134 White to Green and Brown Flowers 



PEPPER GRASS 



Lepidium apetalum. Mustard Family 



Stems: glabrous, wiry. Leaves: the basal ones pinnatifid, the upper 

 ones smaller, dentate. Flowers: in long racemes. Fruit: seeds soli- 

 tary in each cell, pendulous. 



This plant is nearly scentless, and has compound basal 

 leaves and small-toothed upper ones. The white flowers 

 grow in long-shaped clusters, and the seed-pods are circular 

 and minutely wing-margined at the top. 



SHEPHERD'S PURSE 



Capsella Bursa-pastoris. Mustard Family 



Stems: branching. Leaves: mostly runcinate-pinnatifid, cauline, lan- 

 ceolate, auricled at base. Flowers: small, white, in long loose racemes; 

 petals four; sepals four. Fruit: pods cuneate-triangular, truncate 

 above; seeds ten or twelve in each cell. Not indigenous. 



This common little white-flowered plant grows all over 

 the world in temperate zones and at various altitudes. Its 

 tiny heart-shaped seed-purses have amused the children of 

 many countries. It is closely related to Candytuft, to 

 which it bears a strong resemblance. Sir Joseph Hooker 

 once stated that in his opinion of all the weeds which cling 

 to the skirts of husbandry. Shepherd's Purse would be the 

 first to disappear if the soil were suddenly to be left untilled 

 and deserted by man and beast. The quaint name of 

 " Pickpocket " frequently applied to this plant betokens the 

 suspicion that it steals the nutriment the farmer distributes 

 to his crops. Shepherd's Purse has no scent or honey, and 

 it fertilizes itself. This is an introduced plant. 



