274 



MANUAL OF BOTANY 



Properties and Uses. — These plants possess slightly bitter, 

 acrid, astringent, diaphoretic, emnienagogue, and aperient pro- 

 perties. The rhizomes or tubers of Dicentra (Corydalis) for- 

 viosa are the source of corydalin, which is nsed hy the eclectic 

 practitioners in the United States of America in syphilis, 

 scrofula, &c. ; but the properties of this and other plants of the 

 order appear to be unimportant. Some species are cultivated 

 in our gardens and greenhouses. The most important of these 

 is Dicentra (Dielytra) spectabilis, which has very showy flowers, 

 but, like all other plants of the order, it is scentless. 



Order 57. Crucifer.e, the Cruciferous Order. — Character. 

 — Herbs, or very rarely shrubby plants. Leaves alternate, 

 exstipulate. Flowers usually yellow or white, rarely purple, or 



Fig. 1039. 



Fig. 1040. 



Fig. 1039. Diagram of a Cruciferous flower. Fig. 1040. Portion of the 



floweriug branch of the Wallflower. 



some mixture of these colours; inflorescence racemose or 

 corymbose; usually ebracteate. Sepals 4, deciduous; cestiva- 

 tion imbricate or rarely valvate. Petals 4, hypogynous, 

 arranged in the form of a Maltese cross, alternate with the 

 sepals, deciduous. Stamens 0, tetradynamous, h^'pogynous. 

 Thalamus furnished with small green glands placed between 

 the stamens. Ovary superior, with two parietal placentas, 

 1 -celled, or more usually 2-celled from the formation of a 

 spurious dissepiment called the repliim. ; ovules generally 

 numerous, arranged alternately on two parietal placentas so as 

 to form a single row, amphitropous or campylotropous ; style 

 none, or very short ; stigmas 2, opposite the placentas. Fruit a 

 siliqua or silicula, 1- or 2-celled, 1- or manj^-seeded. Seeds 



