174 TETRADYNAMIA— SILICULOSA. Cochlearia. 



In waste, as well as cultivated ground, and by way sides, every 

 where. 



Annual. March — November. 



Root tapering, whitish, with a peculiar smoke-like scent. Herb 

 very variable in luxuriance, rough with prominent hairs. Stem 

 branched, leafy, erect or spreading, from 6 to 12 inches high. 

 Radical leaves several, more or less deeply pinnatifid, toothed 

 or notched, their terminal lobe usually triangular and acute ; 

 stem-leaves oblong, acute, toothed, clasping the stem with their 

 arrow-shaped base. Fl. small, corymbose, often tinged with 

 purplish brown. Pet. entire. Pouches smooth, on long spread- 

 ing stalks, forming a long cluster, each nearly triangular, a 

 little tumid, abrupt with a broad shallow sinus at the extremity, 

 in which the very short style is situated, but the lobes are 

 scarcely, if at all, dilated or winged, though in some measure 

 compressed at the margin ; partition narrow. Seeds about 5, 

 or more, in each cell. 



Prof. DeCandolie remarks that this herb is much less acrid than 

 the rest of its order, and rather glutinous to the taste. Small 

 birds eat the seeds and flowers. The want of a dilated border 

 to the pouch has induced that eminent botanist, and a few 

 others, to separate the present species from Thlaspi. But 

 surely the difference, which 1 have long ago noted, is very slight 

 and dubious. 1 rather concur with Mr. Brown in not making it 

 of generic importance ; and at any rate the name of Thlaspi 

 belongs irrefragably to this identical plant, having been given 

 byDioscorides, Pliny, and every succeeding writer, though Caes- 

 alpinus, book 8, chapter 74 and 76, (not book 2,) mentions 

 Capsella as one of the synonyms in Dioscorides, of which I find 

 no traces. The word indeed is bad Latin, synonymous with 

 capsula. 

 The Common Shepherd's Purse occurs in almost every part of the 

 globe. To the various and distant countries mentioned by De- 

 Candolie, I can add Nepaul, from whence Dr. Wallich has sent 

 specimens. Their pouches however are much broader and shorter 

 than those from the Isle de Bourbon, but there are, in both in- 

 stances, 8 or 10 seeds in each cell. 



325. COCHLEARIA. Scurvy-grass. 



Linn. Gen. 334. Juss. 240. J^. Br. C87. DeCand. Syst. v. 2.3.58. 

 Tourn.t. 101. Lam.t. 558. 



Cal. equal at the base, with ovate, concave, spreading, de- 

 ciduous leaves. Pet, obovate, undivided, spreading, 

 twice the length of the calyx, with short claws. Filam. 

 awl-shaped, simple, incurved, the length of the calyx. 

 Anth. roundish. Germ, roundish. Style very short, per- 

 manent. Stigma obtuse. Pouch globose, ovate, or ellip- 



