CROW BERRY. 
watched and persecuted by almost every bearer 
of a gun, who all triumph in his destruction, had 
not Heaven bestowed on him intelligence and 
sagacity far beyond common, there is reason to 
believe that the whole tribe would long ago have 
ceased to exist. It isin the month of May, and 
until the middle of June, that the crow is most 
destructive to the corn-fields, digging up the 
newly planted grains of maize, pulling up by the 
roots those that have begun to vegetate, and 
thus frequently obliging the farmer to replant, or 
lose the benefit of the soil; and this sometimes 
twice, and even three times, occasioning a consi- 
derable additional expense, and inequality of har- 
vest. No mercy is now shown him, The myri- 
ads of worms, moles, mice, caterpillars, grubs, 
and beetles, which he has destroyed, are alto- 
_ gether overlooked on these occasions. Detected 
| in robbing the hens’ nests, pulling up the corn, 
and killing the young chickens, he is considered 
_ as an outlaw, and sentenced to destruction. But 
the great difficulty is, how to put this sentence 
| in execution. In vain the gunner skulks along 
|, the hedges and fences; his faithful sentinels, 
planted on some commanding point, raise the 
alarm, and disappoint vengeance of its object. 
The coast again clear, he returns once more in 
silence to finish the repast he had begun.” 
CROW BERRY,—botanically Empetrum. A 
genus of small, dwarfish, heath-like shrubs, con- 
stituting the type of the natural order Empetrez. 
| This order consists wholly of such shrubs, and 
comprises, within Great Britain and its gardens, 
only three species, belonging to three genera, em- 
petrum, ceratiola, and corema. ‘The species be- 
longing to the empetrum genus, Z. nigrum, is a 
| dwarfish, evergreen, undershrub, and grows wild 
| upon the mountains of Staffordshire, Derbyshire, 
and Yorkshire. It loves a lofty, bleak, semi-al- 
| pine, peaty, rocky situation, and attracts and feeds 
| multitudes of heath-cocks with its berries. It 
grows about a foot high, and carries apetalous 
flowers in April and May. It can be cultivated 
in stiff soil under the shade of trees or shrubs in 
gardens. 
CROWEA. A small genus of very beautiful, 
greenhouse, Australian, evergreen shrubs, of the 
corrza division of the rue order. Two species, 
C. saligna, and C. latifolia, have been introduced 
to Britain, and both grow about 4 feet high, and 
carry a profusion of showy purple-coloured flow- 
ers in autumn; and though rather shy and fas- 
tidious, can with a little care be propagated from 
cuttings and maintained in luxuriantly blooming 
condition. In 1837, a four-year old plant of C. 
saligna was exhibited at the Egyptian Hall in 
London, nearly five feet high, and carrying not 
fewer than two hundred fully expanded flowers. 
CROWFOOT. ‘The indigenous species of the 
genus ranunculus. See the article Ranuncuuwvs. 
The bulbous-rooted crowfoot, Ranunculus bulbosus, 
is the beautiful and universally diffused butter- 
cup of British meadows and pastures. See the 
907 
CROWFOOT. 
article Buttercup. The corn crowfoot, 2. arven- 
sis, is an annual weed of our corn-fields. Its root 
is fibrous; its stem is erect, and about a foot 
high; its leaves have a pale shining green col- 
our, and are cut into long, acute, narrow seg- 
ments; its flowers are smaller and paler than 
those of the buttercup, and have a lemon colour, 
and appear from June till August; and its car- 
pels are all over rough with little prickles. It is 
readily eaten by cattle, but is very dangerous to 
them, and possesses so much acridity that three 
ounces of its juice will kill a dog in less than two 
minutes.—The small-flowered crowfoot, 2. parvi- 
florus, is also an annual weed; and is very simi- 
lar in character to the corn crowfoot, but is nei- 
ther so common nor so tall, and has a preference 
for gravelly pastures, and either occurs not at all 
or very rarely in Scotland.—The little upright 
crowfoot, C. parvulus, is also an annual, cut- 
leaved, prickly-carpelled weed like the corn crow- 
foot, but has a height of only 3 or 4 inches. 
The flame spearwort crowfoot, or lesser spear- 
wort, 2. fammula, is a perennial-rooted herb of 
moist and marshy waste places in both England 
and Scotland. Its root consists of fascicles of 
long, simple fibres; its stems are round, smooth, 
branching, leafy, about a foot high, and some- 
what decumbent; its leaves are alternate, lance- 
,olate, pointed, smooth, either entire or slightly 
serrated, and stand on long footstalks ; its flowers | 
are solitary, have a bright shining yellow colour, 
and appear from June till September ; and its 
carpels are smooth, ovate, and roundish. The 
whole plant is acrid, caustic, and poisonous; it 
loses some of its acrimony by drying, and the | 
whole of it by boiling; the distilled water is an 
emetic antidote to poison; and the fresh plant is 
used in medicine as an external application for 
irritating the skin and drawing off surrounding 
humours.—The creeping spearwort crowfoot, /. 
reptans, is a curious, evergreen, herbaceous, acrid 
creeper, of similar botanical character, and of 
similar choice of habitat to the preceding species. 
—The tongue-leaved crowfoot, R. lingua, is a 
perennial-rooted, two-feet-high, entire-leaved, 
yellow-flowered, acrid and caustic herb, of muddy 
ditches in both England and Scotland.—The al- 
pine crowfoot, 2. alpestris, is a small, handsome, 
cut-leaved, white-flowered, three-inch-high, per- 
ennial-rooted inhabitant of mountain water- 
courses in the Scottish Highlands. 
The acrid or upright meadow crowfoot, &. acris, 
is a perennial-rooted, caustic, medicinal, danger- 
ous weed, of the meadows, pastures, and waste 
places of Britain. Its root isa tuber with fibrous 
appendages; its stem is erect, somewhat villous, 
sparsely leafy, about two feet hight, and branch- 
ing at the top; its leaves are cut variously into 
three, five, or more parts; and its flowers are ter- 
minal, large, and of a brilliant yellow colour, and 
appear in June and July. This plant is usually 
rejected by even the most hungry cattle; and 
when unavoidably eaten, has a malign effect. 
