MUSTARD FAMILY. 51 



10. CRUCIFER^I, MUSTARD FAMILY. 



Herbs, with watery juice, of a pungent taste (as exemplified in 

 Horseradish, Mustard, Water-Cress, &c.), at once distinguished by 

 the cruciferous flower (of 4 sepals, 4 petals, their upper part gen- 

 erally spreading above the calyx in the form of a cross), the tetra- 

 dynamous stamens (i. e. 6, two of them shorter than the other four) ; 

 and the single 2-celled pistil with two parietal placentae, forming the 

 kind of pod called a silique, or when short a silicic. (See Lessons, 

 p. 92, fig. 187, 188, for the flower, and p. 133, fig. 310, for the fruit.) 

 The embryo fills the whole seed, and has the radicle bent up against 

 the cotyledons. Flowers in racemes, which are at first short, like 

 simple corymbs, but lengthen in fruiting : no bracts below the pedi- 

 cels. The blossoms are all nearly alike throughout the family ; so 

 that the genera are mainly known by the fruit and seed, which are 

 usually to be had before all the flowers have passed. 



1. Fruit a true pod, opening lengthwise by two valves, which fall away and leave 



tlie tkiu persistent partition when ripe. 

 * Seeds or ovules more than two in each cell. 



*- Pod beaked or pointed beyond the summit of the valves, or the style witii a conical 

 base. Seeds spherical, Hie cotyledons wrapped around the radicle. 



1. BRASSICA, Flowers yellow. Pods oblong or linear. 



*- Pod not beaked or conspicuously pointed, 

 M- Neither flattened nor 4-sided, but the cross-section nearly circular. 



2. SISYMBRIUM. Pods in the common species shortish, lance-awl-shaped, close- 



pressed to the stem. Seeds oval, marginless. Flowers small, yellowish. 



3. NASTURTIUM. Pods shortish or short (from oblong-linear to almost spherical). 



Seeds in 2 rows in each cell, globular, marginless. Flowers yellow or white. 



4. HESPERIS. Pods long and slender, with a single row of marginless seeds in 



each cell (as broad as the partition); the radicle laid against the back of one 

 of the cotyledons. Flowers rather large, pink-purple. Stigma of 2 erect 

 blunt lobes. 



6. MALCOLMIA. Pods somewhat thickened at the base. Stigma of 2 pointed 

 lobes. Otherwise as No. 4. 



6. MATTHIOLA. Pods long and narrow : seeds one-rowed in each cell (as broad 



as the partition), flat, wing-margined; the radicle laid against one edge of the 

 broad cotyledons. Flowers pink-purple, reddish, or varying to white, large 

 and showy. 



-* -M- Pod long and slender, linear, 4-sided (the cross section square or rhombic), or 

 if flattened having a strong salient midrib to the valves. Seeds marginltss, 

 mostly single-rowed in each cell. Flowers yellow or orange, never white. 

 a. Lateral sepals sac-sliaped at the base. 



7. CHEIRANTHUS. Seeds flat; the radicle laid against the edge of the broad 



cotyledons. Flowers showy. Leaves entire. 



b. Sepnls nearly equal and alike at the base. 



8. ERYSIMUM. Seeds oblong; the radicle laid against the back of one of the 



narrow cotyledons. Leaves simple. 



9. B ABB ARE A*. Seeds oval; the radicle laid against the edge of the broad 



cotyledons. Leaves lyrate or pinnatifid. 

 2. SISYMBRIUM, Seeds oblong; the radicle laid against the back of one of the 



cotyledons. Flowers small. Leaves twice pinnatifid. 



.M. -M. m. Pod flattened parallel to the partition ; the valves flat or flatlish : so are the 

 seeds: radicle against the edge of the cotyledons. Flowers white or purple. 



10. ARABIS. Pod long and narrow-linear, not opening elastically ; the valves 



with a midrib. Seeds often winged or margined. 



11. CARDAMINE. Pods linear or lanceolate; the valves with no or hardly any 



midrib, opening elastically from the base upwards. Seeds marginless and 

 slender-stalked, one-rowed' in each cell. No scaly-toothed rootstock. 



