BRASSICACEAE. 



147 



Lepidium ruderale L., European, with apetalous flowers and wingless pods, 

 recorded by Hemsley as found on roadsides in Bermuda by Lane, has not been 

 seen here by subsequent collectors. Hemsley further cites Eeade as reporting 

 the plant as common, but in Eeade 's book of 1883, only L. virginicum appears. 



Lepidium sativum L., GARDEN PEPPER-GRASS, European, w r ith large oblong 

 pods winged all around, is grown in gardens for its pungent foliage, used as a 

 crudiment. 



2. CAKARA Medic. 



Annual or biennial, diffuse herbs, with mostly pinnatifid leaves, and small 

 whitish flowers. Silicles small, didymous, laterally compressed, sessile. Stamens 

 often only 2 or 4. Valves of the capsule oblong or subglobose, obtuse at each 

 end, indehiscent, falling away from the septum at maturity. Seeds 1 in each 

 cell; cotyledons narrow, incumbent or conduplicate. [Ancient Italian name.] 

 About 6 species, of wide distribution. Type species: Carara Coronopus (L.) 

 Medic. 



1. Carara didyma (L.) Brit- 

 ton. LESSER WART-CRESS. STAR- 

 OF-THE-EARTH. (Fig. 169.) Tufted, 

 spreading on the ground, sparingly 

 pubescent. Stems 2'-16' long; 

 leaves deeply 1-2-pinnatifid ; flow- 

 ers white, racemose; pedicels slen- 

 der, 1"-1" long in fruit; pod 

 about 1" broad and slightly more 

 than \" high; valves obtuse at each 

 end and readily separating into 2 

 ovoid nutlets. [Lepidium didymum 

 L.; Senebiera didyma Pers.] 



Common in waste and cultivated 

 grounds. Naturalized from Europe. 

 Widely naturalized in North America 

 and the West Indies. Flowers 

 throughout the year. Often an abun- 

 dant weed, growing closely appressed 

 to the ground. 



3, THLASPI L. 



Erect glabrous herbs, with entire or dentate leaves, those of the stem, or 

 at least the upper ones, auriculate and clasping. Flowers white or purplish. 

 Siliques obcuneate, obcordate, or oblong-orbicular, mostly emarginate, flattened 

 at right angles to the narrow septum, crested or winged. Valves dehiscent. 

 Seeds 2 or several in each cell, wingless. Cotyledons accumbent. [Greek, to 

 flatten, from the flat pod.] A genus of about 25 species, natives of temperate, 

 arctic and alpine regions, the following typical. 



