COMMON SCURVY GRASS 169 



A yellow juice is afforded by the plant, which is poisonous and 

 disagreeable, and has been said to cause madness. It is grown in 

 gardens, and is a showy annual. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



19. Glaucium flavum> Crantz. Stem branched, smooth, with yellow 

 juice, leaves glaucous, sinuate, rough, amplexicaul, radical leaves lyrate, 

 flower yellow, large, capsule tuberculate, linear, 2-valved, stigma 

 sessile. 



Common Scurvy Grass (Cochlearia officinalis, L.) 



The seeds of Common Scurvy Grass have never been discovered 

 in Glacial beds up to the present. It is confined to the Arctic and 

 sub-Arctic shores of Europe, N. Asia, and N. America, and the Alps 

 of W. Europe. In the Peninsular province it is absent from S. 

 Somerset, in the Channel provinces from Sussex, in N. Wales it does 

 not occur in Merioneth, in the Mersey province not in Mid Lanes, and 

 it is absent from Westmorland in the Lakes province. It is absent 

 from Wigtown, Main Argyll, and Mid Ebudes; and in the N. High- 

 lands occurs only along the coasts of Caithness, and amongst the 

 Northern Isles it is absent from the Hebrides. But it is generally 

 distributed around the other maritime coasts, as well as on some high 

 mountains inland. It is found in Ireland and the Channel Islands. 



The Scurvy Grass occurs around the coast on muddy seashores. 

 It is a common associate of Sea Rocket, Sea Kale, Sea Bindweed, Sea 

 Plantain, and many other strand plants. The form which occurs 

 inland on alpine mountains is now separated as a distinct species 

 (C. groeniandica). This plant is perhaps more common on the west 

 coast than the east, though where tidal rivers bring down mud and the 

 coast is not so sandy it grows in every part of the country. 



The plant is provided with many stems, usually ascending, and 

 the radical leaves are kidney-shaped and stalked, those on the stem 

 stalkless, clasping the stem, wavy, and angular. The whole plant is 

 fleshy, and the first Latin name is given in allusion to the hollow, con- 

 cave leaves, which are thus spoonlike. The stem is often stoloniferous, 

 with trailing stems. 



The silicules or pods are nearly round, half as long as the flower- 

 stalks. The flowers are white, and in loose corymbs. The style is 

 very short. The seeds are large, the valves of the pod netted. The 

 pods are 2-cellecl, with 4-6 seeds in each cell. 



The height varies from 4-10 in. The plant is in flower from May 

 to June or August, and is biennial. 



