56 CRUCIFER^. Cardaminb. 



5. CARDAMINE. Linn. ; Endl. gen. 4859. bitter CRESS. 



[Named from the Greek, cardia, the heart, and damao, to fortify ; in allusion to its supposed strengthening qaalities.] 



Silique linear; valves plane, nerveless, usually dehiscing elastically. Seeds ovale, rarely 

 bordered : funiculus slender. — Leaves petioled. Flowers white or pale purple. 



1. Cardamine rhomboidea, DC. Spring Cress. 



Root usually tuberiferous ; stem smooth, usually erect or assurgent, flexuous ; leaves un- 

 divided ; radical ones cordate-orbicular or broadly ovate, entire or repandly toothed, on long 

 petioles ; lower cauline ones rhomboid-ovate, sinuately toothed, on short petioles ; upper ones 

 sessile, lanceolate-oblong ; silique pointed with the subulate style ; stigma conspicuous. — DC. 

 syst. 2. p. 246; Hook. hot. misc. 3. p. 239. t. 108 ; Darlingt.fl. Cest. p. 384. C. rotundi- 

 folia, var. a. Torr. ^ Gr. fl. N. Am. 1. p. 83. Arabis rhomboidea, Pers. syn. 2. p. 204; 

 Nutt. gen. 3. p. 70 ; Ell. sk. 2. p. 149 ; Bigel. fl. Bost. p. 252. A. tuberosa, Pers. I. c. 

 A. bulbosa, Muhl. cat. p. 63. 



var. purpurea : stem erect, simple, pubescent ; leaves somewhat fleshy, the radical ones 

 roundish-cordate or reniform ; flowers deep rose-color or purple. — C. rotundifolia, var. ^. 

 Torr. ^ Gr. I. c. C. rotundifolia. Hook. fl. Bor.-Am. 1. p. 44. Arabis Douglassii, Torr. 

 in Sill. jour. 4. p. 63. 



Root usually producing small white clustered lubes ; but sometimes wholly fibrous. Stem 

 9-15 inches high, at first erect, but at length often assurgent; in cold springy situations, 

 prostrate and somewhat difi'use. Radical leaves ^ - 1 inch in diameter ; cauline ones 1-2 

 inches long, varying from entire to strongly and sharply toothed. Racemes 10 - 20-flowered ; 

 the flowers nearly half an inch in diameter, shorter than.lheir pedicels. Sepals greenish-yellow, 

 with a white margin. Petals obavate-cuneate ; white in the more common form, deep rose- 

 color or purple in the var. purpurea. Pedicels ot the fruit 1 - Ij inch long, smooth in the 

 white-flowered var. ; pubescent in the purple. Ripe silique of the former not seen ; in the 

 latter about an inch and a half in length, and nearly a line broad, with a long tapering point, 

 and lipped with the distinct capitate-bilobed stigma. Seeds few, broadly ovate, not margined. 



Wet meadows and about shady springs. The white-flowered form is common, except, in 

 the western part of the State, it is generally replaced by the purple variety, though the two 

 varieties sometimes grow in the same situation. The former begins to flower in April, but 

 the latter not till the middle of May. The true C. rotundifolia of Michaux, proves to be dis- 

 tinct from C. rhomboidea, and has been recently described by Dr. Gray in Silliman's journal, 

 vol. 42. p. 30. Numerous specimens of the former, collected last summer by Mr. Buckley 

 in the high mountains of North-Carolina (where Michaux discovered it), have all the leaves 

 petioled, and the radical or lower cauline ones trifoliolate , the terminal leaflet very large and 

 reniform-cordate , lateral ones much smaller, ovate or cordate. I am not yet convinced, how- 

 ever, that Dr. DarUngton's C. rotundifolia is the same as the North-Carolina plant. 



