•THE MIGNONETTE FAMILY. 121 



the earliest and shewiest blossoms of spring, its hoary herbage forming dense 

 round cushions, almost hidden by the flowers ; — the fragrant wall-flower, "stained 

 with u'on-brown," botli single and double, old-fashioned but never antiquated ; — 

 the purple Hesperis, and the sweet Alysson, again with hoary foliage, and crowds 

 of small golden-yellow blossoms ; — the Virginian stock, so pretty for edgings to 

 borders ; — the fragrant and weak-petal ed Brompton stocks or " gilhflowers," white, 

 purple, or crimson, the latter, when double, more like carnations than Cruciferse ; 

 — the candy-tufts, distinguished by the iuequality of their flowers ; — the Schizo- 

 petalon, a deliciously fragrant little plant, with pinnatifid petals ; and lastly, the 

 "honesty" or Lundria, the beauty of which lies in its great oval silvery shields, 

 as large as a florin, and enduring through the winter. 



Cauliflowers and broccoli, it may be well to add, are peculiar varieties of the 

 common cabbage, in which there is a tendency to produce an enormous quantity 

 of flower-buds. It is these, along with their incipient stalks and peduncles, 

 which constitute the large frothy heads so deservedly esteemed for the dinner- 

 table. Savoys, red-cabbage, and all other vegetables of the kind, are derived from 

 the same invaluable plant, the Brassica olerdcea, which is a weed at the same 

 moment on the sea-coast. 



XVI.— MIGNONETTE FAMILY. Reseddcew. 



Herbaceous plants, with slender stems, sometimes half-procumbent ; 

 alternate, narrow-lanceolate, or pinnatifid leaves ; and terminal racemes 

 or spikes of small but very numerous yellowish flowers, exceedingly 

 irregular in their form. Calyx of several narrow sepals ; petals unequal 

 and five to six-cleft ; stamens about twelve, standing along with the 

 petals on a large, glandular, and lateral plate ; ovary solitary, three- 

 lobed, with three sessile stigmas, and opening at the top before ripe, — 

 a striking characteristic. Seeds numerous and kidney-shaped. 



A little family confined to Europe and the borders of the Mediter- 

 ranean, and made interesting by the fragrant species which gives 

 name to it, botanically the Reseda odordta, indigenous to the northern 

 edge of Africa. 



Three species grow wild in our island, and two of them, sparingly 

 near Manchester. The flowers in both are yellowish-green. 



1. Leaves narrow-lanceolate, three or four inches long ; spike long » Common 



and slender j Weld-wort. 



2. Leaves three-cleft ; lower ones pinnatifid ; spike short and pyra- ) Yellow 



midal J Weld-wort. 



