74 CAKILE. L CLASS xv - ORDER I. 



generally as it now is, not more perhaps than twenty years ; it is hardy, 

 and easy of cultivation, is earlier than asparagus, and by many 

 persons considered equally as good. It is forced by planting the roots 

 in a hot-bed, or a warm shaded border, and surrounded by an earthen 

 pot perforated with holes, or a wicker basket, and then covered over 

 with warm litter for protection from the cold, and to ensure its being 

 blanched by exclusion from the light. The flowers of the full grown 

 plant are a favourite resort of bees. 



GENUS II. CAKI'LE GJSRT. Sea-Jlocket. 

 Nat. Ord. CRCCIF'ER.E. Jess. 



GEN. CHAR. Silicula two jointed, angular, indehiscent, one celled, 

 one seeded, the lower joint obovate, the upper compressed, 

 crowned by the sessile stigma. Seed solitary in each cell, the 

 lower one pendulous, the upper erect. Cotyledons linear, accum- 

 bent. (c Fig. 1, page 871). Name an old Arabic word. 

 1. C. mariti'ma, Willd. (Fig. 1006.) Purple Sea-Rocket. Silicula 

 with the joints two edged, the upper two toothed at the base; leaves 

 fleshy, pinnatitid. 



English Botany, t. 231. English Flora, vol. iii. p. 183. Hooker, 

 British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 245. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 28. 

 ft. integrifolia. Leaves oblong, ovate, obtusely toothed. 

 C. eegyptiaca, Willd. 



Hoot small, fibrous. Stems numerous, much branched, spreading, 

 zigzag, bushy, fleshy, from one to nearly two feet high. Leaves 

 numerous, alternate, thick, fleshy, succulent, of a pale glaucous green, 

 having a slight bitter saltish taste, oblong, pinnatih'd, with obtuse seg- 

 ments ; in /3. they are entire, ovate, or oblong, petiolated, obtusely and 

 irregularly toothed. Inflorescence an elongated spike. Flowers rather 

 large, of a bright lilac colour, crowded at the end of the flowering 

 branches. Calyx oblong, ovate, of narrow segments, the two outer 

 ones somewhat swollen at the base. Corolla of four petals, the claw 

 narrow, as long as the calyx, the limb obovate, obtuse, spreading. 

 Stamens with simple awl-shaped filaments and yellow oblong anthers. 

 Stigma sessile, obtuse. Fruit an angular two jointed silicula, the 

 upper compressed into an angular sword-shape, with a tooth on each 

 side at the base, one celled, tingle seeded, the lower joint smaller, 

 nearly cylindrical, and mostly abortive, the whole pod is at first fleshy, 

 becoming hard and woody, the joints separating, but the cells remain 

 closed. 



Habitat. Waste sandy places on the sea coast ; frequent. 

 Perennial ; flowering in June and July. 



This plant, as well as others of the same genus, have been recom- 

 mended as a diuretic and antiscorbutic, and the C. marilima is said to 



