LE P 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



LE P 



33 



leaves are of a gray colour, inclining towards hoariness. The 

 flowers, which are very small and white, appear in July. 

 It is biennial ; native of Spain and the Levant. 



11. Lepidium Latifolium; Broad-leaved Pepperwort, Poor 

 Man's Pepper, or Dittander. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, 

 entire, serrate. Root perennial, long, branching, spreading 

 very far ; stems erect, a yard high or more, alternately 

 branched, leafy, round, smooth, frequently flexuose, pani- 

 cled at top, with numerous branches of small white flowers, 

 in little corymbs. The young leaves are sometimes eaten in 

 salads ; they have a pungent acrid taste. This plant is one 

 of the ancient antiscorbutics, and was formerly used instead 

 of Horse-raxlish. An infusion of the whole plant vomits ; but 

 an infusion of the fresh -gathered leaves is a good diuretic, 

 and cleanses the kidneys and bladder from gravel ; it likewise 

 promotes the menses, and the necessary evacuations after 

 delivery. The leaves chewed in the mouth, excite a dis- 

 charge of watery humours from the head, and cure the tooth- 

 ache. As the leaves possess a hot biting taste like pepper, 

 instead of which they have been often used by the country 

 people, it has obtained the name of Poor Man's Pepper. It 

 is a native of several parts of Europe. In England it is found 

 at Hythe near Colchester; Haybride near Maiden; in the 

 marshes near Grays, and other parts of Essex ; below Shering- 

 hatn cliffs in Norfolk; between Beningborough and Mitton in 

 the North Riding of Yorkshire; plentifully near Seaton ; about 

 the castle of Weems : and in Fifeshire. It flowers in July. 



12. Lepidium Oleraceum; Notch-leaved Pepperwort. 

 Leaves elliptic-oblong, acute, serrate; flowers four-stamined, 

 white, two lines in diameter. Stem perennial, herbaceous, 

 round, from upright ascending, with panicled branches, 

 from a foot to a yard in height. This plant, with Apium or 

 Smallage and Tetragonia Halimifolia, was of considerable 

 service to the ships' crews of the lamented Captain Cook, 

 when they lay in Charlotte Sound ; of which place, and of 

 New Zealand, it is a native. 



13. Lepidium Subulatum; Awl-leaved Pepperwort. Leaves 

 awl-shaped, undivided, scattered ; stem suffruticose. Root 

 perennial ; petals white ; racemes terminating, simple. 

 Native of Spain. This may be increased by seeds or cuttings. 



14. Lepidium Graminifolium ; Grass-leaved Pepperwort. 

 Leaves linear, the upper ones quite entire; stem panicled, 

 wandlike; flowers six-stamined, small, white. Root perennial. 



Native of the south of Europe. 



15. Lepidium Suffruticosum; Shrubby Pepperwort. Leaves 

 lanceolate-linear, slender, quite entire; stem suffruticose, two 

 feet high; corymbs small, white. Native of Spain. 



16. Lepidium Didymum; Procumbent Pepperwort. Flow- 

 ers two-stamined ; leaves pinnatifid ; fruits twin. Root annual, 

 small, fibrous ; stems procumbent, hairy, alternately branched, 

 leafy, a foot long ; flowers very small, with two or four sta- 

 mina; silicle very distinctly two-lobed, rugged. This plant 

 escaped Ray and Dillenius. Hudson mentions it as a native 

 of Devonshire and Cornwall, among rubbish ; near Exeter, 

 Truro, and Penryn; and at Dale near the entrance of Milford 

 Haven. It flowers in July. 



17. Lepidium Rudera'le; Narrow-leaved Pepperwort. 

 Flowers two-stamined, apetalous; root-leaves tooth-pinnate; 

 branch-leaves linear, quite entire. Root annual, or biennial, 

 long, fibrous; stem a foot high, usually crooked, woody, stiff, 

 branched; leaves fleshy, smooth; peduncles slender; flowers 

 white, very small, in clustered spikes or racemes; calices pale 

 yellow; silicles numerous, small, much compressed; seed 

 one in each cell. This plan thas a pungent taste, and a fetid 

 smell like the fox. It flowers in June and July. Native of 

 most parts of Europe in waste places, especially near the sea- 



coast ; at Maldon in Essex ; Wisbeach in Cambridgeshire ; 

 near Yarmouth, Lynn, and Clay, in Norfolk ; by the Severn 

 above Worcester; near King's Weston below Bristol; near 

 Truro in Cornwall ; and upon the coast of Scotland. 



