118 PITTONIA. 
the whole aggregate those characters which all earlier writers 
had given to the segregate Cardamine 
Appearing twenty years subsequently to Crantz's book, 
Jussieu's Genera Plantarum retains the two genera, though 
Crantz's claim, that the mature valves in Dentaria are elas- 
tically dehiscent quite like those of true Cardamine, is freely 
conceded ; but at the same time, some new arguments are 
offered favoring the retention of Dentaria. Its calyx, ac- 
cording to Jussieu, is oblong and connivent, while that of 
Cardamine is short and open; and its silique is pointed (dis- 
sepimento valvis longiore); besides, as a truly natural sys- 
tematist, Jussieu must needs take into consideration the veg- 
etative characters, and so he makes mention of the fleshy 
and dentate rootstock of Dentaria, adding that the leaves are 
mostly simple or ternate in Cardamine, and digitate or 
pinnate in the other genus. 
ully two centuries have now passed since these two 
genera gained, I shall not say open recognition, but formal 
definition in books of systematic botany. During the first 
half of that period, the century ending with Jussieu’s great 
work, only one botanist of note felt constrained to unite 
them. And the second century since Tournefort has not, 
on the whole, altered the general consensus of opinion; for 
while it has yielded at least thrice as many efficient men in 
systematic botany, scarcely three authors of great influence 
have formally suppressed Dentaria. Robert Brown did this 
o 
to have been unknown to the authors of the Index. rel 
"The Old World genus-type, Dentaria enneaphylla, is beautifully figu je 
in Lobel, Observationes, p.391 (1570), and proposed by him as a new genus, 
under the name AramasrRITES. The very original Dentaria was S0?" — 
Orobanchaceous plant, 
