A GUIDE TO THE WILD FLOWERS 131 



381. Flowers white (rarely greenish or purplish-white). 



Petals 3 False Mermaid no. 382 



Petals 4 Mustard Family no. 383 



382. False Mermaid. Floerkca proserpinacoidcs. (Limnan- 

 tliaccac.) A slender weak annual herb, not over 12 in. long 

 growing in marshes and along streams. Leaves thin and 

 weak, deeply divided into 3 or 5 narrow toothless segments. 

 Flowers white, about % in. broad, solitary at the end of long 

 stalks from each of the upper leaf -joints. Petals and sepals 

 3. Quebec and Ontario to Delaware, Tennessee, and west- 

 ward. May. Fig. 382. 



383. MUSTARD FAMILY. CRUCIFERAE. 



A huge family of plants, practically all herbs with a bitter 

 but never poisonous juice. Leaves always alternate, simple or 

 much divided, or even compound, the stem leaves often dif- 

 ferent from the basal ones. Flowers practically always in 

 clusters, often in racemes, of various colors ; but only the 

 white-flowered species are treated here. Petals 4, in the form 

 of a cross, — hence the Latin family name. Fruit always a 

 dry pod, sometimes long and thin, or short and stout. The 

 species are difficult to tell apart from flowers only, but as 

 they are usually found with both flowers and fruits the latter 

 can be relied upon to help in their identification. For other 

 species of this family see Nos. 378, 397-403, 406. The white- 

 flowered sorts may be distingushed thus : 

 Pods round or oval, three times longer than broad, or less 

 Plant 2-3 ft. tall ; flowers about i in. wide . . Horseradish no. 384 

 Plants less than 18 in. tall ; flowers about % in. wide or less 

 Pods about ]4 in. wide or less 



Upper leaves stem-clasping Field Cress no. 385 



Upper leaves not stem-clasping, merely stalked 



Wild Pepper-grass no. 386 



Pods about ^ in. wide, almost round 



Field Penny-cress no. 387 



Pods long and narrow, many times longer than thick 

 All the leaves broad, oval or triangular, not divided or cu ; 



plant 1-3 ft. high Hedge Garhc no. 388 



Leaves, or some of them, narrow, not triangular, or oval, often 

 cut or divided 



