102 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



family, the folding doors, so to say, are only half drawn or, to 

 speak accurately, the placentae fail to unite across the cell. It 

 is always delightful to discover these gradations, confirming a 

 philosophical theory worked out antecedent to their finding. 



Plants of this family, while commonly herbaceous,as is the 

 case with all eastern ones, may sometimes, as in the mustards 

 here, or Tlielypodiuni in the far West, attain a height of 12 or 

 more feet. In some parts of the world, indeed they are woody. 

 The common cabbage, in one of its forms, as cultivated in the 

 channel Islands off the coast of France, grows into a well- 

 marked little tree. So various are the habits and appearance 

 of different kinds of cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts. Kohl- 

 rabi, and cauliflower, that one viewing them without antece- 

 dent knowledge, would certainly never guess their origin. 



The curious Rose-of-Jericho, prevalent on the plains of 

 Syria, is one of this order, and is famous for its peculiar man- 

 ner of drying up into a ball, made of the incurved, fruit-bear- 

 ing branches. In this condition it is widely blown about over 

 the country, till reaching a moist and favorite spot, the 

 branches unfold and scatter the seeds. Hence its name, in 

 common with several other unrelated things, of the resurrec- 

 tion plant. A club moss of the Far U^est, for instance, is 

 sometimes sold on our streets as the true rose-of-Jericho. an 

 unpardonable misnomer for a species of Sclagiiirlla. 



A characteristic of all cresses, which indeed, endows them 

 with their name Cnicifcrac, is the cruciform corolla. This is 

 produced by the four petals, so displayed as to appear, when 

 looked down upon from above, as a well-marked cross often 

 Maltese in pattern. 



The order has an interest also from the fact that its 

 members are, without exception, harmless and, indeed, anti- 

 scorbutic, i e, preventives of scurvy. Often has their discovery 

 proved the salvation of an infected ship. They are, however. 



