CROTO'PHAGA CRUCIFER^. 



181 



shaped ; anthers oblong and erect ; female flowers, 

 calyx of five parts; petals none; styles three, twice or 

 inany-clefted ; seed-vessel three-berried. The greater 

 number of these plants are uncultivated ; one, the 

 6'. tinctoriu, is cultivated in the south of Europe for 

 the dyer. Those kept in our stoves are admired for 

 their variegated leaves ; of which the late Mr. Sweet 

 mentions a curious circumstance, namely, that unless 

 the plants are grown in " a mixture of pure peat 

 earth and sand, the leaves will soon become green, 

 and lose all their variegation." 



C RO TO F H A G A Ani. A genus of omnivorous 

 zygodactylic birds, natives of the tropical parts of 

 America, of which the. characters are : the bill short, 

 thick, arched, and with a trenchant ridge on tiie cul- 

 men compressed laterally, angular at the sides, and 

 without any notch ; nostrils lateral, near the base 

 of the bill, oval, and open; fret long and strong, 

 the tarsi a little longer than the outer toe ; wings 

 short, the first, second, and third quills gradually in- 

 creasing, the fourth and fit't.h the, longest in the wing; 

 and the tail long, rounded, and composed of eight 

 large and strong feathers. 



From this form of the wings and tail, it might be 

 inferred that, these are not birds of long iiight, neither 

 do they prey upon the wing. They have some of the 

 structural characters of our magpie, but the feet are 

 formed for more habitual perching. They are, how- 

 ever, much more social birds than the magpies, and 

 have none of the crafty and suspicions manners of 

 tiii'se cunning birds. They are social birds, and are 

 always found in small Hocks ; but they prefer the 

 open plains, and perch on the tops of bushes, or often 

 upon elevated hillocks. They are familiar, and not 

 afraid to perch on the backs of cattle when grazing, 

 in order to pick off the insects with which these are 

 often very much infested in warm countries. Their 

 voice is not very musical, and it has been compared 

 to the sound of steam issuing boiling from a kettle ; 

 but, like the sound of the rook, it is better in concert 

 than solo, and it is in concert that it is generally 

 heard, as it is rare to meet with one of the genus 

 single, and as rare to hear one cry without its being 

 instantly joined by another. 



Though the companies of these birds which are seen 

 together are not so numerous as those of the rooks, yet 

 they are even more social than these,the most social of 

 all our omnivorous birds. Rooks build in the same tree, 

 but this genus breeds in the very same nest, and old 

 and young may be seen enlarging the nest when the 

 latter are to begin the cares of a family. The nest is 

 substantially made in the large fork of a close bush 

 or tree ; the materials are dry twigs, interlaced and 

 lined with fine vegetable fibres. The sides are well 

 raised, and the diameter of the structure is often a foot 

 and a half. The eggs are three or four in mi mber, of a dull 

 greenish colour; and from the community of the nest, 

 it must often happen that the eggs of different mothers 

 are mixed during the incubation. Still that does not 

 disturb the amity of these very social birds. They 

 feed upon maize, rice, and other different sorts of 

 grain, and upon fruits, as well as upon insects and 

 their larvae, and worms. 



There are two species : C. major, about the size 

 of a jay, and C. minor, about the size of a blackbird. 

 The plumage of both is black, with some reflections 

 of purple and green. 



CROWE A (Smith). A genus of shrubs from 

 New South Wales, named in honour of J. Crowe, 



a celebrated botanist of Norwich. Linnsean class 

 and order Decandria Monogynia, and natural order 

 Rutdcca:. Generic character : calyx five-cleft ; pe- 

 tals five, oval, spreading ; stamens inserted under the 

 disk, bearing the germen ; filaments flat ; anthers 

 two-celled, united to the interior sides of the filaments ; 

 style almost none ; stigma fleshy and somewhat 

 lobed ; disk flesh}', bearing the germen ; capsule 

 containing five single seeds. This is a favourite 

 greenhouse plant, as it flowers throughout the greater 

 part of the year. It cannot bear over-watering, and 

 requires plenty of free-air. It is propagated by 

 cuttings. 



CROWFOOT, is \\ie Ranunculus acris of Linmrus, 

 and the butter-cup of the British meadows. It is a 

 very prevalent weed in grass land, in consequence of 

 the flower stem not being relished by cattle, so that 

 the seeds are annually shed where they grow. To 

 extirpate them is a tedious labour, as each individual 

 plant must be rooted out with a forked spud. It is 

 said that if eaten by cows it gives a bitter flavour to 

 butter, but this requires confirmation. 



CRUCIANELLA. See CROSSWORT. 



CRUCIFER^E Cruciferous family. A natural 

 order of dicotyledonous or exogenous plants, con- 

 taining ninety-eight known genera, and nearly one 

 thousand species. It is a very natural family, and is 

 allied to Capparidece, Papaveraccce, and Fumariaceee, 

 from which orders, however, it is at once distinguished 

 by its tetradynamous stamens. Its essential characters 

 are : sepals four, deciduous, two often gibbous at the 

 base ; petals four, in the form of a cross (heiice 

 the name cruciferous), alternate with the sepals ; 

 stamens six, of which two are shorter, solitary, and 

 opposite to the lateral sepals, while four are larger, 

 in pairs, alternating with them ; ovary superior, two- 

 celled ; style single ; stigmas two, opposite the pla- 

 cenUe ; green glands at the base of the germen and 

 stamens ; fruit a siliqua, or silicula, two, rarely one- 

 celled, two-valved, the valves separating from the 

 placentae, rarely valveless, one or many seeded ; seeds 

 attached in a single row by a funiculus to each side 

 of the placenUe, generally pendulous, and without 

 albumen : embryo with the radicle folded upon the 

 cotyledons. 



The plants belonging to this order are herbs, which 

 are annual, biennial, or perennial, rarely suffruticose. 

 Their leaves are alternate, and their flowers are 

 usually yellow or white, and grow in corymbs or 

 racemes. They arrow in greatest abundance in 

 Europe, nearly one hundred and twenty species 

 being found in the northern and middle European 

 countries, and one hundred and eighty on the 

 northern shores and the islands of the Mediterranean. 

 Numerous species are also met with in Asia Minor, 

 Persia, the northern coast of Africa, Siberia, India, 

 New Holland, and North and South America. 

 Besides species whose locality is not well known, or 

 which are common to different countries, we have 

 about one hundred in the southern, and eight hundred 

 in the northern hemisphere. In the temperate zone 

 the number of species amount to six or seven hundred, 

 in the frigid to above two hundred, while within the 

 tropics little more than thirty have been detected. 

 The Crucifercc arc included in the class Tetradynamiu, 

 the fifteenth of the Linnaean, or artificial system. 

 This class is well characterised by having four long 

 stamens and two short. It is divided into two orders ; 

 first, Siliculosa, in which the fruit is a roundish pod, 



