CRUCIFER^;. 25 



slight peculiarities appear to be the result of a luxuriant state 

 of the plant, favoured by climate and situation. 



The water-cress is to be found in every quarter of the globe, 

 from the Cape of Good Hope to Norway, and from Japan to 

 Madeira in the Old World, and in the Northern and Southern 

 divisions, as well as in the West India Islands of the New. It 

 delights in the shady banks of rivulets, and, unaffected by cli- 

 mate, preserves every where its characters almost unchanged. 



This is a well known, and wholesome salad. It is slightly 

 stimulant, and has the reputation of being antiscorbutic. It is 

 cultivated to supply the London market in the valley of Spring- 

 head, near Gravesend. Is is also grown in the vicinity of Eu 

 and Rouen in Normandy. In this Island it is to be found in 

 every rivulet which is not subject to be dried up during 

 drought. 



II. CARDAMINE. Ladies' Smock. 



Pod linear ; valves flat, generally separating elasti- 

 cally, nerveless. Seed-stalks slender. Cotyledons ac- 

 cumbent ( C = ). Hooker. 



Name, from xapBaftov water-cresses. 



1. Cardamine sylvatica. Wood-land Ladies' Smock. 



Leaves pinnated and without stipules, leaflets petio- 

 lated, the radical ones orbiculate and sinuato-dentate, 

 the upper ones and especially those near the base of 

 the leaf'cuneato-eijngated and toothed, petiole ciliated 

 towards the base, stamens 4 rarely 6, stigma nearly 

 sessile. 



De Cand. Syst. II. 260 __ C. impatiens, FL Dan. t. 735. 



HAB. Common in Port-Royal and St David's mountains, 

 on rocks with a northern exposure. 



FL. January March. 



Usually 8 inches in height, dividing into several branches, 

 which are simple, compressed, angulose, glabrous. Leaves 

 principally radical, pinnated: leaflets petiolated, usually 3 

 paired with an odd one ; the outermost leaflet the largest, orbi- 

 culate, slightly acute at the base, irregularly sinuato-dentate ; 

 the innermost pair at a distance from the base of the leaf, cu- 

 neato-elongated, toothletted at the apex ; all of them glabrous : 

 petiole villous and ciliated towards the base. Raceme terminal ; 

 at first, as also the pedicels, short, but afterwards elongating. 

 Flowers small, white. Sepals 4, minute, subunequal, lineari- 

 oblong, bluntish, coloured. Petals 4 ; sometimes only 2, or 





