m c r o 
he had rendered his country. He was afterwards gene- 
rad of the Achteans, and it is faid that he poifoned hini- 
felf, becaufe he had been conquered at Thermopylae by 
the Romans. Cicero. 
CRITO'NIA, f. See Eupatorium and Kuhnia. 
CROAGH'PATRICK, a mountain of Ireland, in t-he 
county of Mayo : three miles fouth-weft of Ca-ftlcbar. 
To CROAK, v. 7i. [cjiacezzan, Sax. croc are, Ital, cro- 
eitare, Lat.] To make a hoarle low noife, like a frog : 
Blood, fluff’d in fkins, is Britilh Chriftians food; 
And F ranee robs marfhes of the croaking brood. Gay. 
To caw, or cry as a raven or crow.—The walk of elms, 
with the croaking of the ravens, looks exceeding foiemn 
and venerable, Addijon. 
The raven himfelf is hoarfe, 
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan 
Under my battlements. Shakefpeare. 
It may be ufed in contempt for any difagreeable or offen- 
five murmur.—Their underftandings are but little in- 
ftrudted, when all their whole time and pains is laid out 
to ftill the croaking of their own bellies. Locke. 
CROAK, f. The cry or voice of a frog or raven : 
The fwallow fkims the river’s watry face ; 
The frogs renew the croaks of their loquacious race. Dryd. 
CRO'AN, J. See Crone. 
CROA'R A, a town of Italy, in the duchy of Modena : 
eighteen miles fouth-weft of Modena. 
CROA'TIA, a country of Europe, bounded on the 
north by Hungary, from which it is feparated by the 
river Drave, on the eaft by Sclavonia and Bofnia, on the 
fouth by Dalmatia, and on the weft by Mortachia, Car- 
niola, and Stiria; about 150 miles in length, and from 
forty to (ixty in breadth. The Croatians derive their 
origin from the Sclavonians, and came into this country 
in the time of the emperor Heraclius. In the middle 
a^es they had kings of their own, who for fome time 
were fubjeft to Dalmatia. In the eleventh century, Cro¬ 
atia and Dalmatia devolved to the king of Hungary, and 
the Croats have ever (ince continued under the dominion 
of that monarchy, except a fmall part lubject to the 
Turks ; though not without frequent attempts to recover 
their independency. The principal towns.are Warafdin, 
or Little Warafdin, Kreutz, Velika, Iwanit'z, Zagrab, 
Karlftadt, and Sluin. Turkifh Croatia is lituated on the 
eaft fide of the Unna, and occupies a fpace about forty 
miles long, and twenty wide. The principal rivers ot 
Croatia are the Corana and the Save. 
CRO’CEOUS, adj. [ croceus , Lat.] Confiding of faf- 
fron ; like faffron, 
CRO'CHES, f among hunters, the little buds about 
the top of a deer’s horns. 
CROCI A,/. A bifhop’s or abbot’s crofier, or paftoral 
ft a IF; alio the collation of bilhoprics and abbeys, by giv¬ 
ing a crofier. 
CRO'CIAR Y, f. Crociarii/s, the officer who bore the 
crofier before the pope or abbot. 
CROCIDIX'IS, J. [from to gather wool.] 
A fatal fymptom in many difeafes, where the patient ga¬ 
thers up the bed-clothes, and feems to pick up fubftances 
from them. Ibis often the laft ftage of delirium. 
CROCITA'TION,/. \_crocitatio, Lat.] The croaking 
of frogs or ravens. 
CROCK,/. [k ruick , Dut.] A cup ; any veffel made 
of earth. The black which adheres to a chimney, or to 
a pot from its being fet on the fire.—This black.or loot 
(of a pot, or a kettle, or chimney-ftock) is caiied crock. 
Ray. —By a pretty general corruption of the word crone 
amongft country people, an old ewe. 
CROCx'ERY,/. Earthenware. 
CRO'CODILE, f. [from ygoy.o;, faffron, and hiXov, 
fearing.] An amphibious animal in ftiape refembling a 
lizard, found in Egypt and the Indies. It is fo called, 
-fays Minlhew, becaufe it cannot endure the Jfmell or tafte 
C R O 
of faffron ; and therefore in Egypt they ufed to fcattrr 
faffron to drive them off. See the article Lacerta. 
