TETRADYNAMIA— SILICULOSA. Vella. 155 



ducecl. Their qualities are rather acrid, most wholesome 

 in a boiled state ; the seeds warm and pungent. 

 Prof. DeCandolle follows Mr. Brown's principles, but re- 

 fines still more in the generic distinctions, and abolishes 

 the Linnffian orders, though he acknowledges them to be 

 commodious. I retain these orders, thinking them liable 

 to as few difficulties or ambiguities as almost any syste- 

 matical contrivance whatever. They are but two. 



1. SILICULOSA. Those whose seed-vessel is a short, 

 roundish pod, denominated a pouch. In these the seeds 

 are sometimes very few, or even solitary ; the plants are 

 of more humble stature, though most inclined to be 



shrubby. 



2. SILIQUOSA. Pod much elongated, linear or cylm- 

 dricaljwith numerous s^^fZs; rarely jointed. Plants larger 

 and more upright, generally herbaceous. 



TETRADYNAMIA SILICULOSA. 

 316. VELLA. Cress-rocket. 



Xmn.GeH.331. Juss.24\. H. Br. 675. Br.inAit. H. Kew.ed.2. 

 v.4.79. DeCand.Syst. V.2. 639. Lam. t. 555. Gcsrtn.t.M]. 



Carrichtera. DeCand. Syst.v.2.64l. 



Cal. erect, equal at the base, deciduous ; leaves oblong, 

 acute. Pet. obovate, undivided ; their claws as long as 

 the calyx. Filam. awl-shaped, 4 of them longer than 

 the calyx, in one instance combined in pairs. Anth. 

 somewhat heart-shaped, bluntish. Germ, ovate. Style 

 vertical, dilated, elliptical, leafy, longer than the germen, 

 permanent. Stigma obtuse. Pouch ovate, terminated by 

 the hardened style ; valves concave ; partition membra- 

 nous, continued into the style. Seeds few in each cell, 

 globose, pendulous ; cotyledons folded together, accum- 

 bent. 

 Species few, one herbaceous, two shrubby. Leaves various. 

 Fl. yellowish, erect. 



