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THE ART ALBUM OF NEW ZEALAND FLORA. 



GENUS III. 

 SISYMBRIUM (Liim.) The Mountain Cress. 



Generic Chakectek. — Herbs, usually leafy, with slender 

 stems and small white or yellow flowers. Sepals sub-erect or 

 spreading. Petals clawed. Pods slender, terete or slightly 



compressed ; valves concave, many-seeded. Seeds in one 

 series in each cell, 'oblong. — Handbook of New Zealand Flora, 

 p. 11. 



Description, etc. — A British genus, ahundant in the North Temperate Zone; 

 rare in the South. The plants are uninteresting, and not easily to l^e distinguished from 

 several allied genera. The name, Sisymbrium, is from the Latin, and alludes to " A 

 kind of herh," perhaps, watercress. 



1. SISYMBRIUM NOViE ZELANDI^ {Hook., F.) The New Zealand Sisymlmum. 



Specific Character. — Tall, very slender, 1-2 ft. high, 

 glabrous, or covered with minute stellate pubescence. Leaves 

 chiefly radical, spreading, 1-2 in. long, few or many, and 

 crowded, narrow obovate, or linear oblong, sinuale-pinnatifid ; 

 lobes blunt. Flower stems very slender, sparingly-branched, 



with few, entire or toothed linear leaves. Flowers small, 

 white. Petals narrow. Sepals erect. Pods i-2 in. long, -Jj in. 

 broad, very narrow, linear, obtuse, glabrous, on slender pedicels ; 

 valves convex, 1-ncrved. Seeds small. Cotyledons obliquely 

 incumbent. — Handbook of New Zealand Flora, p. 11. 



Description, etc. — This herh is found in the Middle Island on the Nelson 

 mountains, and in the shingle slips of the Wairau Gorge, at an altitude of 4,500 feet. 

 There are numerous species in Britain, of which the most common are the S. alliaria, 

 or Garlic Mustard, sometimes called " Sauce alone," a tallish hedge-weed with heart- 

 shaped leaves, white flowers and erect pods. S. officinale, an erect, hranched plant, 

 with rough stems and leaves, minute pale yellow flowers, and rough pods, a common 

 hedge-weed ; and S. thalianum, a field- weed growing from three to eight inches high, with 

 ohlong toothed leaves, and slender stems, bearing a few inconspicuous white flowers. 



GENUS IV. 

 CARDAMINE {Linn.) The Bitter Cress. 



Generic Character. — Generally slender or small herbs, 

 with entire or pinnate leaves, and small white flowers. Sepals 

 erect or spreading. Petals clawed or spathidate. I'od long, 

 linear, compressed; valves flat, usually separating elaslically, 



and curving backwards. Seeds numerous, forming one series 

 in each cell, flattened. Cotyledons accumbent. — Handbook of 

 Hem Zealand Flora, p. 12. 



Description, etc. — An extensive genus common in England, and in all tem- 

 perate regions, distinguished by the nerveless valves of the flat narrow pod, which, when 

 the seeds are ripe, curl with an elastic spring from the base U2)wards, thus scattering 

 the seed. The j)rettiest of the numerous sjiecies of this genus are British plants, which 

 are rarely cultivated in gardens, from their great abundance in the open country. All 

 the Cardamines are anti-scorbutic, and they are said to be very efiicacious in diseases 



