46 VIII. CRUCIFER^. [SUiimbrium. 



bordered, oblong, with filiform funicles. Cotyledons incumbent. — Herbs, usually 

 annual or biennial, glabrous, hirsute or tomentose. Leaves entire or pinnately 

 lobed or divided. Flowers yellow, or rarely white or pink. 



A large genus, chiefly European and Asiatic, with a few North American and a very few 

 Antarctic species. — Bentli. 



-1. S. officinale (officinal). Scop.: DC. Prod. i. 191 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. i. 71. 

 An erect annual, more or less pubescent, a foot high or rather more, with very 

 rigid spreading branches. Leaves deeply pinnatifid, with few lanceolate slightly 

 toothed lobes, the terminal one 1 to l|in. long, the others smaller, often curved 

 backwards towards the stem, the upper leaves sometimes undivided and hastate. 

 Flowers very small, yellow. Pods about Jin. long, thick at the base, tapering to 

 the point, more or less hairy, almost sessile, and closely pressed against the axis 

 in long, slender, stiff racemes. — Reichb. Ic. Fl. Germ ii, t. 72. 



Hab. : Southern parts of the colony, on roadsides and waste places about townships. 



5. BLENNODIA, R. Br. 



(Mucus emitted by seeds when soaked.) 



Sepals short, open, equal at the base or slightly saccate. Petals obovate or 

 short and narrow. Pod linear or linear-oblong (short in a variety of B. trlsecta), 

 terete or 4-angled, the valves very convex, without nerves or with a prominent 

 midrib ; septum membranous or almost spongy ; stigma capitate, sessile or on a 

 very short style. Seeds oblong or ovoid, more or less distinctly 2-rowed, not 

 bordered, when soaked usually emitting a copious fibrous mucus ; funicles free, 

 filiform. Cotyledons incumbent. — Herbs or low undershrubs, glabrous or hoary- 

 tomentose with simple or stellate hairs. Leaves entire or pinnatifid. Flowers 

 white, yellow, or pink, the racemes without bracts. 



A genus limited to extratropioal or subtropical Australia, differing from Suymbnum, to which 

 some species have been referred, in the seeds never so completely overlapping each other a-s to 

 form a single row, and generally in the copious mucus of the seeds, which is, however, not 

 constant in all the species. From Capsella it differs in the longer pod and in the dissepiment 

 broader in proportion to the transverse diameter of the pod. — Benth. 



Glabrous undershrubs. Leaves or their lobes linear-filiforin. Pods slender. 



Leaves mostly 3-cleft 1. B. trisecta. 



Ammals, glabrous or -with simple hairs. Leaf-lobes narroic. Pods slender, 

 scarcely contracted at the base. 



Glabrous . 2. JS. nasturtimdes. 



Hoary, with simple hairs 3. B. eremigera. 



A mvaals, with stellate pubescence. Leaves pinnatifid or toothed. Pods acute 

 at the top and at the base; valves very convex. 



Pod rather slender, glabrous 4. B. cardaminoides. 



Pod thicker in the middle, hirsute or stellately tomentose. Petals twice 

 as long as the calyx, white or pink. 



Calyx about 1 line long 5. B. lasiocarpa. 



Calyx 2J lines long 6. B. canescens. 



Perennials, with stellate pubescence. Leaves toothed or pinnatifid. Pods 

 acute at the top and at the base ; valves very convex. 

 Hoary. Pod at least 5 times as long as broad 7. B. Cunninghamii. 



1. B. trisecta (referring to leaves), Benth. Flora Aiistr. i. 74. A perfectly 

 glabrous often glaucous undershrub or almost a shrub, 1 to several feet high. 

 Leaves numerous, often clustered, linear-filiform, sometimes rather thick, divided 

 into 3 (rarely 2 or 5) unequal linear-filiform segments, the whole leaf seldom 

 above lin. long, except in very luxuriant specimens. Flowers white, scented. 

 Sepals 1 to IJ line long. Petals obovate, spreading. Fruiting raceme 4 to 6in. 

 long or rarely more, with slightly spreading pedicels of J to Jin. Pod sessile on 

 the pedicel, usually narrow-linear, 4 to 6 lines long, but sometimes very short. 



