C R O 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



C R O 



389 



2. Broad-leaved plain Purple ; 3. Broad-leaved Violet- 

 coloured, or large Deep Blue; 4. White with a purple bottom ; 

 5. Broad-leaved White variegated ; 6. Broad-leaved with 

 many violet-purple flowers striped with white ; 7. Broad- 

 leaved Ash-coloured ; 8. Broad-leaved large yellow ; !). 

 Broad-leaved small pale yellow ; 1O. Broad-leaved small 

 yellow striped with black ; 11. Narrow-leaved small brim- 

 stone ; 12. Narrow-leaved small white. Modern catalogues 

 set down many varieties of the several colours, which are 

 blue and purple, yellow and white, or striped : new ones are 

 also constantly imported from Holland, each of which has a 

 Krench or Dutch title. The most common varieties now in 

 our gardens are, the Scotch, beautifully striped ; the Blue ; 

 the Blue-striped; White; Yellow of several shades, larger and 

 Her; Yellow striped with black ; Cloth of gold. Allthcse 

 nil varieties of Crocuses are very hardy, and will increase 

 exceedingly by their roots, especially if they be suffered to 

 remain two or three years unremoved : they will grow in 

 almost any soil or situation, and are very great ornaments to 

 a garden, early in the spring of the year before many other 

 flowers appear ; they are commonly planted near the edges 

 of borders on the sides of walks, in doing which, care should 

 be taken to plant such sorts in the same line as flower at the 

 same time, and are of an equal growth, otherwise the lines 

 will seem imperfect. These roots loose their fibres with their 

 leaves, and therefore may then be taken up, and kept dry 

 until the beginning- of September, observing to keep them 

 from vermin, for the mice are very fond of them. When 

 you replant these roots, after having drawn a line uppn the 

 border, make holes with a dibble about two inches deep or 

 more, according to the lightness of the soil, and about two 

 inches apart, in which you must place the roots with the bud 

 uppermost ; then with a rake fill up the holes in such a 

 manner as that the upper part of the root may be covered an 

 inch or more, taking care not to leave any of the holes open, 

 for this will entice the mice to them, and when once they 

 have found them out, they will destroy all your roots, if not 

 prevented. The best way, however, to dispose of these 

 flowers in gardens, is to plant them six or eight near each 

 other in bunches, between small shrubs, or on the borders 

 of the flower-garden, where, if the varieties of these flowers 

 be planted in different patches, and properly intermixed, 

 they will make a much better appearance than when they 

 are disposed in the old method of straight edgings. In 

 January, if the weather be mild, the Crocus will often appear 

 above ground, and their flowers will come out in February, 

 before the green leaves are grown to any length, so that the 

 flowers seem at first to be naked, but soon after the flowers 

 decay, the green leaves grow to be six or eight inches long, 

 and should not be cut off until they decay, notwithstanding 

 they appear a a little unsightly, for, by cutting off the leaves 

 the roots will be so weakened as not to arrive at half their 

 usual size, nor will the flowers of the succeeding year be half 

 80 large. Their seeds are commonly ripe about the latter 

 end of April, or the beginning of May, when the green leaves 

 will begin to decay. 



r/viw/.x/v/K ; a genus of the class Monadelphia, order 

 Polyandria. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth ter- 

 binate, quadrangular, fastened to the germen ; four-parted ; 

 segments ovate, spreading, permanent. Corolla : petals 

 four, elliptic ; claw narrow, inserted into the calix ; nectary 

 corpuscles twenty, filiform, ciliate, between the stamina. 

 Stamina : filamenta twenty, filiform, shorter than the calix, 

 connected at the base into a little pitcher ; antherse small, 

 roundish. Pistil : germen convex, superior ; style cylindric, 

 the length of the stamina, permanent ; stigmas four, spread- 

 VOL. i. 33. 



ing very much, trifid. Pericarp : berry hemispherical, 

 grooved, one-celled. N/s . very many, on a columnar 

 receptacle in the centre of the fruit. ESSENTIAL CHARAC- 

 TER. Calix: simple, four-parted. Corolla: ibur-petalled. 

 Nectary : twenty corpuscles between the filamenta. Stigmas : 

 four, jagged. The only known species is, 



1. Crossostylis Biflora. Native of the Society Isles. 



Crotalaria ; a genus of the class Diadelphia, order Decan- 

 dria. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth three- 



parted, large, rather shorter than the corolla ; the two supe- 

 rior divisions lanceolate, leaning on the standard ; the third 

 lanceolate, concave, supporting the keel, three-cleft. Corolla: 

 papilionaceous ; standard cordate, acute, large, depressed 

 on the sides ; wings ovate, shorter by half than the standard; 

 keel acuminate, length of the wings. Stamina : filamenta 

 ten, connate, rising, with a split line on the back, and 

 gaping base ; anthene simple. Pistil : germen oblong, reflex, 

 hirsute ; style simple, bent inwards at an angle, rising ; 

 stigma obtuse. Pericarp -. legume short, turgid, one-celled, 

 two-valved, pedicelled ; seeds one or two, globose, kidney- 

 form. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Legume : turgid, inflated, 

 pedicelled. Filamenta : connate, with a fissure on the back. 

 Most of these plants are propagated by seeds, which must 

 be sown upon a hot-bed in the spring, and when the plants 

 are come up an inch high, they should be transplanted 

 to another hot-bed to bring them forward, observing to 

 shade them from the sun till they have taken new root ; after 

 which they should have free air admitted to them in propor- 

 tion to the warmth of the season, to prevent their being 

 drawn up weak. When the plants have acquired strength 

 in this bed, they should be carefully taken up, with balls of 

 earth to their roots, and each planted in a separate pot, filled 

 with light kitchen-garden earth, and plunged into a moderate 

 hot-bed of tanner's bark, carefully shading them till they are 

 rooted again. They must afterwards be treated in the same 

 manner as other tender exotics, giving them a due proportion 

 of air and water in warm weather, and when they are grown 

 so tall as nearly to reach the glasses of the hot-bed, the pots 

 may be removed into an airy glass-case or stove, where they 

 will be screened from inclement seasons, and have sufficient 

 air in hot weather. With this treatment the plants will flower 

 in July, and continue to produce fresh spikes of flowers till 

 the end of August : those spikes which appear early in the 

 season, will be succeeded by ripe seeds in September ; soon 



after which the plants will decay. The species are, 



* Leaves simple. 



\. Crotalaria Perforate ; Perforated Crutalariit. Leaves 

 perfoliate, cordate, toothletted. Eight feet high; stem smooth 

 and even, with alternate branches ; leaves smooth, veined, 

 scarcely an inch long ; flowers smooth, yellow, in a kind of 

 umbel, two together, terminating the branches. Native of 

 the Cape ; where a decoction of the leaves is esteemed a 

 powerful diuretic. 



2. Crotalaria Perfoliata ; Perfoliate Crotalarut. Leaves 

 perfoliate, cordate-ovate ; stem shrubby, four or five feet high, 

 round, covered with a light-brown bark; leaves smooth, about 

 four inches long, and nearly three broad, much resembling 

 those of our common Tltoroughwax, or Bupleurum, both in 

 shape and size, only stiller and more veined ; the flowers are 

 almost the size of those of the Pea, all the petals being large ; 

 they are of a pale yellow colour, and come out singly from 

 the upper part of the branches, sitting close on the axils of 

 the leaves, and appearing in August : it has the appearance 

 of being shrubby, but the branches perish every year. It is 

 a native of open woods in the back settlements of Carolina. 



3. Crotalaria Amplexicaulis ; Stem-clasping Crotalaria. 

 5G 



