SHEPHERD'S PURSE 173 



deeply divided nearly to the base, or they may be undivided, lance- 

 shaped. The terminal lobe is often triangular. The upper leaves are 

 clasping, auricled. 



The flowers are white, or reddish-tinged in winter, like many other 

 plants, e.g. White Deadnettle. The flower-stalks are slender. The 

 sepals are spreading and equal. The pods are triangular, inversely 

 heart-shaped, wedge-shaped, or rounded. The stigma is not stalked. 

 The style is short. The valves are smooth. The seeds are numerous, 

 oblong, clotted, very small. The pod has no wings, as in Thlaspi, in 

 which the plant was once placed. The radical leaves as well as the 

 pods are extremely variable. 



This plant is often 2 ft. high, usually i ft. It is in flower all the 

 year, and is a herbaceous annual, propagated by seeds. 



The anthers and stigma are mature at the same time. The flowers 

 are small and inconspicuous. Honey is secreted in 4 nectaries at the 

 side of the short stamens. The longer stamens are of the same length 

 as the style. Hence, as would be expected, the plant is usually self- 

 pollinated. Female flowers have been found as well as complete 

 flowers, both on the same and on different plants. In the earlier 

 flowers the stamens have been found to be incomplete, so that the 

 above unusual conditions may be due to the variation in the thermal 

 constant. 



The visitors are Diptera, Syrphidae, Eristalis nemorum, Syrplins 

 balteatiis, Syritta pipiens, Ascia podagrica, Melitkreptus scriptus, 

 M. t<zniat?is, M. pictus, Muscidse, Anthomyia. 



The plant is dispersed by its own agency. The pods are not 

 winged and contain many seeds, and open and allow them to fall out 

 around the parent plant. 



Shepherd's Purse requires a sand soil, and is a sand-loving plant. 



The fungus, Cystopus candidus, distorts the branches, and covers 

 them with a white crust, and Peronospora parasitica also infests it. 

 The Bath White Butterfly (Pieris daplidice), Arctia caja (Tiger Moth), 

 Lepidoptera, and the Hemiptera Aphis brassicce, A. papaveris, Siphono- 

 phora pisi are amongst those that feed on it. 



Capsella is Latin fora little box or capsule, referring to the pods. 

 Bursa-pastoris is Latin for Shepherd's Purse, also in allusion to the 

 pods. 



This ubiquitous plant is called Bad Man's Oatmeal, Blind-weed, 

 Case -weed, Clappede Pouch, Cocowort, Fat Hen, Lady's Purse, 

 Mother's Heart, Naughty Man's Plaything, Pepper-and-Salt, Pick 

 Pocket, Pick Purse, Pick-your-Mother's-heart-out, Poor Man's Parma- 



