CRINOLINE (Fr., from Lat. crinis, hair) was the name originally given by the French modistes to a fabric made of horse hair, capable of great stiffness, and employed to dis tend women's attire; it is now applied in a general way to those structures of steel wire or hoops, by means of which women some years ago attained such overwhelming:dimen sions. This fashion of expansion is not new. The first name we find given to it is the fardingale, introducad by queen Elizabeth. Walpole, in his fancy description of her, speaks of her "enormous ruff and vaster fardingale." The upper part of the body was incased in a cuirass of whalebone, which was united at the waist with the equally stiff fardingale of the same material, descending to the feet, without a single fold, in the form of a great bell. Gosson mentions the fardingale in 1596, in his Pleasant Quippes for Up start Newfangled Gentlewomen. In the end of the reign of James I., this fashion gradu ally declined, and was further tamed down by Puritan feeling in the time of Charles I. and Cromwell, till it quite disappeared. We next hear of it in 1711 as " that startling novelty the hoop petticoat," which differed from the fardingale in being gathered at the waist. Sir Roger de Coverley is made to say of his family pictures: " You see, sir, my great-great-grandmother has on the new-fashioned petticoat, except that the modern is gathered at the waist; my grandmother appears as if she stood in a large drum, whereas the ladies now walk as if they were in a go-cart." Hogarth, in his night-scene in " Mar riage a-la-Mode," introduces on the floor a poop of the time of George II.; and about 1744, hoops are mentioned as so extravagant, that a woman occupied the space of six men. An elongated oval form also came into fashion, raised at each side to show the high-heeled shoes, causing caricaturists to say that a lady looked like a donkey carrying its panniers. These hoops were of whalebone, with canvas over them, having capacious receptacles on each side for articles of convenience. In 1780, we find hoops of cane used, being advertised to " outwear the best sort of whalebone." About the year 1796, hoops had been discarded in private life, but were still the mode at court, and never had been seen in more full-blown enormity, continuing so to the time of George IV., when they were abolished by royal command.
We now come to the development of this fashion about the middle of the present century; which began with C. in its original and proper sense, first in the form of the inelegant " bustle" in the upper part of skirt, then the whole petticoat. Instead of the hair fabric, some used, for economy, cotton, thickly corded and starched. At length, about 1856, people were startled by the question: "Have you heard that Miss So-and-so actually wears a hoop?" and it became apparent that the fashion of queen Anne's time had returned upon us, only that the structure was somewhat lighter and more pliant; being usually composed of a series of horizontal small steel hoops, held together either by vertical bands, or by being sewed into a kind of petticoat. Unlike former times of
hoops and fardingales, the fashion descended even to maid-servants, so that where the dining-room was small, table-maids have been known to give warning, because they could not clear the space between the table and the fire; and the newspapers were con tinually announcing "Accident from Crinoline," or "Lady burned to Death from Crino line." The Spectator dealt out much cutting though playful raillery on the hoops of his day, but apparently with little effect; and equally unavailing were the satires of Punch and other caricaturists of the 19th century against the hideous fashion of crino line. The hoops were sometimes made with a circumference of four and even five yards. At last, after indignation and ridicule had for years assailed the monstrosity in vain, and when people bad given over speaking about it, the inflation began about 1866, without any apparent cause, to collapse; and rushing to the opposite extreme, ladies might be seen walking about as slim as if merely wrapt in a morning-gown or bathing dress. The sole relic of this kind of expansion now to be seen is a structure of lappets, called a pannier, projecting behind, immediately below the waist.
But women, it would seem, can never rest contented without adding, in one direc tion or another, to their proper dimensions; for the former C. was soon supplanted by great cushions or pads of frizzled hair, applied chiefly to the back of the head, and covered over by the natural hair or by artificial tresses. Such a cushion was known as a chignon (Fr., the neck or neck-hair). The side tresses were swelled out by smaller rolls, called, we believe, rats and mice. This fashion was not new, but was now carried to greater extravagance than ever before, the head being sometimes rendered three times its natural size.
Citnittlti, a genus of bulbous-rooted plants of the natural order amaryllidece, having long tubular flowers, the segments of the perianth hooked at the apex, the stamens straight and inserted into the tube, and a three-celled capsule. It contains a consider able number of species, natives of different tropical and subtropical countries, generally with umbels of large and beautiful flowers, some of them amongst the most admired ornaments of our hot-houses. C. amabile, an Indian species, is much esteemed for its fragrance as well as its beauty, and flowers about four times a year. All the species require a rich open soil, plenty of room for their roots, and the frequent removal of suckers.—The bulbs of C. Asiaticum are powerfully emetic, and are used in some parts of the east in cases of poisoning.
ROW. See CrmmusT-cnoss Row.