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sufficiently vigorous to seek their own food, 
T 
CRESS-ROCKET. 
sion, once a-week, once a-fortnight, or once a- 
month, throughout spring, summer, and autumn ; 
and may, in consequence, be had for use during 
the greater part of the year; but it speedily runs 
to seed, so that any one crop remains but a short 
time in a proper state for use. It should be sown 
very thick, either broadcast or in drills two or 
three inches asunder, and should be but lightly 
covered with soil. 
CRESS (Inpran). See Inpran Cress. 
CRESS (Watt). See Want-Crzss. 
CRESS (Water). See Warsr-Cruss. 
CRESS (Wintmr). See Winter Cress. 
CRESS- ROCKET, — botanically Vella. An 
evergreen, ornamental, undershrub, of the cru- 
ciferous order. It constitutes a genus of itself ; 
| and is specifically called pseudo-cytisws or bastard 
laburnum. Its root is small and tapering; its 
stem is erect, bushy, leafy, and about two or three 
feet high; its leaves are entire, oval, hairy, grey- 
| ish, and sessile; and its flowers have a pale yel- 
low colour, are produced in bunches at the top of 
the stem, and appear in April and May. It is 
| commonly-treated as a greenhouse plant, but is 
quite hardy enough to occupy a permanent place 
in a warm border. 
CRIB. <A mimic shed in acow-house for keep- 
ing calves; a little shed for sheep; a rack for 
holding the fodder of cattle; or a manger for 
holding the corn or cut straw of horses. 
CRIB-BITING. A vicious and diseased habit 
of dyspeptic horses. It consists in suddenly 
seizing with the teeth either the manger or any 
post or gate or similar object; and is accompa- 
nied with an eructation of gas or flatus from the 
stomach, which pcpular opinion has pronounced 
to be a process of exactly the opposite nature, 
and has designated ‘sucking-the-wind.’ Crib- 
biting seems to be indirectly occasioned by want 
of requisite exercise, by prolonged feeding on 
bad hay or musty oats, or by anything else which 
enfeebles the stomach and produces a dyspeptic 
or flatulent habit; and it is, therefore, merely 
symptomatic, and can be effectually cured only 
by curing the diseased condition of the stomach 
which occasions it. The leanness which always 
characterizes crib-biting horses, is a consequence, 
not of their crib-biting, but of their dyspepsy. 
Yet the mere crib-biting wears the teeth, and 
produces other bad consequences, and ought to 
be prevented by the fastening of a somewhat 
tight collar-strap round the throat. 
CRICKET. A genus of orthopterous or straight- 
winged insects, belonging to the Grylloid family, 
which comprises the grasshoppers, mole-crickets, 
crickets proper. This family, like all other orthop- 
tera, do not undergo a complete transformation. 
They are hatched from eggs symmetrically stuck 
together by a viscous material, either upon ve- 
getables, or placed under ground; and, from the 
moment of escaping from the egg, the young are 
which consists of organized substances. While 
CRICKET. 897 
yet very soft, they are perfectly formed, with the 
exception of the rudiments of the elytra and 
wings. These, in some species, are never devel- 
oped. As the insect grows, the skin becomes too 
small, and requires to be changed as often as 
seven or eight times, before the insect attains its 
full size. The crickets are distinguished from 
the other members of this family by their long, 
silken antennz, by having but three joints to 
their tarsi, and by the comparative smallness of 
their thighs. Their bodies are short, thick-set, 
and soft, with the head, corselet, and abdomen 
immediately applied, and of equal length and 
breadth. The head is thick, rounded above, and 
nearly vertical. Between the eyes, which are 
widely separated and reticulated on the surface, 
there are two brilliant stemmata. The corselet 
is quadrangular, somewhat larger transversely, 
and rounded at the edges. The elytra, which do 
not completely cover the belly, are curved square- 
ly, and are not roof-shaped, as in the locust and 
grasshopper. In the winged species, the wings 
exceed the elytra, and even abdomen, beyond 
which they project, in the form of a sort of bifid 
tail. In addition to the two flexible abdominal 
appendages common to both sexes, the females 
have a long borer or oviduct, which is a stiff, 
square tube, formed of two pieces, separable and 
free at the point, sometimes seeming to be split, 
and terminating by a slight enlargement. 
The noise, for which all crickets are remark- 
able, and usually called chirping, is produced by 
the friction of the bases of their elytra, or wing- 
cases, against each other, these parts being curi- 
ously adapted to produce this sound. Both sexes 
have the elytra longitudinal, divided into two 
portions, one of which is vertical or lateral, cov- 
ering the sides, and the other dorsal, covering 
the back. These portions, in the female, have 
their nervures alike, running obliquely in two 
directions, forming, by their intersection, numer- 
ous small meshes, which are of a rhomboidal or 
lozenge shape. ‘The elytra of the females have 
an elevation at the base. The vertical portion 
in the males does not materially differ from that 
of the females, but in the horizontal part, the 
base of each elytrum is so elevated as to form a 
cavity beneath. The nervures are stronger, and 
very irregular in their course, with various in- 
flexions, curved, spiral, &c., producing a variety 
of different sized and shaped meshes, generally 
larger than in the female: towards the extremity 
of the wing, particularly, there is a nearly circu- 
lar space, surrounded by one nervure, and divided 
into two meshes by another. The friction of the 
nervures of the convex surface of the base of the 
left or undermost elytrum against those of the 
concave surface of the base of the right one, 
causes vibrations of the membranous areas of an 
intensity proportioned to the rapidity of the 
friction. In fact, the insect may be regarded as 
performing on a sort of violin, the base of one 
elytrum serving for a bow, and the cords of the 
