72 VIII. cRUciFER^. [_Alymm, 



may possibly have been iutroduced from southern Europe, but it appears to be too abuudaut 

 in. arid desert situations to be omitted from the Flora. 



6. DRAB A, Linn, 



Sepals sliort, equal. Petals entire. Pod elliptical or oblong, rarely almost 

 linear, compressed, several-seeded: valves flat or nearly so, very rarely nerved ; 

 septum membranous ; style short or long ; stigma entire. Seeds in 2 rows, 

 not bordered, with filiform funiclcs ; cotyledons accumbent. — Herbs, usually 

 small and tufted or annual, more or less honry, with stellate tomeutum. 

 Leaves imdivided and usually entire, the radical ones rosidate. Scapes leaf- 

 less or flowering-stems witli sessile leaves. Eacemes without bracts. Flowers 

 usually small, white or yellow, i-arely pink or purple. 



A large genus, chiefly distributed over the temperate and eooler regions of the uorlneni 

 hemisphere, very abuudaut in Bigh alpine stations, and extending all along the high Andes 

 of South America, rare in Antarctic America, entirely wanting in South Africa and rsew 

 Zealand, and represented in Australia by a single species identical with a conimon northern 



one. 



muralis 



^. *-. «*«*«.«^, Linn,; DC. Prod, i. 171. A slender erect annual, 2 to 

 3 in. high and simple, or twice as high and branched, more or less pubescent 

 with stellate hairs. Leaves ovate, coarsely toothed, \ to \ in, long in Austra- 

 lian specimens, often twice that in European ones, the radical ones petiolate, 

 the others sessile. Flowers very small, white or pale yelloAv, Fruiting ra- 

 cemes loose, with slender spreading pedicels of 4 to 5 lines. Pod elliptical 

 pubescent in our specimens, about 3 lines long, containing usually above 13 

 seeds in each cell. — D, nemoralis, Ehrh. ; DC. Prod. i. 171 • Eelchb. Ic. Fl- 

 Germ. ii. t. 12 ; Hook. f. PL Tasm. i. 24. 



Tasmania, Dry places near Tlobarton, and on the Denvcnt at the Cataracts, /< -^• 

 Hooker, 



Connnon in the temperate regions of the greater part of Europe and Asia, and abo in 

 some parts of North America. The usual variety in the nortli has glabrous pods ; but tne 

 Tasmauian variety with pubescent ones, to which the name of D. 7iemoraIu has been given, i9 

 also found in Europe. 



7. SISYMBRIUM, Linn. 



Sepals equal or the lateral ones slightly saccate. Petals usually elongated, 

 with long claws. Pod hnear-elongated, cylindrical or flattened, several-seeded, 

 the valves usually convex and 3-nerved; septum membranous; style usually 

 short, with an entire or slightly 2-lobed stigma. Seeds in a single row, no^ 

 bordered, oblong, with liiiform funiclcs. Cotyledons incumbent.— H^^"^^' 

 usually annual or biennial, glabrous hirsute or tomcntose. Leaves entire or 



pinnately lobed or divided. Flowers yellow, or rarely white or pink. 



A large genu*^, chiefly European and Asiatic, with a few North American and a very f^^ 

 Antarctic species. Only one is a native of New Zealand, and none are as yet known to o^ 

 truly indigenous in Australia; but the foHowing appears now so well established as a rou - 

 side weed that it cannot be omitted from the Flora. 



w 



♦1. S. officinale. Scop.; Da Frod, L 191. An erect annual, more o"^ 

 less pul)eseent, a loot high or rather more, with very rigid spreading branches. 

 Leaves deeply pinnatifid, with few lanceolate slightly toothed lobes, the tcj- 

 minal one 1 to 1} in. long, the others smaller, often curved backwards townrus 



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