CROCUS 



CROTALARIA 



901 



37. byzantinus, Ker (C. iridiflbrus, Heuff.)- Corm 

 i^in. diam.: Ivs. 2-4, developing after the fls. : peri- 

 anth-tube much exserted; segms. 2 in. or less long, 

 the outer ones dark lilac and acute, the inner ones 

 shorter and pale lilac or white; anthers orange, longer 

 than the filaments. S. E. Eu. B.M. 6141. B.R. 33:4. 

 An old garden plant, but rarely seen in this country. 



DD. Basal spathe absent; upper spathe 2-lvd. 



38. pulchellus, Herb. Corm small, somewhat de- 

 pressed: Ivs. produced after flowering, maturing in 

 spring: perianth-tube much exserted; segms. 1-1 J^ in. 

 long, bright lilac, more or less indistinctly striped; 

 throat glabrous, bright yellow; anthers white, longer 

 than the pubescent yellow filaments; style-branches 

 orange, with many capillary branches. Greece to Asia 

 Minor. B.R. 30:3. 



39. specidsus, Bieb. Corm not stoloniferous, 1 in. 

 or less: Ivs. usually 3, developing after the fls., thin, 

 very narrow, becoming 1 ft. long: perianth-tube much 

 exserted; segms. lJ^-2 in., lilac and feathered with 

 darker color; anthers very large, bright orange, much 

 exceeding the filaments. S. E. Eu. and Asia. B.M. 

 3861. Gn. 62, p. 265; 71, p. 613. B.R. 25:40. Hand- 

 some and variable. Var. albus, Hort. Fls. white. 

 Var. Aitchisonii, Foster (C. Aitchisonii, Hort.). Fig. 

 1118. More graceful than the type and larger, fls. paler 

 in color, the segms. more pointed, divisions of stigma 

 more numerous and more spreading or even drooping: 

 fls. very pale bluish lilac. Asia. G. 28:415. Gn. M. 

 8:228. L. H. B. 



CROP. The product secured from an area of culti- 

 vated plants; as, a crop of wheat, a crop of mush- 

 rooms, a crop of violets. The word is used generically 

 for classes of products, as grain crop, root crop, forest 

 or timber crop, fiber crop, flower crop, seed crop, salad 

 crop. It is employed also as a verb, the cropping of 

 the land, to crop to fruit. 



Other limitations of the word refer to duration and 

 inter-relations: catch-crop, a secondary crop grown 

 between the succession of other crops, as in the time 

 between a crop of radishes and a crop of cabbages; 

 or between the rows or stands of other plants; compan- 

 ion-crop, a catch-crop grown between other growing 

 plants, as lettuce between rows or hills of beans; 

 succession-crop, a catch-crop succeeding another crop 

 as late celery following early potatoes; cover-crop, a 

 catch-crop grown usually late in the season, or in win- 

 ter, to protect the land and to afford green-manure. 

 Rotation-cropping is a form of succession-cropping. 

 Double-cropping may be either companion-cropping 

 or succession-cropping, or both. L. H. B. 



CROSSANDRA (Greek, fringed anthers}. Acanthdcex. 

 Warmhouse evergreen shrubs of minor importance. 



Upright, with entire or somewhat toothed, often 

 verticillate Ivs., glabrous, or the infl. hairy: fls. in 

 dense sessile spikes, red or yellow, with prominent 

 bracts; corolla cylindrical, more or less curved, some- 

 what enlarged at the throat, with a flat or spreading 

 oblique limb; stamens 4, in pairs. Perhaps 20-25 

 species from India, Trop. Afr., and Madagascar. The 

 one commonly in the trade has handsome 4-sided spikes 

 of scarlet-orange fls.; perianth has 5 segms., the 2 

 upper ones being smaller; stamens 4, of 2 lengths: caps, 

 oblong, acute, 4-seeded. It is cult. S. outdoors to a 

 slight extent, and also rarely in northern greenhouses. 

 Should be grown in rich loam, peat or leaf-mold, and 

 sand. Prop, by cuttings in sand over bottom heat, 

 preferably under a bell-jar. 



undulaefdlia, Salisb. (C. infundibuliformis, Nees). 

 Height 1 ft., rarely 3 ft.: Ivs. opposite, ovate-acuminate, 

 stalked: fls. scarlet-orange, overlapping one another 

 in dense closely bracted, sechmea-like spikes, 3-5 in. 

 long. India. B.M. 2186. R.H. 1891:156. B.R. 69. 



