CHO 
CRO 
sixth order, ensatae. The corolla Is sexpar- 
tite and equal ; the stigmata convoluted, or 
relied spirally inwards. There are two spe- 
cies of tins genus, which, however, compre- 
hend many beautiful varieties. 
1. The officinalis, saffron, or autumnal cro- 
cus, has a small, roundish, brown, bulbous 
root, compressed at the bottom. Directly 
from the root issue many narrow leaves, of a 
deep-green colour , and amidst them the 
flowers are protruded from a thin univalvular 
Radical spatha ; the tube of the flower is long, 
standing on the root, and serving as a foot- 
stalk to the limb or upper part, which is erect, 
six-parted, widens gradually upward, and 
grows from about three to live or six inches 
high. The saffron Iras a long-tubed blueish- 
purple flower, with three stigmata of a fine 
golden colour, which form the saffionof the 
shops. The varieties are the autumnal small 
blue crocus ; deep blue, sky blue, whitish 
blue, many-flowered whitish blue, purple, 
autumnal white crocus, and autumnal yellow 
crocus. 
2. The vCrnalis, or vernal crocus, the va- 
rieties of which are, small and large, and 
golden yellow crocuses, and the yellow 
black-striped, the yellow purple-striped, and 
double cloth of gold ; the white, white 
purple-striped, white purple bottom, white 
black-striped, whitish cream-coloured, whit- 
ish ash-coloured, little narrow-leafed white, 
and white blue-striped crocuses. Besides 
these there are a great many others of a 
blue and purple colour finely variegated. 
The autumnal crocuses flower about the be- 
ginning of October, but never ripen their 
seeds in this country. 
CROTSADE, crusade, or crusado, a 
name given to the expeditions of the Chris- 
tians against the infidels, for the conquest of 
Palestine ; so called because those who en- 
gaged in the undertaking wore a cross on 
their clothes, and bore one on then stand- 
ard. This expedition was also called the 
holy war, to which people flocked in great 
numbers from pure devotion ; the pope's 
bulls, and the preaching of the priests of 
those days, making it a point of conscience. 
The several nations engaged in the holy war 
were distinguished by the different colours of 
their crosses : the English wore white, the 
French red, the Flemish green, the Ger- 
mans black, and the Italians yellow. From 
this enterprise several orders of knigh hood 
took their rise. They reckon eight croisades 
for the conquest of the holy land ; the first 
begun in tue year 1095, at tie* solicitation of 
the Greek emperor and the patriarch of Je- 
rusalem. 
CROISIERS, cross-bearers, a religious 
order founded in honour of the invention 
or discovery of the cross by the empress 
Helena. They - follow the rule of St. Au- 
gustine. 
CROISSANTE, in heraldry, is said of a 
cross, the ends of which are fashioned like a 
crescent or half-moon. 
CROMLECHS, in British antiquities, are 
huge, broad, flat stones, raised upon other 
stones set up on end to support them. -They 
are common in Anglesey. These monu- 
ments are spoken of largely by Mr. Row- 
land, by Dr. Boriase, and by Wormius, un- 
der the name of ara, or altar. Mr. Rowland, 
however, is undecided in his opinion ; for lie 
partly inclines to the notion of their having 
Vot. I* 
CR0 
been altars, partly tp their haying been se- 
pulchres: lie supposes them to have been 
originally tombs, but that in after-times sa- 
crifices were performed upon them to the he- 
roes deposited within. Mr. Keiller preserves 
an account of king Harold having been in- 
terred beneath a tomb of this kind in Den- 
mark, and Mr. Wright discovered in Ireland 
a skeleton deposited under one of them. 
The great similarity of the monuments 
throughout the north, Mr. Pennant observes, 
evinces the same religion to have been spread 
in every part, perhaps with some slight de- 
viations. Many of these monuments are 
both British and Danish ; for we find them 
where the Danes never penetrated. 
1 he cromlech, or cromleh, chiefly differs 
from the kist-vaen, in not being closed up at 
the ends and sidesi, that is, in not sc much 
partaking of the chest-like figure ; it is also 
generally of larger dimensions, and some- 
times consists of a greater number of stones: 
the terms cromleh and kist-vaen are however 
indiscriminately used for the same monu- 
ment. The term cromlech is by some de- 
rived from the Armoric w r ord crum, “ crook- 
ed or bowing,” and leh, “ stone,” alluding to 
the reverence which persons paid to them by 
bowing. Rowland derives it from the He- 
brew words carem-luach, signifying “ a de- 
voted or consecrated stone.” They are. call- 
ed by the vulgar coetne Arthor, or Arthur’s 
quoits, it being a custom in Wales, as in 
Cornwall, to ascribe all great and wonder- 
ful objects to prince Arthur, the hero oi those 
countries. See Plate Miscel. tig. 24. 
