TETRADYNAMIA— SILICULOSA. Vella. 155 



duced. Their qualities are rather acrid, most wholesome 

 in a boiled state ; the seeds warm and pungent. 

 Prof. DeCandoUe follows Mr. Brown's principles, but re- 

 fines still more in the generic distinctions, and abolishes 

 the Linnaean orders, though he acknowledges them to be 

 commodious. I retain these orders, thinking them liable 

 to as few difficulties or ambiguities as almost any syste- 

 matical contrivance whatevei*. They are but two. 



1. SILICULOSA. Those whose seed-vessel is a short, 

 roundish pod, denominated a pouch. In these the seeds 

 are sometimes very few,. or even solitary; the plants are 

 of more humble stature, though most inclined to be 

 shrubby. 



2. SILIQUOSA. Pod much elongated, linear or cylin- 

 drical, with numerous seeds; rarely jointed. Plants larger 

 and more upright, generally herbaceous. 



TETRADYNAMIA SILICULOSA. 

 316. VELLA. Cress-rocket. 



Linn. Gen. 33 1 . Juss. 24 1 . Fl. Br. 675. Br. in Ait. H. Kew. ed. 2. 

 V. 4. 79. DeCand. Syst. v. 2. 639. Lam. t. 555. Gcertn. t.\4,\. 

 Carrichtera. DeCand. Syst. v. 2. &A\. 



Cal. erect, equal at the base, deciduous; leaves oblong, 

 acute. Pet. obovate, undivided ; their claws as long as 

 the calyx. Filam. awl-shaped, 4< of them longer than 

 the calyx, in one instance combined in pairs. Anth. 

 somewhat heart-shaped, bluntish. Germ, ovate. Style 

 vertical, dilated, elliptical, leafy, longer than the germen, 

 permanent. Stigma obtuse. Pouch ovate, terminated by 

 the hardened style ; valves concave ; partition membra- 

 nous, continued into the style. Seeds few in each cell, 

 globose, pendulous ; cotyledons folded together, accum- 

 bent. 



Species few, one herbaceous, two shrubby. Leaves various. 

 Fl. yellowish, erect. 