C. flava, Hook. Unbranched shrub, 6-8 in. high: st. green, gla- 

 brous: Ivs. opposite, close together, large for the size of the plant, 6 

 in. long, obovate-lanceolate, dark green above, paler beneath, wavy, 

 more obtuse than in the above; lower Ivs. stalked, upper ones 

 sessile: spike 4-sided, spiny; fls. yellow; tube much exserted, 

 jointed. Trop. W. Afr. B.M. 4710. C. guinetnsis, Nees. Height 

 2-6 in.: st. light red, rusty pubescent: Ivs. 2-4 pairs, 3-5 in. long, 

 elliptic, green above, with golden netted nerves, reddish beneath: 

 spike solitary, terminal, slender, 3-5 in. high; fls. numerous, small, 

 pale lilac, with 2 darker spots on the 2 smallest segms. and a white 

 eye. Guinea. B.M. 6346. A handsome foliage plant. 



N. TAYLOR.! 



CROSSOSOMA (Greek, referring to a fringe-like 

 body on the seeds). Ranunculacese; by Bentham & 

 Hooker referred to Dilleniacese, and by Engler made 

 the type of the family Crossosomatacese. Four much- 

 branched woody plants of Mex., Ariz, and S. Calif.: 

 very glabrous, with grayish bark and whitish wood: Ivs. 

 oblong or narrower, entire, alternate, nearly or quite 

 sessile, some of them fascicled: fls. mostly white, soli- 

 tary and short-stalked at the ends of the branchlets. C. 

 calif ornicum, Nutt., has been mentioned in gardening 

 literature abroad: 3-15 ft. high: Ivs. 1-3 in. long, not 

 much fascicled : fls. large, with nearly orbicular white 

 petals more than %m. long, the anthers long-oblong: 

 follicles %in. or more long, many-seeded. Isl. of Santa 

 Catalina. C. Bigelovii, Wats., is lower, the Ivs. mostly 

 fascicled and fls. only half as large, the petals white or 

 purplish. Ariz, to S. E. Calif. 



CROTALARIA (Greek, rattle, castanet; from the rat- 

 tling of the seeds in the pod). Leguminbsse. RATTLE- 

 BOX. Annual outside herbs, and shrubs grown in green- 

 houses or in the open far South. 



Herbs or shrubs of various habit: Ivs. simple 

 (actually unifoliolate) or compound: fls. in terminal 

 racemes or rarely the racemes opposite the Ivs.; calyx- 

 tube short, the teeth narrow, as long as or a little 

 shorter than the pea-like corolla. A cosmopolitan 

 genus of perhaps 250 species, in tropics and sub- 

 tropics mostly. For best results, the seed should be 

 started early indoors, after being soaked in warm water. 

 The name is sometimes misspelled Crotolaria. Green- 

 house kinds are subject to red spider. C. juncea yields 

 the Sunn hemp of India. Our common rattle-box, C. 

 sagittalis, is often a troublesome weed. 



A. Lvs. apparently simple. 



retftsa, Linn. Annual, \ 1 A ft. high: branches few, 

 short: Ivs. entire, very various in shape, but typically 

 obovate with a short mucro, clothed beneath with short 

 appressed hairs: fls. about 12 in a raceme, yellow, 

 streaked or blotched with purple; standard roundish, 

 notched. Cosmopolitan. June- Aug. Intro. 1896, as 

 a novelty and called "dwarf golden yellow-flowering 

 pea," "golden yellow sweet pea," etc. The fls. are 

 much less fragrant than the true sweet pea. 



verrucdsa, Linn. Annual, erect and nearly glabrous, 

 the branches and fl. -stalks 4-angled: Ivs. ovate, shortly 

 petioled, blunt: fls. racemose, numerous, their variega- 

 ted blue corollas making a magnificent show in early 

 spring. Cosmopolitan in the tropics. B.M. 3034. 

 B.R. 1137. P.M. 13:223. 



AA. Lvs. foliolate (compound). 

 B. Fls. striped with brown or red. 



longirostrata, Hook. & Arn. Greenhouse plant, her- 

 baceous or somewhat shrubby, much branched, 3 ft. 

 high: branches long, slender, glabrous: petioles \ l /2 in. 

 long; Ifts. 3, oblong, with a minute mucro, glabrous 

 above, hoary beneath, with very short, appressed, 

 silky hairs: racemes erect; calyx with 2 upper lobes 

 ovate, the 3 lower ones lanceolate; fls. as many as 25 

 in a raceme, yellow with reddish or reddish brown 

 stripe along the back of the unopened fls.; standard 

 wider than long, reflexed, notched. W. Mex., Guate- 

 mala. B.M. 7306. F.R. 1 : 809. Flowering from Dec. to 

 March. Intro, into Kew through the U. S. Dept. 

 Agric. in 1891. 