18. Lepidium Virginicum ; Virginian Pepperwort. Flow- 

 ers tetrapetalous ; stem-leaves lanceolate-linear, serrate, pin- 

 natifid ; lower ones pinnate. Root annual, single, white, an 

 inch long; stalk round, whitish, gree-n, a foot and half high; 

 flowers small, white, four-petal led. The inhabitants of the 

 West Indies eat the leaves of this species in their salads as we 

 do those of the Garden Cress. It flowers in June and July. 

 Native of all the Caribbee islands, and Virginia. 



19. Lepidium Divaricatum ; Divaricated Pepperwort. 

 Leaves pinnatifid ; stem very much branched ; silicles ovate, 

 subemarginate. Native of the Cape of Good Hope. It 

 flowers from May to August. 



20. Lepidium Iberis ; Bushy Pepperwort, or Sciatica 

 Cress. Flowers two-stamined., four-petalled ; lower leaves 

 lanceolate, serrate; upper leaves linear, quite entire. This 

 has a long fleshy root, which runs deep into the ground, and 

 sends out many oblong leaves spreading flat on the ground ; 

 stalks slender, stiff, branching out horizontally on every side, 

 about two feet high. The flowers are diandrous, and come 

 out in small close clusters at the ends of the branches ; they 

 are white, and appear in June and July. This plant, says 

 Meyrick, has been long noticed for its efficacy in the sciatica, 

 or hip gout. The method of using it is as follows : bruise a 

 good quantity of the root in a mortar, and mix it into an 

 ointment with hogs-lard. Let the hip and adjoining parts be 

 well nibbed with this ointment, and afterwards covered with 

 a thick plaster of the same, which must remain upon the part 

 till it becomes inflamed. It is then to be removed, and after 

 the parts have been anointed with a mixture of oil and wine, 

 the patient must go into a warm bath; which generally com- 

 pletes the cure. But if any of the pain remains, or the dig- 

 orders threatens a return, the whole process is to be repeated 

 in a fortnight or three weeks' time. Native of the south of 

 France, Italy, Sicily, Germany, Spain, and Siberia. The 

 roots will abide several years in a dry soil. If the seeds be 

 permitted to scatter, they will come up early in the spring 

 without care. 



21. Lepidium Bonariense. Flowers two-stamined, four- 

 petalled; petals minute; all the leaves pinnate-multifid. 

 The flowers are so small that they cannot be seen with the 

 naked eye. Native of Buenos Ayres, Brazil, and other parts 

 of South America ; it has also been found in the southern 

 extremities of Africa. Sow the seeds on a moderate hot-bed 

 in the spring, and when the plants have obtained strength, 

 transplant them on a warm border. 



22. Lepidium Chalepense. Leaves sagittate, sessile, 

 toothed. Roots creeping ; flowers in loose bunches at the 

 ends of the branches, small, and white. Native of the Levant, 

 about Aleppo. This is a perennial plant, which plentifully 

 increases by its creeping roots. 



23. Lepidium Piscidium. Leaves elliptic-oblong, acute, 

 quite entire ; flowers tetradynamous. Stem herbaceous, two 

 feet high, with the branches spreading at bottom, and thence 

 ascending, round and even ; peduncles round, even, almost 

 upright, two hands in length ; flowers small, and white. 

 Native of Botany island. Teautea, and Huaheine, in the South 

 Seas. It is used by the inhabitants for taking fish by inebriating 

 them ; and, though very acrid, was used by our navigators in 

 their salads along with the twelfth species, which it resembles, 

 though differing in essential marks. It is perennial, and will 

 increase abundantly by its creeping roots. 



Leptospermum ; (South Sea Myrtle,) a genus of the class 



