CRE 
C II I 
455 
equity will make them subject, though there 
are no express words ; but there must be more 
than a bare declaration, or it shall be intended 
out of the personal estate. 2 Vern. Rep. 708 
CHEEPER. See Certhia. 
Creeper, at sea, a sort of grapnel, but 
without Hooks, used for recovering things 
! fallen overboard. See PI. Miscel. fig. 23. 
CRENATED. Sec Botany. 
CRENCLES, in a ship, small ropes 
spliced into the bolt-ropes of the sails of the 
main-mast and fore-mast. They are fastened 
: to the bow-line bridles; and are also to hold 
by, when a bonnet is shaken off. 
CRENELLE', or embattled, in heraldry, 
l is used when any honourable ordinary is 
j drawn like the battlements on a wall. 
CRENGPHYLAX, in antiquity, a ma- 
j gistrate at Athens, who had the inspection 
of fountains. 
CREPIS, bastard hawk-weed, a genus 
I of the polygamia order, in the syngenesia 
I class of plants, and in the natural method 
ranking under the forty-ninth order, com- 
j positie. The receptacle is naked ; the calyx 
calyculated, with deciduous scales ; the pap- 
j pus feathery and stalked. There are twenty 
I species, most of them herbaceous annuals, 
\ rising to the height of a foot or a foot and a 
half, and having their branches terminated 
by ligulated compound red and yellow flow- 
! ers. These are very large, and consist of 
i many flat florets spread over one another 
j' imbricatim, and when fully blown appear as 
| if radiated. They are very conspicuous and 
| beautiful; and appear in June, July, and 
! August. They are succeeded by plenty of 
seed, which, if permitted to scatter on the 
ground, will produce a number of young 
plants without further trouble. 
CREPITATION, that noise which some 
I salts make over the fire in calcination, called 
also detonation. 
Crepitation is also used in surgery, for 
1 the noise made by the ends or pieces of 
bones, when the surgeon moves a limb to 
; assure himself by his ear of the existence of 
t a fracture. 
CREPONDIA, in antiquity, a term used 
to express such things as were exposed along 
I with children, as rings, jewels, &c. serving 
j as tokens whereby they afterwards might be 
known. 
CREPUSCULUM, in astronomy, twi- 
light ; the time from the first dawn or appear- 
ance of the morning to the rising of the sun ; 
and again, between the setting of the sun and 
! the last remains of day. The crepusculum is 
usually computed to begin and end when the 
j sun is about eighteen degrees below the hori- 
| zon ; for then the stars of the sixth magnitude 
disappear in the morning, and appear in the 
evening. It is of longer duration in the sol- 
I stices than in the equinoxes, and longer in an 
oblique than in a right sphere. The cre- 
puscula are occasioned by the sun’s rays re- 
fracted in our atmosphere. 
CRESCENT, in heraldry, a bearing in 
form of a new moon. 
Crescent is also an order of knights, 
instituted by Rennatus of Anjou, king of 
f Sicily, about the year 1448 ; so called from 
the badge of this order, which was an en- 
j amelled crescent of gold. 
CRESCENTIA, the calabash-tree; a 
genus of the angiospermia order, in the didy- 
C R E 
namia class of plants ; and in the natural 
method ranking under the 25th order, puta- 
mineax The calyx is bipartite and equal ; 
the corolla gibbous ; the berry pedicellated 
or stalked, unilocular, and polyspermous; 
the seeds bilocular. 
.There are two species: 1. the cujete, 
with oblong narrow leaves and a large oval 
fruit, is a native of Jamaica and the Leeward 
islands. It has a thick trunk covered with a 
whitish bark, and rises from twenty to thirty 
feet high, and at the top divides into many 
branches, forming a large and regular head : 
the flowers are produced from the sides of 
the large branches, and sometimes from the 
trunk, standing upon long footstalks. They 
have but one petal, which is irregular; and 
are of a greenish-yellow colour, striped and 
spotted with brown. These are succeeded 
by very large fruit, generally spherical, some- 
times oval; and at other times they have 
a contracted neck like a bottle; and are so 
large, that when the pulp and seeds are 
cleaned out, the shells will contain three pints 
or two quarts of liquid. The fruit is covered 
externally with a thin skin, of a greenish- 
yellow colour when ripe. When this is peel- 
ed off, there appears a hard ligneous shell, 
inclosing a pale-yellowish soft pulp of a tart 
unsavoury llavour, surrounding a great num- 
ber of fiat heart-shaped seeds. 2. The cu- 
curbitina, or broad-leaved calabash, seldom 
rises more than 15 or 20 feet high, with an 
upright trunk, covered with a white smooth 
bark, sending out many lateral branches at 
the top, with leaves three inches in length, 
and one and a quarter broad, ranged alter- 
nately. The flowers come out as in the 
former species ; but are smaller, and of a 
deeper yellow colour. The fruit of this sort 
is sometimes round, sometimes oval, but of 
very unequal sizes. Both these species*are 
easily propagated by seeds; but the plants 
are too tender to live in this country, unless 
they are constantly kept in a stove. 
