42 CRUCIFER*. [Lepidium. 



In cultivated fields, waste ground and by roadsides, but very uncommon. Fl. 

 May— July. 0. 



£. Med. — In the vicarage glebe at Newchurch, in considerable plenty. 



W.Med.— In a field amongst turnips on the summit of St. George's Down, near 

 Newport, plentiful. The plant persists in both these stations in spite of the 

 plough, but varies in quantity according as the land has beeu more or less 

 disturbed. 



Herb quite glabrous with an alliaceous odour when braised, very similar in ap- 

 pearance to Capsella in its most common form, and excepting when in seed liable 

 to be overlooked on that account. Root annual, whitish, slender and tapering, 

 more or less branched and fibrous, or nearly simple, somewhat woody. Stem 

 erect, from a few inches to a foot or more in height, rounded, with several sharp 

 angles or ridges, alternately branched, chiefly in the upper half, or uearly simple. 

 Leaves alternate, slightly glaucous, a little thick and fleshy, radical ones crowded 

 into a sort of tuft, spreading, obovate, attenuated into pretty long petioles, faintly 

 waved or sinuate, or almost wholly entire on the margin, soon withering away for 

 the most part ; cauline leaves quite sessile, more or less erect, (iblong or oblong- 

 lanceolate and obtuse, the uppermost only somewhat pointed, almost clasping the 

 stem with their short subsagittate bases, the auricles of which are obtuse or 

 pointed, the highest of all entire, their margins sinuato-dentate and waved, the 

 teeth short, acute, with pale thickened tips. Stipules none, ^/owers small, white, 

 in corymbs that are much lengthened out in seed, their pedicels slender patent or 

 spreading. Sepals nearly equal, concave, mostly a little spreading, ovate, very 

 obtuse, green with white edges, obscurely 3 — 5 ribbed. Petals about twice the 

 length of the calyx, obovate, very slightly emarginate, erecto-patent, with narrow 

 greenish claws. Stamens erect, shorter than the petals ; anthers greenish. Hi/- 

 pogynotis glands 4, one on each side of the shorter filaments which they partly sur- 

 round, small, somewhat triangular and pointed. Germen orbicular, flattened, 

 scarcely exceeded by the decurrent style ; stigma flat, glanduloso-pilose. Sia- 

 cules very large (J an inch wide) whitish brown, erect on the now much elongated 

 pedicels, nearly orbicular, with a broad reflexed waved border or wing and a deep 

 narrow notch, at the bottom of which is the very minute persistent style. Seeds 

 about 5—7 (4 — 9 Curt.) in each cell, pendulous, reddish brown, roundish ovate, 

 compressed, deeply and concentrically rugoso-sulcate, very beautiful. 



The figure of this plant in E. B. exhibits the upi)er leaves as quite acute. 



Tr. Lepidineae. Cotyledons o|| rarely (in Lepidium) o=. 



XVII. Lepidium, Linn. Pepperwort. 



" Pouch with the cells 1-seeded ; the valves keeled or winged. 

 Petals equal. Cotyledons sometimes o=." — Br. Fl. 



1. L. campostre, R. Br. Field Pepperwort. Downy or (rarely) 

 glabrous, stems erect simple or corymbosely branched above, 

 root-leaves oblong petiolate, cauline sagittate lanceolate sessile 

 clasping toothed, pouch (sUicle) broadly elliptical or suborbicular 

 squamose and vesicular scabrous at the back, style scarcely 

 longer than the emarginate summit, root annual. — Br. Fl. p. 37. 

 E. B. t. 1835. 



Var. fi. Leaves nearly glabrous, Curt. Br. Ent. xv. t. etfol. 677. 



Extremely common in cultivated fields amongst corn, clover, &c., as well as in 

 waste places, by waysides, along hedges and even in woods occasionally. Fl. 

 May — August. ©. 



B. Med. — Frequent about Kyde in various places. Fields above E. Cowes, 

 abundant. Clover-field near Apse Heath. Hedges near Hardingshoot farm. 



