of the 

 calix ; flowers solitary. Annual : stems strong, upright, two 

 feet high, dividing into three or four erect branches, termi- 

 nated by pale-coloured flowers, inclosed in a strong hairy 

 calix, which contracts close towards the top. It flowers ifi 

 June, ripens seed in autumn ; and is a native of the Alps. 



6. Crepis Rubra ; Purple Crepis. Leaves stem-clasping, 

 lyrate-runcinate. Root annual ; root-leaves many, lanceolate 

 deeply jagged ; from these arise the stalks, which are a foot 

 and a half high, dividing into many slender branches, each 

 terminated by one large red-coloured flower. The calix nods 

 before the flower opens. Native of Italy. 



7. Crepis Foetida ; Stinking Crepis, or Succory -Hawk- 

 weed. Leaves runcinate-pinnate, rough with hairs ; petioles 

 toothed. Stems a foot or eighteen inches in height, the cen- 

 tral one erect, the others diffuse, branched, leafy ; flowers 

 yellow, purple on the outside, and nodding before they 

 open. Villars remarks, that this plant varies in size, form, 

 colour, and smell ; but that in all the varieties the root is 

 fusiform ; the stem rough, channelled, and branched ; the 

 leaves ash-coloured, and more or less indented at the base ; 

 that it has generally the smell of bitter almonds, especially 

 the bruised calix ; in which Linneus and Tournefort coincide : 

 while Haller more justly attributes a bituminous scent to it ; 

 and Ray informs us, that both it and the preceding species 

 smell strongly of castor ; and Marty n, to complete this discord 

 of opinion, declares, that to him the flowers always seemed 

 to have the smell of opium. It is biennial, (although Linneus 

 calls it annual,) and flowers from June to August. Petiver 

 distinguishes it by the name of Castor HawlAuecd. Native of 

 Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Piedmont ; and of 

 England, near Cambridge, on Banstead Downs in Surry, 

 near Charlton, Northfleet, and Greenhithe, in Kent, and near 

 Swaffham in Norfolk. 



8. Crepis Aspera. Leaves toothed, lower ovate-eared, 

 upper sagittate ; stiffbristles scattered over the stem. Native 

 of Sicily, the Levant, and Palestine. 



9. Crepis Rhagadioloides. Leaves entire, stem clasping, 

 oblong ; interior calices torulose-jointed, hispid ; leaflets boat- 

 form. Annual : stem half a foot high, erect, striated, sca- 

 brous, branched ; corolla yellow, purplish on the outside. 



