SINAPIS. 



3-nerved, smooth or somewhat hispid, occasionally 1-seeded at the 

 base, ovate-oblong, knotted, hispid, 2-4-seeded on each side. Seeds 

 large, pale. — Seeds powerfully acrid and pungent; employed in the 

 state of flour in the composition of common table mustard ; used in 

 their entire state as stimulating cathartics. Ulceration of the intestines 

 has however been produced by the use of them, when they have 

 lodged in the vermiform appendix of the ccecum. 



ERUCA. 



Calyx erect. Petals obovate. Stamens distinct, not toothed. 

 Silique oval oblong, 2-celled, 2-valved ; valves concave, smooth, 

 with an ensiform seedless beak, scarcely shorter than the valves. 

 Seeds globose. (0> > ). 



195. E. sativa Linn, sp.pl. 932. Fl. grcec. t. 64<6 and 647. 

 DC. prodr. i. 223. — Eruca herba Pliny. Et^w/xov Dioscorid. 

 — Fields and waste places in the south of Europe. (Garden 

 Rocket.) 



Leaves lyrate, pinnatifid, with toothed acute lobes. Stem hirsute. 

 Pedicels shorter than the deciduous calyx. Petals white, or pale yellow, 

 with very dark veins, retuse, or somewhat emarginate. — The yellowish 

 brown seeds may be substituted for mustard, but are less pungent. 



RAPHANUS. 



Calyx erect, somewhat 2-bagged at the base. Petals ungui- 

 culate, obovate or obcordate. Stamens without teeth, distinct. 

 Silicle taper, pointed by a conical style, valveless, coriaceous, or 

 corky, 2-celled, or 1 -celled in consequence of the partition dis- 

 appearing, either continuous or strangulated. Seeds 1 -rowed, 

 globose, pendulous. (0>>) 



196. R. sativus Linn, sp.pl. 935. Lam. illustr. t. 566. DC. 

 prodr. i. 228. — Yafava; Dioscorid. Rhaphanus Pliny. — China, 

 Japan, and the west of Asia. (Radish). 



A common and very variable plant in gardens ; the roots long or 

 round, tender or hard and tough, red, purple, white or blackish gray, 

 delicate or pungent. Leaves more or less hispid, lyrate, angular, 

 rather fleshy. Flowers pale lilac. Siliques taper, torose, acuminate, 

 scarcely longer than the pedicel. — Seeds are mentioned by Von Mar- 

 tius as emetic. The roots are said to be diuretic and laxative ; the 

 expressed juice is sometimes used on the Continent. 



93 



