CEUCIFEEiE. 105 



coloured veins, or pale yellow, or lilac. Pod usually 1 to 1^ inches long, 

 nearly cylindrical when fresh, and terminating in a long, pointed or conical 

 style, when dry more or less furrowed longitudinally, and often separating 

 in joints between the seeds. 



A common weed of cultivation, throughout Europe and Eussian Asia, 

 except the extreme north, and equally abundant in Britain. Fl. summer 

 and autumn. A seacoast variety, particularly abundant round the Medi- 

 terranean, but extending up the shores of western Europe to those of 

 England, Ireland, and southern Scotland, has been distinguished as a species, 

 under the name of R. inaritimus (Eng. Bot. 1. 1643). It has the leaves usu- 

 ally more divided, the pods often longer, and is more apt to last a second 

 year, but all the other characters derived from the colour of the flower, 

 the comparative length of the style and pod, the depth of the furrows, etc., 

 occur also on inland specimens, at least on the Continent. 



VII. THE MIGNIONETTE FAMILY. EESEDACE^B. 



A small family, limited in Britain to the single genus Mi- 

 gnionette. The exotic genera, of very few species each, asso- 

 ciated with it, originally formed part of it, but have been sepa- 

 rated on account chiefly of the slight differences in the struc- 

 ture of the fruit. 



I. MZGNIONETTE. EESEDA. 



Herbs, either annvial or with a short perennial stock, alternate leaves, no 

 stipvdes, and small greenish-yellow or white flowers, in long terminal ra- 

 cemes or spikes. Sepals 4 to 6. Petals as many, small, narrow, and some 

 or all of them deeply divided. Stamens indefinite, but not numerous (about 

 8 to 24), inserted under the ovary on a glandular disk. Ovaiy single, with 

 short teeth, each terminating in a very short style or sessile stigma. Cap- 

 sule green, open at the top long before maturity, containing several seeds, 

 arranged along as many parietal placentas as there were styles. Seeds with- 

 out albumen. 



The species are not numerous, and chiefly confined to Europe, northern 

 Africa, and western Asia. The narrow, insignificant, divided petals, and 

 open capsule, are sufficient to distinguish them from aU other British plants. 



teavea entire 1- Dyer's M. 



Leaves cut or divided. 

 Petals white, all divided. Leaves pinnate, with many entire seg- 

 ments 3. White M. 



Petals greenish-yellow, one or two of them undivided, leaves 



trifid or pinnate, with few segments, often again divided ... 2. Cut-leaved M. 



The szveet Mignionette of our gardens {S. odorata) is a native of Egypt, 

 nearly allied to the cut-leaved M. 



1. Dyer's Dlig^nionette. Reseda Luteola, Lmn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 320. Weld, Yellow Weed, or Dyer's Eoclcet) 

 An erect glabrous annual or biennial, with a hard, stiff, scarcely branched 

 stem, 1 to 2 feet high. Leaves linear or lanceolate, 2 to 3 inches long, en- 

 tire, but slightly waved on the edges. Flowers of a yellowish green, in 



k 