The shells of calabashes are made use of 
for various purposes. At Barbadoes, besides 
drinking-cups and punch-bowls, there are 
made of them spoons, dishes, and other uten- 
sils for the slaves. Some of these shells are 
so large, as to be capable of holding fifteen 
pints of Water. The pulp is seldom eaten, 
except by cattle in the time of drought. 
The w'ood, which is hard and smooth, is 
made into stools, chairs, and other furni- 
ture. 
CRESSA, a genus of the class and order 
pentamlria digynia. The essential character 
is, calyx five-leaved; coral a, salver-form; 
filaments sitting on the tube ; capsules two- 
valvt d, one-seeded. There are 2 species. 
CREST, in armoury, the top part of the 
armour, for the head, mounting over the 
helmet. It was for the most part made of 
feathers, or the hair of horses’ tails or manes. 
Crest, in heraldry, is the uppermost part 
of an armoury, or that part of the casque or 
helmet next to the mantle. It is esteemed 
a greater mark of nobility than the armoury, 
being borne at tournaments, to which none 
were admitted till such time as they had 
given proof of their nobility: sometimes it 
serves to distinguish the several branches of 
a family; and it has served, on occasion, as 
a distinguishing badge of factions: sometimes 
the crest is taken for the device ; but more 
usually is formed of some piece of the arms. 
Families that exchange arms do not change 
their crest. 
CREUX, a French term used among arti- 
ficers, and literally signifying a hollow cavity, 
or pit, out of which something has been 
scooped or dug ; whence it is used to signify 
that kind of sculpture, where the lines and 
figures are cut and formed within the face or 
plan of the plate, or matter engraved ; and 
thus it stands in opposition to relievo, where 
the lines and figures are embossed, and rise 
prominent above the face of the matter en- 
graved on. 
CREW, the company of sailors belonging 
to a ship, boat, or other vessel. The sailors 
that are to work and manage a ship, are regu- 
lated by the number of lasts it may carry, 
each last making two ton. The crew of a 
Dutch ship, from forty to fifty lasts, is seven 
sailors and a swabber ; from fifty to sixty 
lasts, the Crew consists of eight men and a 
swabber; and thus increases at the rate of 
one man every ten lasts. English and French 
crews are usually stronger than Dutch, but 
always in about the same proportion. There 
are in a ship several particular crews or 
gangs, as the gun-room crew, the carpenter’s 
crew, &c. , 
CRIBBAGE, a game at cards, in which 
no cards are to be thrown out, and the set to 
make sixty-one ; and as it is an advantage to 
deal, on account of the crib, it is proper to 
cut for it, and lie that has the least card deals. 
There are only two players at this game, in 
which the cards are dealt out one by cme ; the 
first to the dealer’s antagonist, and the next 
to himself, and so on, till each has five ; the 
rest being set down in view on the table. 
This done, the dealer lays down the two best 
cards he can lor his crib; and his antagonist 
lays down the other two, the very worst in 
his hand, the crib being the property of the 
dealer. They next turn up a card from the 
parcel left after dealing, and then count their 
game thus: Any fifteen upon the cards is 
two ; asking and five, ten and five, nine and 
six, eight and seven, &c. A pair is also 
two ; a pair-royal, or three aces, kings, &c. 
six ; a double pair-royal, or four aces, &c. 
twelve. Sequences of three cards, as four 
five and six, is three ; sequences of four, 
four; five, five, &c. and the same holds of a 
flush. Knave-noddy, or of the suit turned 
up, is one in hand, and two to the dealer. 
It, after the cards for the crib are laid out, 
you have in your hand a nine and two sixes, 
that makes six, because there are two fifteens 
and a pair ; and if a six chance to be turned 
up, then you have twelve in your hand, viz. 
the pair-royal, and three fifteens. r I hese are 
lo be marked with pegs, counters, or other- 
wise. If you happen, to have sequents, as 
of four five and six, in your hand, and six 
is the turned up card, they are counted thus : 
first, the sequents in your' hand make three- 
and the sequents of the four and five in vour 
hand, added to the six turned up, make other 
three: there are likewise two fifteens, count- 
ing first with the six in your hand, and then 
with that turned up. 
This, done, the antagonist to the dealer 
plays first, suppose a six ; and if the dealer 
can make it fifteen, by playing nine, he gains 
two; otherwise they play on, and he that 
reaches thirty-one exactly, or comes nearest 