CRO'CODILINE, adj. \_crocodilinus , Lat.] Like a cro¬ 
codile. 
CROCO.DI'LIUM, /. See Centaurea and Echi- 
nops. 
CROCODILOTDES, /. See Atracty us. 
CROC*/, a towm of France, in the department of the 
Creufe, and chief place of a canton, in the diftrict of Fel- 
letin : eight miles eaft of Feiletin. 
CRO'CUS, in fabulous hifiory, a beautiful youth ena¬ 
moured of the nymph Smilax. He was changed into a 
flower of the lame name, on'account of the impatience 
of his love, and Smilax was metamorphofed into a yew- 
tree. Ovid. 
CRO'CUS, f. [from the youth Crocus , mentioned 
above. Some derive the name from x^oxk, or ygoy.'n, 
a thread, whence the ftamens of flowers are called ygo- 
y.iosc ; others from Corifcas , a city and mountain of Li- 
licia.] In botany, a genus of the clafs triandria, order 
monogynia, natural order of enfatse. The generic cha- 
radlers are—Calyx : fpathe one-leated. Corolla ; tube 
limple, long; border fix-parted, eredl; divifions ovate- 
oblong, equal. Stamina : filaments three, fubulate* 
lhorter than tire corolla ; antherae fagittate. Piftillum : 
germ inferior, roundilh ; fiyle filiform, length of the fta¬ 
mens; ftigmas three, convolute, lerrate. Pericarpium : 
capfule roundilh, three-lobed, three-celled, three-valved. 
Seeds: feveral, round,— EJfcntial Character. Corolla fix- 
parted, equal; ftigmas convolute. 
Species. 1. Crocus officinalis, officinal or autumnal, 
crocus, or faff'ron : leaves narrower, rolled in at the 
edges; Itigma trifid to a'confiderable length. Autumnal 
or officinal crocus, or faffron, has a roundilh bulbous 
root as large as a fmall nutmeg, which is a little com- 
preffed at the bSttom, and is covered with a coarfe,. 
brown, netted, (kin ; from the bottom of this bulb are 
feat out many long fibres, which (hike pretty deep into 
the ground ; from the upper part of the root come out. 
the flowers, which, together with the young leaves, 
whofe tops juft appear, are clolely wrapped about by a 
thin fpatha or llieath, which parts within the ground, 
and opens on one fide. The tube of the flower is very 
long, ariling immediately from the bulb, without any 
foot-ftalk, ana at the top is divided into fix ovate obtule 
fegments, which are equal, of a purple blue colour. In 
the botiom of the tube is lituated a roundilh germ, fup- 
porting a (lender ftyle, which is not more than half the 
length of the petal, crowned with three oblong golden 
ftigmas., which is the faffron; thefe Ip read afunder each 
way. This plant flowers in October, and the leaves 
keep growing ail the winter, but it never produces any 
feeds here. Haller remarks, that the autumnal faffron 
differs from the fpring crocus, in having the ftigma di¬ 
vided into three long fegments, the ends of which are 
alfo trifid. Thefe three horns of the ftigma are alfo 
odorous and aromatic, which is not the cafe in the ver¬ 
nal crocus ; and the flowers are much larger. Add to 
this, that the corolla does not vary much in colour from 
its high native purple, that they differ alfo in the root 
and leaves, the time of flowering, and the place of growth. 
Not to enter into the controverfy whether the autumnal 
and fpring crocus be fpecifically different or not; it is to 
be lamented that our knowledge is not yet far enough ad¬ 
vanced to alcertain the fpecies of plants on all occalions, 
and to place lpecific differences on firm foundations. 
It is the cafe with-faffron, as with many other plants 
in common cultivation ; the place where it grows fipon- 
taneoufly is. not well afeertained. Gerarde fays it grows 
on rocks near the lea fide in Portugal;' Allioni affirms 
that it is indigenous of Savoy ; but we can fcarcely think 
that it is a native of any part of Europe, where we do 
not find that it ever produces feed. Bulbous plants being 
perennial, and rooting themfelves very firmly in the earth, 
have> 
