200 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Lunaria biennis (Honesiy). 



biennial or perennial herbs from Europe and Western Asia. Their 

 organs are pubescent. Their leaves are alternate, entire, cordate. 



Their flowers : form axillary 

 and terminal ebracteate 

 racemes. Only two species 

 are known, 2 pretty frequently 

 cultivated in our gardens. 



Ad an son took Lunaria as 

 the type of this series, charac- 

 terized by its short siliqua, 

 or silicule, flattened parallel 

 to its septum ; so that in all 

 cases the breadth of the sep- 

 tum and of the valves are 

 about the same. Owing to 

 its breadth the seeds are often 

 biseriate ; which would seem 

 to show that this arrange- 

 ment of the seeds depends, not 

 on the fundamental organiza- 

 tion of the gvnarceum and fruit, but on the breadth of the latter, allow- 



Fig. 270. 



Fig. 271. 



Flower, perianth removed ( '-]1. Fruit, valves removed. 



Alyssum saxalile. 



Fig. 273. 

 Flower, perianth removed (^). 



Fie. 272. Fig. 274. 



Flower (J). Long. sect, of flower, perianth removed. 



iiig the seeds to retain the reciprocal arrangement that they possessed 



1 Lilac, or exceptionally whitish. & (Join:., Fl. de Fr., i. 112— Boies., Fl. Or., 



* Kii^ciiB., Ic. Fl. Germ., ii. 23. — Glen. 256. — YValp., Ann., vii. 108. 



