28 CROCiFEEJ!. [Matthiola- 



Order VI. CEUCIFEEiE, Juss. 



" Calyx of 4 sepals. Petals 4. Stamens usually 6 and tetra- 

 dynamous ; 2 solitary, alternate with the petals ; 4 opposite to 

 them in 2 pairs ; rarely only 4 and equal. Ovary and style 1 ; 

 hypogynous glands at the base of the solitary stamens. Pericarp 

 usually a pouch or pod, 2- rarely 1-celled, 2-valved, the valves 

 opposite the shorter stamens ; sometimes valveless. Seeds on 

 marginal placentas (between the longer stamens) without albu- 

 men. Radicle curved. Cotyledons plane, parallel to the dissepi- 

 ment and with their edges applied to the radicle {accumbent o=) ; 

 or plane, with their back turned to the radicle {incumbent o||) ; or 

 folded and embracing the radicle {conduplicate o>>). — Herbs. 

 Leaves alternate. Flotvers generally in corymbs which at length 

 become racemes." — Br. Ft. 



Suborder I. SILIQUOS^. 

 Fruit an elongated narrow pod 2-valued and dehiscent. 



I. Matthiola, B. Br. Stock. 



" Pod (rounded or compressed) crowned with the connivent 2- 

 lobed stigma, the lobes either thickened at the back or with a horn 

 at the base. Calyx erect, 2 opposite sepals saccate at the base. 

 Jjonger Jilameiits dilated." — Br. Fl. 



1. M. incana, E. Br. Hoary Shrubby Stock. Stock Gilly-jioicer. 

 " Stem shrubby upright branched, leaves lanceolate entire hoary, 

 pods cylindrical without glands." — Br. Fl. p. 23. Cheiranthus, 

 i. : E. B. t. 1935. 



On sea-cliffs, rare. Fl. April — October. Tj . 



E. Med.— Y entxio^ Cove. Plentiful in almost inaccessible parts of the cliff at 

 Steephill, particularly a little E. of the flagstaff. A single specimen observed on 

 the cliff nearly opposite the house at Old Park, 1841. 



W. Tl/etJ.— Ledges of the cHif under Afton down, for which additional station 

 for this very rare plant I am indebted to my friend the Rev. James Penfold of 

 Thorley, who sent me superb specimens from thence in 1839. 



Probably naturalized in the above stations from gardens, of which it has been 

 a denizen for centuries past. Be that as it may, the species is now found grow- 

 ing abundantly in situations the least accessible and most remote from cultivatiou. 

 Truly native of the shores of the Mediterranean, but as a stranger elsewhere in 

 latitudes as high as our own, its indigenous origin may be fairly questioned. 

 Said to grow also at Hastings, but I never saw it during some years' residence 

 there. 



Root perennial, at least in the wild plant, long, stout, flexuose and branching, 

 white and fleshy externally, hard and woody within. Stem erect or nearly so, 

 rounded, in the older plants often an inch or an inch and a half in diameter, with 

 a grayish white wrinkled bark, very woody and lasting, mostly dividing at a few 

 inches above ground into numerous, irregular, crowded, almost whorled ascending 

 brandies, tlie erect extremities of which are again proliferously ramified, forming 

 a bushy head a foot or two in height, the branches naked, scarred or leafless, 