C ROSIER, or crozier, a shepherd’s crook ; 
a symbol of pastoral authority, consisting of 
a gold or silver staff, crooked at the top, car- 
ried occasionally before bishops and abbots, 
and held in the hand when they gave the so- 
lemn benedictions. 
Crosier, in astronomy, four stars in the 
southern hemisphere, in the form of a cross, 
serving those who sail in southern latitudes 
to find the antarctic pole. 
CROSLET, in heraldry, is when a cross 
is crossed again at a small distance from each 
of tlie ends. 
CROSS, invention of the, a festival ob- 
served May 3, by the Latin church, in me- 
mory of the empress Helena (the mother 
of Constantine) finding the true cross of 
Christ, on mount Calvary, where she caused 
to be erected a church for the preservation 
of it. 
Cross, order of the, an order of ladies 
instituted in 1668# by the empress Eleanora 
de Gonzagua, wife of the emperor Leopold, 
on occasion of the miraculous recovery of a 
little golden cross, in which were inclosed two 
pieces of the true cross, out of the ashes of a 
part of the palace that had been burnt down : 
though the fire burnt the case wherein it was 
enclosed, and melted the crystal, it appears 
that the wood had not received the least da- 
mage. 
Cross, in heraldry, is defined by Guil- 
lim, an ordinary composed of fourfold lines, 
whereof two are perpendicular, and the 
other two transverse. The content of a cross 
is not always the same ; for when it is not 
charged, it has only the fifth part of the field; 
but if it is charged, then it must contain the 
third part thereof. This bearing was bestow- 
ed on such as had performed, or at least un- 
dertaken* some service for Christ and the 
4 5? 
Christian profession ; and is therefore held by 
several authors the most Ixmourable charge 
in all heraldry. What brought it into such 
frequent use, was the antient expeditions into 
the holy land, the cross being the ensign of 
that war. 
Cross, in surveying, an instrument con- 
sisting ot a brass circle, divided into four 
equal parts, by two lines intersecting each 
other at the centre ; at the extremity of each 
line there is a sight fixed, standing perpendi- 
cularly over the line, with holes below each 
slit, for the better discovery of distant ob- 
jects. See Surveying. 
Cross-bar shot, a bullet with an iron 
bar passing through it, and standing six or 
eight inches out at both sides : it is used at 
sea for destroying the enemy’s rigging. 
Cross-trees, in a ship, tour pieces of tim- 
ber, bolted and let into one another across, 
at the head of the mast. Their use is to keep 
and bear the top-mast up ; for the foot of the 
top-mast is always fastened into them. 
C ROSSELET, a little or diminutive cross, 
used in heraldry, where the shield is fre- 
quently seen covered with crosselets; also 
tesses and other honourable ordinaries, char- 
ged or accompanied with crosselets. Crosses • 
frequently terminate in crosselets. 
CROSSOTYLUS, a genus of the poly- 
andria order, in the monadeiphia class of 
plants. The calyx is quadrifid ; the corolla 
consists of four petals ; the stamina are 20 
filiform filaments, almost the length of the 
calyx ; the anthers small and roundish; the 
pericarpium an hemispherical, unilocular 
berry, with many stria: on its upper part ; 
the seeds numerous and roundish. There is 
one species, a native of the Society Isles. 
CROTALARIA, rattle-wort, a genus of 
the decandria order, in the diadelphia class 
of plants, and in the natural method ranking 
under the 32d order, papilionaceax The le- 
gumen is turgid, inflated, and pedicellated ; 
the filaments are connate, with a fissure o i 
the back. There are 32 species, all of them 
natives of warm climates. They rise from 
eighteen inches to five feet in height, and are 
adorned with fiowers of a red, blue, or yel- 
low colour. The most remarkable species is 
the retusa, with simple and oblong wedged 
leaves. It is a native of the island of Ceylon, 
and some other parts of the East Indies. The 
flowers are yellow ; the pods smooth, cylin- 
drical, inflated, and placed horizontally ; they 
are filled with seeds, which, when dried, and 
shaken by the lightest wind, produce a rattling 
noise; and this, by the rude inhabitants of 
the countries where the plant is native, is at- 
tributed to the devil, who is thought to de- 
liver his oracles in this* whimsical manner. 
CROTALUM (from the Greek), synony- 
mous with cymbalum. The name of an an- 
tient musical instrument. See Cymba- 
lum. 
CROTALUS, rattlesnake, a genus be- 
longing to the order of amphibia serpentes, 
the generic character of which is, scuta on 
the abdomen ; scuta and squamae beneath 
the tail ; rattle terminating the tail. 
f. Crotalus horridus, or banded rattle- 
snake. The genus crotalus, or rattlesnake, 
affords the most signal examples of the pow- 
erfully destructive poison with which some 
of the serpent tribe are furnished ; instances 
having frequently occurred in. which the bite 
