Ord. CRUCIFERJ1. 



Herbas exstipulatas, alternifoliae (succo aqueo pungente) : 

 dicotyledoneae, hypogynae, hermaphroditae, tetramerae ; sepa- 

 lis et fetalis 4 cruciformibus ; staminibus tetradynamis ; 

 siliqua septo membranaceo inter placentas 2 parietales saspis- 

 sime biloculari ; ovulis campylotropis vel amphitropis ; semi- 

 nibus exalbuminosis, cotyledonibus radicular accumbentibus 

 vel incumbentibus. 



Cruciformes, Tourn. Inst. p. 210. 



Tetradynam*:, Linn. Gen. p. 329. 



Sii.i9.uosa:, Linn. Prelect, ed. Giesek. p. 481. , 



Cruciferx, Adans. Fani. 2. p. 409. Juss. Gen. p. 237. DC. Syst. 2. p. 



139, & Prodr. 1. p. 131. Endl. Gen. p. 861. 

 Brassic ace*, Lindl. Introd. Nat. Syst. ed. 2. p. 58, & Veg. Kingd. p. 351 . 



The Mustard or Cress Family, one of the most strictly natural and 

 homogeneous which the vegetable kingdom affords, is at once distinguished 

 by its regular cruciform flower, tetradynamous stamens, and by that sort of 

 pod termed a siHque, or, when very short, a silicle. 



The flowers are formed on the quaternary plan. There are always four 

 sepals, of which the two exterior in the bud are situated one anterior and 

 the other posterior, while the two interior, which are often the larger, are 

 lateral, or right and left, as respects the axis of inflorescence. Although the 

 edges of the outer pair cover those of the inner in the bud (except in the 

 few instances where the aestivation is valvate), yet the plan of the flower is 

 not binary, like that of Fumariaceae (p. 117), but the four sepals constitute 

 a single verticel ; for the four petals are alternate with them, instead of being 

 opposed to them, as would necessarily be the case on the former supposi- 

 tion. The laminae of the four petals, spreading opposite each other in pairs, 

 produce the cruciform shape which gives the name to the order. In aestiva- 

 tion, the petals are imbricated with usually one exterior, two half exterior 

 and half interior, and the fourth wholly interior, or else they are regularly 

 convolute ; the latter mode being only a slight deviation from the former. 

 Both the calyx and the corolla are deciduous in all the family, or at least in 

 all ordinary cases. 



