XIV. CRUCIFERS. 



231 



families). It also approaches Resedacea in habit, aestivation, hypopetalisni, parietal placentation, curved 

 ovule, and exalbiuninous seed. 



Cruciferce are dispersed over the world ; reaching, in the polar regions and on the highest mountains, 

 the limits of phaenogamic vegetation. Most of the genera and species inhabit the South of Europe and 

 Asia Minor ; they are rarer in the tropics, in extra-tropical and temperate North America. 



The name Antiscorbutics, given by Crantz to the plants of this family, designates their most important 

 property. They contain, besides oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, a notable quantity of sulphur and azote. 

 These elementary bodies form by their various combinations mucilage, starch, sugar, a fixed oil, albumine, 

 and especially the elements of a peculiar volatile and very acrid oil, to which Crucifers owe their stimu- 

 lating virtue. When dead, these ternary and quaternary products rapidly decompose to form binary 

 compounds, and especially hydro-sulphuric acid and ammonia, the foetid odour of which is insupportable. 



The principal edible species is the Cabbage (Srassica. oleracea), which has been cultivated from the 

 most ancient times, and which yields varieties or races known under the names of Colza, Kail, Cabbage, 

 Savoy, Cauliflower, Broccoli, &c. The Rape (B. Rapa) and the Turnip (B. Napus} have a fleshy root, rich 

 in sugar and albumine ; and their seeds con- 

 tain a fixed oil, used for burning. The Radish 

 (Raphanus*), of which two species are 

 cultivated, the one with a root black outside 

 and white within ; the other (Small Radish), 

 with a white, pink, or violet root, is used 

 as a condiment. 



At the head of the antiscorbutic 

 Crucifers must be placed the CocTilearia 

 officinalis, a biennial herb which inhabits 

 the shores of the seas and salt lakes 

 of the North of Europe ; its congeners of 

 the European Alps, the Mediterranean 

 region, Asia, and North America, possess 

 similar properties, but in a less degree. The 

 Garden Cress (Lepidiwn sativum) andWater 

 Cress (Nasturtium officinal*;) are also used 

 as condiments. Lepidiiim oleraceiim, which 

 grows on the shores of New Zealand, is 

 an excellent antiscorbutic, and also an 

 agreeable vegetable, which has proved 

 invaluable to seamen ; Cardamine hirsuta, 

 amara and pratensis, indigenous species, 

 which rival Water Cress, have an acrid and 

 slightly bitter taste ; C. asarifolia replace* 

 Cochlearia in Piedmont ; C. nasturtioides 

 is eaten in Chili as cress is in France ; 

 C. mariiima, which grows on the shores of 

 the Atlantic and Mediterranean, has fallen 

 into disuse ; but C. americana has in North 

 America and the Antilles a great reputa- 

 tion as an antiscorbutic. Barbarea mdga-* 

 ris (Winter Cress), an indigenous plant, of 

 an acrid and piquant taste, has been unjustly 

 abandoned. Sisymbrium offic'male. another Rose of Jericho 



. j. . ,, {Anastatica hierochuntieu,) 



common indigenous species, was formerly 



used as a cough medicine. S. Attiaria, whose bruised leaves exhale a strong odour of garlic, was long 



employed as a vermifuge, diuretic and depurative. 



Sea-kale (Crambe maritima), which grows on the shores of the Atlantic and British Channel, is now 



