SYSTEMATIC BOTANY. 



These characters lead you in the key to the order Cruciferae, but it is not easy to decide 

 farther, because you have not the fruit. Look for the pods a few weeks later, and you 



will find them long and flat, as represented in the 

 figure at e on the left. You can then determine 

 the name of the plant. The seed pods here 

 figured will help you in determining some of the 

 plants in this order. 



The curious flower depicted below is another 

 early bloomer.' You must cut the flower open 

 and study it carefully. The four sometimes 

 five petals are joined together, and bear upon 

 the short tube the four stamens which hug the 

 pistil tightly and form a beak like that of a bird. 

 The ovary does not adhere to the calyx, and if a 

 seed pod is partly grown, it will be easy to see 

 that the seeds grow upon a central placenta. 

 Turning to the key you are called upon to de- 

 cide whether the stamens are opposite the lobes 

 of the corolla or not. They certainly are op- 

 posite, so the order Primulaceae is evidently 

 where our plant belongs. The pretty little for- 

 eigner Anagallis is here figured, and it will be 



UPPER FIG. o, indehiscent 

 pod of Kaphanus Kaphanis- 

 trum; 6, pod (silicle) of Cap- 

 sella Bursa-pastoris ; c, pod of 

 Capsella divaricata; d, pod 

 (silique) of Tropidocarpum, 

 flattened contrary to the parti- 

 tion; e, pod of Cardamine pau- 



cisecta, flattened parallel with the partition (septum);/, two pods (silicle) 

 of Lepidium nitidum, and two partitions from which the valves have fallen, 

 showing that there was one seed in each cell ; g, pod of Lepidium latipes, 

 showing the broad pedicel which suggested the specific name; h, a branch 

 of Thysanocarpus pusillus, with four of its 1-seeded pods; t, one of 

 the pods magnified to show the hooked hairs; j, pod of Thysanocarpus 

 curvipes. 



1.0WEK FIG. c, reflexed petals of Dodecatheon Meadia; /, filaments; a, 

 anthers; *, stigma (not always protruding); t, involucre; p, scape (radical a 

 peduncle). The horizontal figure represents a rather small branch of Ana- 8 

 gall is arvensls. 



