894 CAMELINA. LCLASS XV. ORDKR i. 



on tlit margin, a bright green, paler beneath. Inflorescence terminal 

 sub-corymbose clusters of yellow flowers, becoming when in fruit 

 elongated racemes, the pedicles long, slender, spreading. Calyx of 

 four equal elliptic ovate pale green pieces. Corolla of four ovate 

 yellow petals, with a slender claw. Stamens with slender filaments 

 and oblong yellow anthers, of two cells. Fruit an obovale smooth 

 silicula, with a prominent margin, the point tapering into a short style. 

 Stigma obtuse. Seeds from six to eight in each cell, ovate, com- 

 pressed. 



Habitat. Cultivated fields, mostly amongst flax, with which it has 

 been imported from the Continent. 9 



Annual ; flowering in June and July. 



This species is grown in some parts of the Continent for the purpose 

 of extracting from the seeds the fixed oil with which they abound, 

 which somewhat resembles olive oil, and with which it is often mixed 

 when there is a scarcity of that more valuable article. The name of 

 Gold of Pleasure, given to the Camelina, appears an absurdity ; but 

 it seems probable that to so humble and mean a flowering plant, 

 it has been given satirically, implying that as the pompous name of this 

 plant leads us to expect, in the appearance of it, much more pleasure than 

 it gives, so gold sought after for the pleasures which it is supposed to 

 purchase, brings with it disappointments and regret. The provincial 

 names of plants are mostly very characteristic, either of their supposed 

 or real virtues, or of something remarkable in the history of the plant; thus 

 the Anastatica Hierochuntica, Linn., the Rose of Jericho, or Holy-rose, 

 is so called, not that it belongs to the tribe of Roses at all, but is a 

 Cruciferous plant, growing common on the deserts and sandy wastes 

 of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria ; it is frequent in Barbary, and abounds 

 on the desert of Sin. After the flowers have performed their func- 

 tions, and the leaves have fallen away, the .branches in drying all curl 

 inwards, and closely enfold the fruit, thus forming a compact globular 

 mass, having some resemblance to the form of a Rose, hence it has 

 received the name of the Rose of Jericho. When thus curled up, and 

 the roots having lost their vitality, the plant is readily torn up by the 

 wind, and blown about the desert sands, until it meets with a watery 

 spot, or is moistened by rain, when the branches expand, and the 

 seeds escape from their enclosure at the only time when they could 

 be embedded in the loose flowing sands, there to germinate and 

 propagate the species to adorn the burning deserts. This hygroraetric 

 power of the plant has given rise to a belief amongst the common 

 people of Palestine, that it blossomed at the instant our Saviour was 

 born; and, therefore, they believe, that if when the pains of childbirth 

 first come on, the woman takes one of these plants in her hand, and 

 holds it in warm water, that its expansion is an index of the progress 

 of the labour, and that the child will be born as soon as it is fully 

 expanded ; to do this it takes several hours, and it is probable that in 



