412 CRY 
the fpike of flowers being concealed within the (heath of 
the leaf.] In botany, a genus of the clafs diandria, or¬ 
der digynia, and natural order of grades. The generic 
characters are—Calyx : glume one-flowered, two- 
valved; valves oblong-lanceolate, keeled, awnlefs; 
outer fmaller. Corolla : glume two-valved; valves 
lanceolate-oblong, awnlefs; inner longer than the ca¬ 
lyx, outer fliorter than the calyx. Stamina: filaments 
two, capillary longer than the corolla. Antherae ob¬ 
long, cordate, incumbent. Piftillum: germ fuperior, 
oblong; fiyles two, capillary (horter than the ftamens ; 
fligmas hairy. Pericarpium : none; corolla inclofing 
the feed. Seed : fingle, fubcolumnar.— EJfential C/ia- 
raScr. Calyx, glume two-valved, one-flowered ; co¬ 
rolla, glume two-valved, awnlefs. 
But one fpecies, crypfis aculeata, or prickly crypfis, 
and two varieties, viz. fchcenus aculeatus, (Linn.,) and 
phleum fchoenoides, (Jacqu.) Root annual. Culms 
many diifufed, four inches high, branching, covered 
with the (heaths of the leaves, which are i'mooth ex¬ 
cept at the edge; the upper ones gradually broader. 
Spike fubglobular, almoft faftigiate, with the flowers 
almoft fcffile in the bofom of the involucre ; which is 
three-leaved, and a little longer than the (pike. Or, 
as Gaertner exprefles it, the flowers are in a head, co¬ 
vered by two or three leaves, which are ventricofe at 
the bale, and ferve it for an involucre. The flowers 
fometimes have three ftamens. The common recepta¬ 
cle is conical and tubercled, covered all over with flo¬ 
rets. Seed free, without any groove, loofely fur- 
rounded by the calyx and corolla, which are both per¬ 
manent ; it is fomewhat of an elliptic form, compref- 
fedly lenticular, pale, but where the fcutellum is, 
brown or chefnut-coloured, frnooth but not fliining. 
The fcutellum is linear-lanceolate, nearly the fame 
length with the feed, and placed at one edge of it. 
The embryo is long, fubulate, and yellowilh. This 
grafs was fucceflively named fchcenus, phleum, and 
anthoxanthum, by Linnaeus. It differs abundantly 
from the firft in its fcutellate embryo : from the fe- 
cond both in the form and fituation of the calyx and 
fcutellum or efcutcheon: from the third, in its want 
of the awned ne£tary, and in its whole habit. It is 
therefore of a diftindt genus. Gaertner thinks it 
might poflibly have been known to Pliny under the 
name of tragos ; hence and from its bearing fome fimi- 
litude to kali, which is by fome called tragos, he names 
it antitragus. This grafs is a native of the fouth of 
Europe and Siberia. It is common alfo in Barbary. 
Monf. Thouin introduced it at Kew in 1783. It flowers 
in Auguft. 
. CRYPSOR'CHIS, /. [from y.gvrla, to conceal, and 
a tefticle.] A difeafe of the tefticles, whereby 
•they are retained in the belly, and not fallen into the 
ferotum. Turton. 
CRYP'TA, [from v.gvTrlo?, hidden.] a fubterraneous 
cell or vault, for the interment of particular families or 
perfons. Vitruvius ufes the word crypta for a part of a 
building, anfwering nearly to our cellar; Juvenal for a 
cloaca. Hence crypto porticus , a fubterraneous place, 
arched or vaulted, ufed as an under work or paffage in 
old walls. The fame is alfo ufed for the decoration at 
ahe entry of a grotto. 
CRYP'TIC, or Cryp'tical, adj. rcrypticus, Lat. of 
*§t)w]i>tos,Gr. ] Hidden; fecret; occult; private ; unknown ; 
not divulged.—Speakers, whofe chief bufinefs is to 
amufe or. delight, do not confine themfelves to any 
natural order, but in a cryptical or hidden method adapt 
every thing to their ends. Watts. 
CRYPTICALLY, adv. [from cryptical.-] Occultly, 
fecretly : perhaps, in the following example, the au¬ 
thor might have written critically. —We take the word 
acid in a familiar fenfe, without cryptically diftinguilhing 
it from thole fapors that are a-kin to it. Boyle. 
