Wallflower and Cabbage 93 
observed to be a mere hanger-on of industry, and it 
has earned the alternative title of Pickpocket, from a 
well-grounded suspicion that it robs the farmer of 
much of the plant-food he has distributed over his 
fields for his crops. The Shepherd’s Purse owes this 
name to a striking departure in the form of its 
seed-vessels from those of the Wallflower and many 
other Crossworts; it is somewhat heart-shaped, and 
resembles an old-fashioned form of purse—the two 
valves, which open from the top, being somewhat 
boat-shaped. The plant may be only a few inches 
high, or it may grow to a couple of feet. The flower 
is only about one-tenth of an inch across, having no 
honey, no scent, and being capable of fertilising itself 
without insect aid, though flies visit it for the sake 
of its pollen. 
The Annual Candytuft (Lberis amara), which is 
one of several species cultivated in flower-gardens, 
occurs wild in central and eastern England, but with 
much smaller flowers. Its white or lilac flowers grow 
at first in flat heads (coryimbs), but ultimately, by the 
continued lengthening of the growing point, these 
become racemes; they are noteworthy, however, for 
the fact that the two petals on that side of the flower 
that is turned towards the centre of the corymb are 
smaller than the two that are turned towards the 
circumference. This is more striking in the outer 
row of flowers, and we shall find other instances of 
plants in widely separate families adopting a similar 
method of making their flower-clusters more attractive 
to insects. The class of insects that frequent Wild 
Candytuft has not been recorded, but the notched 
‘stigma and these enlarged petals are presumptive 
