898 
CRINUM. 
other as the strings of the instrument. The 
reader, who may wish to enter upon a very mi- 
nute study of this and similar insects’ contrivan- 
ces for producing sounds, may advantageously 
consult De Geer (vol. iii. p. 512), and Kirby and 
Spence (24th letter, vol. 2, p. 375 et seq.) The 
chirping of the domestic cricket, Acheta domesti- 
ca, is by many regarded as pleasant or musical, 
and their presence in holes is regarded as a good 
omen by some people. Where they are numerous, 
certainly, to our ears, their noise is anything but 
agreeable; and it requires considerable habitua- 
tion to it to be able to sleep undisturbed by it. 
They are very harmless, taking up their abode 
near chimneys, fire-places, and other warm situa- 
tions, whence they come out, when the inmates 
of the house have retired to rest, and commence 
their monotonous song. If a light be brought, 
they speedily retreat, leaping lightly to their 
holes, the length and peculiar structure of their 
long thighs especially fitting them for this mode 
of progression. One action which we have ob- 
served them perform with the antenne shows 
the delicacy and perfection of the muscles. They 
move the long silken appendages, as if cleaning 
or polishing them, somewhat as we see birds do 
with their feathers., The field crickets, A. cam- 
pestris, are as loud and noisy in the day as those 
above-mentioned are at night, and largely con- 
tribute to the music of the fields, so delightful to 
the ear of the student of nature. Both species 
have attracted the attention of poets, who have 
celebrated their simple but lively notes in verse 
of various degrees of excellence. Both species are 
equally innoxious, subsisting on small particles 
of organized matter, which might otherwise be- 
come troublesome from accumulation ; while, 
from their numbers, birds and other animals of 
higher rank in the scale of being obtain a part of 
their supply of food. 
CRINUM. A genus of magnificently-flower- 
ing bulbous rooted plants, of the amaryllis tribe. 
The common Cape species, C. capense, formerly 
called Amaryllis longifolia, was introduced from 
the Cape of Good Hope, about the middle of last 
century. Its external leaves are scarious; its in- 
ternal leaves are long, broad, convolute at the 
base, thong-like, lanceolate, rough at the margin, 
and glaucous on both surfaces ; its superior leaves 
are upright, very narrow, and channelled over 
their whole length; its scape is about two feet 
long, straight, and roundish or slightly com- 
pressed; its umbel has either few flowers or 
many ; its floral footstalks are short ; its perianth 
is white, but has the outside of the segments 
tinged with red; the tube is roundish furrowed, 
twice as short as the limb, and recurvedly funnel- 
shaped ; the segments are elliptico-lanceolate, and 
have a short claw; and the filaments of the sta- 
men are of different lengths, and are at first de- 
pendent and afterwards reflexed and ascending. 
This plant, besides being highly ornamental, has 
| the recommendations of being very hardy, of pro- 
CRIOCERIS. 
fusely flowering during nearly one-half of the 
year, and of requiring exceedingly little care or 
culture. It delights in wet, and will flower in a 
pond ; but when exposed to the rigours of winter, 
requires to be in a leaf-covered bed. Herbert’s 
species, C. Herberti, closely resembles the Cape 
species in both appearance and hardiness; and 
four other species have the semi-tender habits of 
ordinary greenhouse plants; but all the remain- 
ing species which have been introduced to Bri- 
tain, are either literally from the tropics or have 
a strictly tropical character. But very numer- 
ous hybrids have been raised between C. capense 
and some one or other of the tropical species ; 
and all these hybrids are hardy enough to stand 
out of doors against the front-wall of a stove ; 
while many are much more brilliant than even 
the showy and superb natural species. One of the 
most beautiful of the hybrids is Crinwm-scabro- 
Capense; and one of the tallest is Crinum-pedun- 
culato- Capense. 
CRIOCERIS. A genus of coleopterous insects, 
constituting the type of the family Crioceridee. 
The name is formed from two Greek words which 
signify ‘ram’s horns,’ and alludes to the cylindri- 
cal and globularly-jointed structure of the an- 
tennee. The species popularly called the aspara- 
gus beetle, Crioceris asparagi, is the only one of 
much interest to cultivators of the soil. Its form 
is oblong ; its length is about a quarter of an inch ; 
its head is rather broader than the thorax; and 
its thorax is cylindrical, and not so broad as the 
elytra. The head and legs, as well as portions of 
other members, are a fine blue black; the an- 
tenne are black; the upper surface of the pro- 
thorax is a fine red, with two small dorsal black | 
spots; and the elytra are long, and have several | 
rows of impressed spots, very diversified in colour 
in each individual, and differently diversified in 
different individuals. The eggs of the insect are 
of a dirty slate colour, of a long oval form, and of 
comparatively great size; not more than about 
eight or ten seem to be deposited by one female ; 
they are affixed, by means of a black viscid se- 
cretion, to the tender stems of young asparagus 
plants, or to the smallest shoots of older aspara- 
gus plants; and they sometimes occur in such 
vast numbers as to render the plants unfit for 
the table. The larve are soon produced; but, 
instead of possessing any similar beauty to that 
of the perfect insects, they have a disgusting 
form, and a dirty slaty green colour, almost 
black; and, when disturbed, they emit a consid- 
erable quantity of thick black fluid. They ap- 
pear from the end of June till September; they 
feed upon twig after twig of the asparagus stems ; 
and, after having several times cast their skins, 
they descend to the ground, construct for them- 
selves thick cocoons, and pass into the condition 
of ordinarily formed white pupe. 
Each asparagus beetle, on the average, passes 
about a fortnight in the condition of an egg, 
about a fortnight in the condition of a larva, 
