S86 



C R I 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



CRO 



of the leaves, and is about two feet high; on the top are 

 eight or ten flowers, in the form of an umbel, closely joined 

 at their base, but spreading above : they are of a beautiful 

 white colour, and smell very sweet. The stamina are 

 stretched out to a considerable length beyond the petals. 

 After the flowers are past, the germen swells, and becomes 

 an oblong bulb. The plants generally flower three or four 

 times in a year, but at no regular season ; and as the petals 

 are of a very tender texture, they do not continue in beauty 

 above four or five days. Native of the Spanish West Indies. 



4. Crinum Tenellum. Spathe many-flowered ; corollas 

 equal ; leaves filiform. Found by Sparrmann at the Cape. 



5. Crinum Lineare. Leaves linear ; corollas bell-form, with 

 two segments narrower than the rest ; flowers large and 

 white. Found by Thunberg at the Cape. 



6. Crinum Nervosum. Leaves roundish, nerved ; filamenta 

 widened at the base ; scape many-flowered, many-leaved ; 

 flowers on long peduncles. Native of the Philippine Islands. 



Crithmum ; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Digy- 

 nia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : umbel universal, 

 manifold, hemispheric ; partial similar ; involucre universal, 

 many-leaved ; leaflets lanceolate, obtuse, reflex ; partial 

 lanceolate-linear, length of the umbellule ; perianth proper 

 scarcely observable. Corolla : universal, uniform ; florets all 

 fertile ; proper petals five, ovate, inflex, equal. Stamina : 

 filamenta five, simple, longer than the corolla ; anthcra 

 roundish. Pistil : germen inferior ; styles two, reflex ; stig- 

 mas obtuse. Pericarp: none. fruit: oval, compressed, 

 bipartite. Seed* : two, elliptic, compressed-flat, striated on 

 oneside. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Fruit: oval, compressed. 

 Florets : equal. The species are, 



1. Crithmum Maritimum : Sea or Rock Sampire. Leaf- 

 lets lanceolate, fleshy. Perennial : stems smooth and even 

 entirely simple ; roots triternate, the middle one often five- 

 leaved. It has a root composed of many strong fibres, which 

 penetrate deep into the crevices of the rocks, sending up 

 several fleshy succulent stalks, which rise about two feet 

 high, with winged leaves, composed of three or four divisions, 

 each of which has three or five succulent leaflets near half 

 an inch long. The flowers are produced in circular umbels 

 at the top of the stalks ; these are of a yellow colour, and are 

 succeeded by seeds resembling those of fennel, but larger. 

 This herb when pickled is very agreeable to the palate, and 

 is esteemed as a stomachic. It operates also as a gentle 

 diuretic, removes the obstructions of the viscera, and creates 

 an appetite ; on which account it is commonly used for 

 sauce. Meyrick and Hill agree in saying, that the leaves 

 make an excellent and very agreeable pickle; that their juice 

 operates very powerfully by urine, and is good for the gravel, 

 stone, suppressions of the menses, and the jaundice. It is 

 not only used as a pickle, but fresh as a potherb, by the 

 inhabitants of the sea-coast. It is gathered upon rocks, 

 where it naturally grows ; but those persons who supply the 

 market with it, seldom bring the right herb, but gather the 

 Inula Crithmoides instead of it, which they call Golden Sam- 

 pire, but which has a very different flavour from the true, 

 and is wholly destitute of its virtues. This Golden Sampire, 

 as it is called, grows more abundantly, especially upon flat 

 ground, overflowed by salt water ; whereas the true Sampire 

 grows only out of the crevices of perpendicular rocks, \\ lim- 

 it is very difficult to come at. Native of the rocky shores of 

 the European ocean. Allioni informs us, that it grows on 

 old walls in the Alps. It is found on Dover Cliff; near 

 Winchelsea, Rye, Southampton, the Isle of Wight, and on 

 nil the cliffs of the Cornish coast. Not only the Inula 

 Crithni'jides, above-mentioned, is used for Sampire, but 



the Salicornia is the only herb known by that name on 

 the east coast, where it is called Marsh Sampire ; it is 

 tasteless, and has a tough string running through the middle ; 

 whereas the true Sampire has a warm aromatic flavour, aiul 

 presents no impediment to the teeth in eating. Mr. Pennaiu 

 asserts, that cows and sheep eagerly eat it, and soon grow 

 fat upon it. It has the name Sampire or Sampler, some- 

 times incorrectly spelt Samphire, from the French St. 

