Violariee.| FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. 15 
B. precoz is presumed to be a native of the Northern hemisphere alone, I should have felt inclined to unite this 
with it: as it is, the locality of this, together with its characters of large flower, broad pod, and comparatively 
slender pedicels, may serve to distinguish it. 
Gen. IV. LEPIDIUM, Br. 
Silicula ovata v. subcordata, lateraliter compressa, apice integerrima v. emarginata, valvis carinatis, 
loculis 1-spermis; cotyledonibus incumbentibus. 
Erect or prostrate branching herbs, sometimes with woody stems, and often acrid or pungent leaves (as i the 
garden-cress, Z. sativum), which are toothed or pinnatifid. Flowers white. Stamens four to six. Pods broad, 
much flattened laterally, winged or keeled at the back. The species are chiefly natives of the North and South 
temperate zones. (Name from Aerus, a scale, which the flat pods resemble.) 
1. Lepidium oleraceum, Forst.; caule crasso suffruticoso ramoso, foliis elliptico- v. lineari-oblongis 
integerrimis apice serratis v. per totam longitudinem argute serratis, racemis brevibus, floribus albis, stami- 
nibus 4, siliquis ovatis subacutis. Forst. Prodr. DC. Prodr. v. 1. f. 207. A. Rich. Flora. A. Cunn. Prodr. 
L. frondosum, Banks et Sol. MSS. et Ic. : 
Has. Northern and Middle Islands; abundant on the shores. Nat. name, “ Eketera," 2” Urville. 
A sub-erect smooth plant, ten to eighteen inches high, with a short, stout, woody, scarred stem, much branched 
above. Leaves narrow-oblong or obovate or cuneate, two to three inches long, the lower sharply serrate, the upper 
entire or toothed towards the tip. Flowers very numerous, small, white, with four stamens. Pods on slender 
spreading pedicels, much compressed, ovate, rather sharp, with a short style. The whole plant, when bruised, has 
a disagreeable smell: it is found nowhere but in New Zealand. 
2. Lepidium ¿ncisum, Banks et Sol.; glaberrimum, radice lignoso multicipite, ramis prostratis laxe 
foliosis apicibus ascendentibus, foliis inferioribus longe petiolatis pinnatifidis laciniis 4-6-jugis patenti- 
recurvis crenato-dentatis, superioribus lineari-cuneatis apice dentatis, floribus parvis albidis, siliquis ovato- 
cordatis pedicellis 4 brevioribus. Banks et Sol. MSS. et Ic. 
Has. Northern Island. Opuraga, on the beach; rare. Banks and Solander. 
This plant has not been collected since 1769, when Banks and Solander gathered it during Cook’s first voyage. 
Root perennial. Stems many, prostrate, smooth, weak, a span or so long, sparingly leafy. Lower leaves two to 
three inches long, pinnatifid, on long petioles; pinnules four to six pair, spreading and recurved, bluntly toothed ; 
upper leaves entire, narrow, cuneate, toothed at the upper broad end. Flowers small, in few-flowered terminal 
racemes at the ascending ends of the branches. Pods ovate, cordate, notched at the end, 13 line long. Pediceds 
twice as long as the pods, slender. 
Nar. Orb. IV. VIOLARIEJE, DC. 
Gen. I. VIOLA, Tourn. 
Sepala 5, inæqualia, basi producta. Petala insequalia; inferius deorsum gibbosum v. in calcar ob- 
fusum productum. Stamina 5, antheris coarctatis, lobis basi divergentibus, 2 anterieribus dorso calcaratis. 
Capsula trigona; valvæ 8, elastice contractæ, semina ejicientes. 
The Violets of New Zealand sufficiently closely resemble their European congeners to be readily recognized by 
those who are familiar with English wild plants. They may be known by their irregular flowers; by the five 
Sepals being produced into flat expansions below their point of insertion; by one of the five petals being spurred 
behind ; by the anthers being almost united into a tube, two of them being spurred; and by the three-valved 