CRYPTOCE'PHALUS,y; [from xqvmu, to hide, and 
C R Y 
»uipaXo', Gr. the head.] In entomology, agenus ofinfedts 
belonging to the order coleoptera; the characters of which 
are thefe : antennae filiform : feelers four : thorax mar¬ 
gined : (hells or wing-cafes, immarginate : body fome¬ 
what cylindrical. This genus has been lately eredted 
out of feveral of the coleoptera tribes, but principally 
from the chryfomelae of the twelfth edition of Lin¬ 
naeus : confiding of all fuch as have the head, as it 
were, drawn within the thorax. Gmelin enumerates 
no lefs than two hundred and ninety-nine fpecies of 
this conformation, fome or other of which inhabit al¬ 
moft every part of the world. Upwards of twenty fpe¬ 
cies are found in England ; one of which, named cryp. 
tocephalus afparagi, is feen to feed in the fummer fealon, 
upon our afparagus plants. This inledt, with the gi. 
ganUus, which is the largeft yet known of the genus, are 
reprefented, among feveral others, in the copper-plate 
engraving. 
CRYP rOGA'MIA, 0? and •yasjuoj, concealed 
nuptials.] In botany, the name of the twenty-fourth 
clafs in the Linnaean Artificial Syftem, comprehending 
the vegetables whofe fructification is concealed, or at 
lead: too minute to be obferved by the naked eye. It 
is divided into four orders. 1. Filices or ferns. 2. 
Mufci or modes. 3. Algae or flags. 4. Fungi. See 
the article Botany, vol. iii. p. 259, 279. 
CRYPTO'GR APHY, /. [of xg««ri«, and ygcctpu, Gr. 
writing.] The art of fecret writing, or writing in cy¬ 
phers ; fecret characters ; cyphers. 
CRYPTO'LOGY, f. [of and Xoy®^, Gr. ] 
Speaking or difeourfing occultly ; enigmatical language. 
CRYPTOPOR'TICUS,/. [of y.piBu, Gr. to hide, and 
porticus, Lat. porch, &c.] A fecret walk or vault un¬ 
der ground, or in fome low place ; a gallery clofed on 
all parts to be cool in fummer ; a grot, a cloifter, &c. 
CRYPTOR'CHIS, f. [from zjwra, to hide, and 
opj^K, a tefticle.] A difeafe in which the tefticles are 
withdrawn into the abdomen. AJIi. 
CRYPTOS'TOMUM, /. [from y. ( vn\u, to conceal, 
and alopci, the mouth : becaufe the mouth or opening 
of the corolla is concealed by the nedtary.] In botany, a 
genus of the clafs pentandria, order monogynia. The 
generic characters are—Calyx : perianth one-leafed, fun¬ 
nel-form, ventricofe at the bafe, coloured, with a five- 
cleft border; fegments lanceolate, unequal. Corolla: 
one-pctalled, funnel-form; tube very .(hort, inferted 
into the throat of the calyx ; border five-cleft; feg¬ 
ments lanceolate, acute, unequal, converging ; neCtary 
fattened to the bafe of the corolla, broad, arched, clos¬ 
ing the mouth of the corolla, five-toothed. Stamina : 
filaments none ; antherae five, each inferted below each 
toothlet of the neCtary. Piftillum : germ roundifh, in 
the bottom of the calyx ; ftyle cylindric, the length of 
the calyx ; ftigma capitate. Pericarpium : berry glo¬ 
bular, three-celled. Seeds: folitary, ovate, acute, 
marked with a large hilum or fear.— EJfential CkaraBer. 
Calyx, ventricofe, five-cleft: tube of the corolla in¬ 
ferted into the throat of the calyx, border five-cleft; 
nectary, five-toothed, clofing the mouth of the corolla ; 
berry ; feeds fcarred. *» 
Only one fpecies, the Cryptoftomum Gujanenfe, or 
Guiana cryptoftomum. It is a kind of (preading ftirub, 
which grows in the ifle of Cayenne and in Guiana. Its 
native name is aimoutabu. The root of this fhrub puts 
forth feveral twiggy and branching (terns, of the length 
of five or fix feet or more. By means of thefe twigs 
and branches- it forms bullies, more or lefs thick. 
Thefe branches are garnilhed with alternate, nearly fef- 
file, frnooth, green, entire, oval leaves, terminating in 
a point. The flowers are produced in little clutters 
from the bofoms of the leaves. They exhale an odour 
much refembling that of the fyringa. The ovary be¬ 
comes a three-celled yellow berry, each cell containing 
a kind of almond, of an agreeable fubftance, and of a 
gelatinous nature, and which the Creoles are fond of. 
CRYSTAL. 
