I04 CROSSW ORT. 
same number of perennial-rooted herbaceous spe- 
cies, all hardy, and varying in height from 4 to 15 
inches, occur in British collections of hardy exo- 
tics. The narrow-leaved crosswort, Crucianella 
angustifolia, is one of the best known of the an- 
nual species, and was brought from the south of 
France about the middle of the 17th century. 
Its stems are erect, several in number from one 
root, and about a foot high; its leaves are linear 
and very narrow, and occur in a whorl of 6 or 7 
at each joint ; and its flowers grow in loose 
spikes at the top and from the sides of the 
branches, are small, whitish-yellow, and incon- 
spicuous, and appear in June and July. Two 
or three of the perennial species are well adapted 
for rockwork. 
CROSSWORT,—botanically Valantia Cruciata. 
A beautiful, indigenous, perennial, trailing, her- 
baceous plant, of the madder tribe. It is ranked 
by some botanists as a bedstraw, and called 
Galium cruciatwm. It grows wild in many moist 
and fertile soils of Britain. Its stems are pale 
green, square, hairy, and about 20 inches high ; 
its leaves are short and broad, and grow in fours 
in a ‘ crosswort’ manner at each joint of the 
stem ; and its flowers are small and yellow, grow 
in clusters or corymbs of eight in each floral 
footstalk, and appear in May, and sometimes 
bloom throughout the summer. This plant pos- 
sesses astringent properties. 
CROTALARIA. A large genus of papiliona- 
ceous plants, of the broom division of the lotus 
section of the leguminous order. About 150 spe- 
cies have been scientifically described ; and about 
90 of these occur in British collections. All the 
introduced species are more or less tender; by 
far the greater number are tropical; and about 
one-half are Indian. About thirty are evergreen 
shrubs and undershrubs; five or six are ever- 
green herbs; one is tuberous-rooted; and upwards 
of one-half are annuals. ‘T'wo or three are econo- 
mical; about one-half are more or less ornamen- 
tal; and the rest possess interest only to botan- 
ists.—The warted species, C. verucosa, called by 
Jacquin C. cerulea, is an annual of both of the 
Indies, and was introduced to Britain in the 
third decad of last century. Its stem is quad- 
rangular and about 20 inches high, and divides 
into three or four acutely quadrangular branches; 
its leaves are oval, watered, pale green, and briefly 
petiolate; its flowers are produced in spikes at 
the end of the branches, have a light blue colour, 
and appear in July and August; and its pods are 
short and turgid, and enclose each one-row of 
kidney-shaped seeds. The juice of the leaves of 
this plant is supposed, in India, to be efficacious 
in diminishing salivation—The rush-stalked spe- 
cies, C. juncea, is also an annual and a native of 
India, and was introduced to Britain at the be- 
ginning of the 18th century. It attains about 
the same height as the preceding species, but 
has a tough, stringy, fibrous stem, and car- 
ries yellow-coloured flowers. It possesses great 
ciple of the seeds and 55 of a fixed oil similar to | 
So a 
CROTON. 
economical value in the lower provinces of India; 
it is sometimes called Indian hemp; and is fur- | 
nishes, in the fibres of its stem, material for cor- 
dage, bullock saddles, grain bags, and other use- 
ful articles. — The generic name Crotalaria is 
formed from a word which signifies a rattle or 
castanet ; and it alludes to the rattling of the 
seeds in the pod. 
CROTON. A very diversified genus of plants, 
of the euphorbia order. Tiglium or the purging 
species, Croton Tiglium, is a native of most parts 
of India, and was introduced to the hothouses ot 
Britain toward the close of last century. It is 
an evergreen shrub, and usually attains a height 
of about 10 or 12 feet. Its stem is covered with | 
a soft, blackish bark; its leaves are petiolate, 
alternate, pointedly ovate, serrated, and smooth; 
its flowers have a whitish-green colour, and grow 
in erect terminal spikes or racemes, and appear 
in August and September; and its seeds grow in 
trilocular capsules, and are oblong, four-sided, 
about the size of large coffee-hbeans, and covered 
with a soft and yellowish skin. The whole ot 
this plant possesses the properties of a most 
acrid, drastic, and otherwise powerful cathartic. 
Its very wood is remarkably pungent and purga- 
tive. Its leaves are so acrid and stimulating, as, 
when chewed, to inflame the mouth and throat, 
and to produce a sensation of burning, not only 
in the stomach, but through the whole of the 
intestinal canal. Its seeds, in particular, are one 
of the most dangerously purgative medicines in 
existence; from half a score to a score of them 
have been known to purge a horse to death ; and 
on account of their dreadfully drastic power, and 
while they were known in commerce under the 
name of Molucca grains, they were discarded 
from the materia medica of Europe. <A well | 
known fixed oil, however, which is obtained | 
from the seeds by expression, and which contains | 
all their active properties, and possesses adapta- 
tion to mild and cautious methods of exhibition, 
has taken their place in medicine, and is fre- 
quently administered, in an emulsive form, to 
the human subject, in cases of apoplexy, mania, 
convulsion, excessive constipation, and other 
cases requiring rapid and hydragogic action. 
Croton oil has a pale reddish-yellow colour, and 
consists of 45 per cent. of the peculiar acrid prin- 
eee 8385 A 
the oil of olives; but, in very many instances, it 
is most shamefully adulterated. Hither the oil 
itself, or more frequently the freshly-pulverized 
mass or farina of the seeds, is sometimes given to 
horses and cattle in cases of staggers, locked- 
jaw, and dropsy. But whenever internally ad- 
ministered to horses or cattle, and above all to 
human beings, it demands such scientific caution 
as no person but an experienced practitioner can 
possibly possess. The oil, diluted with oil of | 
olives, is sometimes a good external application, 
for raising pustules and acting generally as a 
counter-irritant. 
