100 TBE SHEPHERD'S PURSE. 



THE FLOWER REGION. The Flowers, as a whole, (1) are 

 4-parted, regular, and unsymmetrical (for the special organs 

 are not all of this radical number 4, nor multiples of it), 

 viz., sepals 4, petals 4, stamens 6 (2), pistils 2 (3, 4), united 

 and stigma double, with a short, thick style. Observe the 

 relative length of the stamens (2) ; 2 of them are shorter 

 than the other 4 a fact denoted by the term tetradynamous. 

 Also the special form of such corollas or flowers is cruciform 

 (crux, a cross), and resembles, when the petals are spread, 

 the Maltese cross. 



The Fruit. As the raceme is the oldest at its base, 

 there we must look for the earliest fruits. Their curious 

 shape reminds one of a leathern pouch the shepherd's 

 purse, of course. Their form is obcordate. Their slender 

 pedicels are longer than when in flower. A thin narrow 

 partition within divides them crosswise into 2 cells, and at 

 length they break into as many boat-shaped or carinate 

 valves, liberating the seeds. Such a fruit, when short as in 

 this case, is called a silicle (a little pod) ; when long as in 

 Mustard, a silique. 



The Seed in its testa appears as in (7), with its embryo 

 bent double ; also in the cross-section (8), and the naked 

 embryo (9). But the radicle is so bent as to lie over on the 

 lack of one of the cotyledons, not on its edge. So this seed 

 is said to be with radicle incumbent. It has no albumen. 



The Name, Capsella (a little box or capsule), is applied 

 to the genus. The specific term, C. Bursa-pastoris, is the 

 same meaning in Latin as in English.* 



Scientific Terms. Amplexicaul. Carinate. Cruciform. Pin- 

 natifid. Radical number. Sagittate. Silicle. Silique. Tetradyna- 

 mous. Unsymmetrical. 



* Indeed the name as well as the plant seems to be truly cosmopolite. The trav- 

 eler who sees little else to remind him of his native soil, can generally find the 

 homely Shepherd's Purse growing by the wayside. It is abundant even amid the 

 classic ruins of Rome, and there too the peasant calls it "Borsa de Pastor." 



