CRUCIFERiE. 135 



Plate 55. 

 CARDAMINE, Tourn. 



Siliqua linearis, compressa ; valvis planis enerviis (elastice 

 saepius disilientibus), placentis dorso non alato-marginatis. 

 Semina in loculis uniserialia, e funiculis filiformibus liberis 

 pendula, immarginata. Cotyledones planae accumbentes. — 

 Calyx basi aequalis. Petala alba vel purpurea. 



Cardamine, Tourn. Linn. Gen. 812. Schkuhr, Handb. t. 167. DC- 

 Syst. 2. p. 245. C. A. Meyer, in Ledeb. Fl. Alt. 3. p. 32. Endl. 

 Gen. 4859. 



Bitter Cress. 



Calyx erect or rather open ; the sepals equal at the base. 

 Petals obovate, with the lamina spreading, or sometimes 

 narrow and erect. Filaments subulate or filiform : anthers 

 cordate or sagittate at the base. Glands 4 or 6, variously 

 disposed. Ovary oblong or linear : style usually short : 

 stigma capitate or depressed, entire or two-lobed. Ovules 

 pendulous and alternately inserted, forming only one row in 

 each cell. 



Silio.ue linear or linear-lanceolate, compressed (the pla- 

 centae not bordered and projecting), two-valved, for the most 

 part elastically dehiscent from the base upwards ; the valves 

 flat, nerveless : partition with, or commonly without, a mid- 

 nerve ; the areolae short and roundish or amorphous, bound- 

 ed by even lines. Seeds several or numerous in a single 

 row in each cell, pendulous 'on filiform free funiculi, or- 

 bicular or oblong, compressed, wingless, smooth. Radicle 

 ascending, remote from the placentas : cotyledons plane, 

 parallel with the partition, accumbent. 



Herbs with fibrous or granulate roots, or rarely with tu- 

 berous rootstocks, sending up radical scapes, or more com- 

 monly simple or branching stems, bearing alternate and sim- 

 ple or pinnately divided leaves, and terminal racemes of 



