Reseda.\ resedace^. 49 



main stem always greatly exceeding the branches in height. Leaves alternate or 

 scattered, crowded, those at the root mostly spreading and giadually attenuated 

 into petioles, soon withering in dry places to a dull orange, the rest sessile, spread- 

 ing or erect, linear-lanceolate, the inferior often 6 or 7 inches long and above 

 i an inch wide, mostly furnished with a pair of minule tooth-like or rather horn- 

 shaped shining glands at their junction with the stem (stipules ?), smooth and 

 somewhat fleshy, plane, but more or less crisped or undulate along their edges 

 which are slightly wavy or subsinuately crenate, otherwise entire, obtuse or 

 rounded at apex, or in the higher leaves somewhat pointed, traversed by a con- 

 spicuous pale midrib which is very prominent ■ underneath. Flowers small, ex- 

 tremely numerous, in slender, erect, tapering, cylindrical and spicate leafless 

 racemes which terminate the stem and branches, at first densely crowded and 

 imbricate, but at length by the gradual extension of their common stalk becom- 

 ing somewhat distant, on thick and sfresiiing pedicels, which are scarcely above 

 a line in length, dilated and cartilaginous at their base, springing from a subu- 

 late bract that is at first shorter than, but finally as long as, the flower. Calyx 

 deeply 4-cleft, segments ovate-oblong, obtuse, the 2 upper larger and more dis- 

 tant. Petals greenish or yellowish white. Stamens rather longer than the calyx ; 

 anthers pale yellow. Germens deeply 3-cleft. Capsules small, very numerous, 

 crowded into long dense spikes, 1-celled, neaily hemispherical, truncate and 

 depressed at top, tricuspidate from the acute triangular summit of its 3 thickened, 

 plicately sulcate and stroojjly wrinkled corners, between which are as many 

 inflexed valvuUr segments that are oblong-concave, smooth and shining. Seeds 

 small, dark brown or nearly black, rotundate-subreniform, highly polished and 

 glabrous. 



2. R. hbtea, L. Base Rocket. Wild Mignonette. " Leaves 

 3-cleft or pinnatifid, calyx 6 -partite, petals 6 very unequal, stigmas 

 3."— Br. Fl. p. 43. E. B. t. 321. Jac<i. Fl. Aust. iv. 28, t. 353. 



In similar situations with the last, here and there sporadically, also in corn- 

 fields, clover-lays, &c., but not commonly met with. Fl. July, August. ©., $ ., 

 or If.. 



E. Med. — Near Arreton, on St. George's Down. In the lane leading from 

 Carisbrooke to Buccorabe down, but very sparingly, O. Kirkpatrick, Esq. 



W. Med. — About Thorley in several places ; often amongst clover, but not in 

 any plenty. Field near Kingston, also in clover ; and elsewhere occasionally. 

 Plentifully in a, cultivated field near Ildecombe fann, above Bottom-ground 

 copse. 



Root long, tapering, running deep down into the ground, and dividing below 

 the surface into several branches, fleshy externally, tough and woody in the cen- 

 tre, and with the pungent taste and smell of Horse-radish in a high degree. Stems 

 numerous, ascending or decumbent below, spreading in a circular form, more or 

 less branched, very leafy, solid, sharply angular and furrowed, roughish with 

 small cartilaginous points and prominences, especially near the base and on the 

 angles, otherwise glabrous. Leaves scattered, glaucous green, fleshy and glabrous, 

 very variable in form and mode of division, the lowermost tapering into long 

 channelled petioles are either spathulate and entire or trifid, the terminal lobe 

 oblong, the 2 lateral sublinear, remote ; tipper leaves variously pinnatifid, the seg- 

 ments oblong or linear-oblong, decurrent, crisped, their margins and midrib 

 fringed with pellucid roundish glands. Flowers greenish yellow, in terminal, 

 tapering, acute spikes that are greatly elongated in seed ; much like those of the 

 common Mignonette, but without scent, on angular, spreading or patent pedicels 

 rough with glands and erect in fruit. Calyx in 6 narrow, linear, single-ribbed, 

 obtuse and slightly incurved segments, the 3 lowermost of which, and especially 

 the central one, are longer than the rest. Petals 6, very small, pale yellow, the 2 

 superior roundish, deeply cleft into two nearly semilunate segments with a buff- 

 coloured ligulate process between them, their bases expanded into a concave wing- 

 like appendage with crenulate and fimbriated edges, which is incumbent on and 



H 



