CLASS XV. ORDER li.J SISYMBRIUM. 907 



much elongated racemes. Calyx downy, of four small erect pieces. 

 Corolla of four linear oblong petals, spreading. Stamens with awl- 

 shaped filaments and yellow oblong anthers. Stigma sessile, obtuse. 

 Fruit linear, tapering, downy, siliquas on short pedicles, close pressed 

 to the stem. Seeds small, about six in each cell. 



Habitat. — Road sides and waste places; common. 



Annual ; flowering in June and July. 



Formerly this plant enjoyed a great reputation for its medicinal 

 properties, and was esteemed as an expectorant and diuretic, and said 

 to have been found useful in chronic pectoral complaints. Its pro- 

 perties are warm and stimulating, and its juice mixed with honey or 

 sugar vvas used with advantage in relaxed throats, when stimulating 

 applications were indicated. it is now almost forgotten, except 

 amongst the rural herbalists. 



2 S. Frio, Linn. (Fig. 1048.) Broad Hedge Mustard, London 

 Rocket. Leaves runcinate, the lobes oblong, toothed, the terminal 

 ones lanceolate, smooth, as well as the rounded stem ; siliquas linear, 

 narrow, spreading, on slender pedicles. 



English Botany, t. 1631.— English Flora, vol. iii. p. 197.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 2o4. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 29. 



Root tapering and branched. Stem erect, about two feet high, 

 round, smooth, or somewhat hairy above, branched and leafy. Leaves 

 smooth, pale green, runcinate, the lower ones with the terminal lobe 

 broad, ovate, acute, the lateral ones oblong, or linear acute, all more 

 or less unequally toothed, the upper leaves often linear, arrow-shaped 

 at the base. Inflorescence terminal clusters of yellow sub-corymbose 

 flowers, becoming much elongated racemes. Pedicles slender, often 

 downy. Calyx of four oblong pale mostly downy pieces. Corolla of 

 four ovate spreading petals, with a slender linear claw. Stamens with 

 awl-shaped filaments and yellow oblong anthers. Stigma sessile, 

 obtuse, notched. Fruit narrow, linear, smooth, siliqua spreading, or 

 nearly erect, the valves distinctly marked with three longitudinal 

 veins. Seeds numerous, ovate oblong, pale brown. 



Habitat. — Waste places about London, common ; Faulburn, Essex ; 

 Berwick-upon-Tweed; about Dublin, common. 



Annual; flowering in July and August. 



This species, readily distinguished from all our others, is said io 

 have grown in such abundance in the spring after the great fire of 

 London, as to cover the ground. 



3. S. Sophi'a, Linn. (Fig. 1049.) Fine-leaved Hedge Mustard, or 

 Flax-weed. Leaves doubly pinnatifid, the lobes of the lower ones 

 lanceolate, of the upper linear, downy ; calyx erect, as long or longer 

 than the petals. 



English Botany, t. 963 —English Flora, vol. iii. p. 197.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 254.— Lindley, Synopsis, p. 29. 