 Pierre. Gerarde says, some call it crest marine, which is 

 also from the French crate marine ; in which language it is 

 also named bacille maritime, fenouil marin, passe-pierrt, 

 and herbe de St. Pierre, evidently from the roots striking 

 deep into the crevices of the rocks. In Italian it is . 

 finocchio marino, and herba di Santo Pietro ; in Spanish, 

 hinojo marino ; in Portuguese, funcho marino ; in German, 

 meerfenchel, seefenchel, bac'dlen ; in Danish, scefenkd ; in 

 Swedish, sjofenkal. It may be propagated either by seeds 

 or by parting the roots, and, if planted on a moist gravelly 

 soil, will thrive tolerably well, and may be preserved some 

 years, but will grow best when rooted in a wall, or on an 

 artificial rock-work. 



1. Crithmum Pyrenaicum ; Pyrenctan Sampire. The side 

 leaflets twice trifid. This is a biennial plant, and a native of 

 the Pyrenees. 



3. Crithmum Latifolium ; Wedge leaved Sampire. Leaf- 

 lets wedge-form, cleft. A very smooth plant ; root biennial ; 

 stem erect-cylindrical, furrowed ; leaves petioled ; pinnated, 

 leaflets in two or three pairs, sessile ; flowers yellow. Native 

 of Teneriffe. 



Crocus ; a genus of the class Triandria, order Monogynia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix . spathe one-leafed. Co- 

 rolla : tube simple, long ; border six-parted, erect; divisions 

 ovate, oblong, equal. Stamina : filamenta three, subulate, 

 shorter than the corolla ; antherae sagittate. Pistil : germen 

 inferior, roundish ; style filiform, length of the stamina ; 

 stigmas three, convolute, serrate. Pericarp : capsule round- 

 ish, three-lobed, three-celled, three-valved. Seeds: several, 

 round. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Corolla : six-parted, 

 equal. Stigmas .- convolute. The species are, 



1. Crocus Officinalis ; Officinal or Autumnal Croats, or 

 Saffron. Leaves narrower, rolled in at the edges ; stigma 

 trifid to a considerable length. This plant has a roundish 

 bulbous root, as large as a small nutmeg, which is a little- 

 compressed at bottom, and covered with a coarse brown, 

 netted skin ; from the bottom of this bulb are sent out many 

 long fibres, which strike pretty deep into the ground. The 

 flowers come out from the upper part of the root, and, like 

 the young leaves, the tops of which just appear, are closely 

 wrapped about a thin spathe or sheath, which parts within 

 the ground, and opens on one side. The tube of the flower 

 is very long, arising immediately from the bulb without any 

 footstalk, and at the top divides into six ovate obtuse seg- 

 ments, equal, and of a purple blue colour. In the bottom 

 of the tube is sitiuited a roundish germ, supporting a slender 

 style, crowned with three golden stigmas, which is the Saf- 

 fron. : It flowers in October, and the leaves keep growing 

 all the winter, but it never produces any seeds in England, 

 llaller remarks, that the Autumnal Saffron differs from the 

 Spring Crocus, in having the stigma divided into three long 

 segments, the ends of which are also trifid. These three 

 horns of the stigma are also odorous and aroniiitic, which is 

 not the case with the Vernal Crocus, ami the flowers are much 

 larger. Add to this, that the corolla does not vary much 

 from its high native purple ; that they differ also in the root 

 and leaves, the time of flowering, and the place of growth. 

 The native country of Saffron is not well ascertained ; tht 



