MUSTARD FAMILY 



Fruit. — Pod, linear, two-celled, about an inch long, 

 tipped with the slender style. 



Pollinated by bees and flies. Nectar-bearing. 



The roots tock of the Pepper-Root is just as edible 

 as that of the Crinkle-Root, but it lies deeper in the 

 ground, and as the root-leaves follow the flowering 

 stems rather than precede them, they do not appear 

 early enough to locate the plant. 



The crucifer flowers are white or pale rose-pink; 

 borne in a loose raceme at the summit of an unbranched 

 stem. The plant dwells by preference in moist open 

 places and begins its blooming season in April. It 

 bears its stem-leaves in whorls of threes, and these 

 are so cut and slashed and cut again that sometimes 

 the entire leaf is simply a matter of lines and gashes. 



The tw^o Dentarias are very much alike, have about 

 the same range, are early bloomers, forest-born, do 

 their work early in the season, either passing away or 

 overwhelmed by later growth. The rootstocks are of 

 the same general nature; the flowers are the same. 

 One species bears its stem-leaves in twos, the other in 

 threes. They are lovely and united in life, and disap- 

 pear to be welcomed again the succeeding spring. 



CRINKLE-ROOT. TWO-LEAVED DENTARIA 



Dentdria diphylla 



Name from dens, tooth, referring to the root. 



Perennial. Rich leaf-mould in open woods, sometimes 

 in thickets and meadows. Nova Scotia, Ontario, Min- 

 nesota, southward to the Carolinas and Kentucky. Fre- 

 quent in northern Ohio. April, May. 



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