CAPPARIDACEiE. 



135 



Fig. 74. 



Fig. 75. 



they have caused great irritation of the stomach and bowels, and in some 

 cases fatal results have ensued. 



The analysis of the white mustard seed would seem to prove that it differed 

 much in composition from the black, 

 as besides the common constituents 

 of oily seeds, it is said to contain 

 two peculiar principles, sulphosina- 

 pisin and erucin, and a non-vola- 

 tile acrid principle is developed by ^$5S1^ "^^33(6^6^2- 

 the action of water on the farina, 

 precisely as the acrid volatile oil is 

 developed in the black mustard. (See 

 Pereira, Elem. Mat. Med. ii.686.) It 

 is extraordinary that two seeds so 

 analogous in their physical proper- 

 ties and derived from closely allied 

 plants, should present such different 

 constituents on analysis. 



Fig. 73. S. alba. Fig. 74. S. nigra. 



Many other plants of this order 

 have been and are still used as re- 

 medial agents, though their efficacy 

 is extremely problematical. Thus 

 the Cardamine pratensis, is said 

 to be diuretic, sudorific and anti- 

 spasmodic, and the flowers were 

 once employed in epilepsy in chil- 

 dren, and were recommended by Sir George Baker in cholera and spas- 

 modic asthma. (Med. Trans, i. 442.) Several species of Sisymbrium, 

 Erysimum and Nasturtium have likewise been celebrated as anti-scorbutics, 

 and as remedies against hoarseness. The seeds of several of them, espe- 

 cially of the genus Brassica, furnish large quantities of oil, much used in the 

 arts, under the name of rapeseed oil. Those of Arabis chinensis are pre- 

 scribed by Hindoo practitioners as stomachic and gently stimulant, but are 

 said to produce abortion in pregnant females, if imprudently given. The root 

 of one species, Isatis tinctoria, yields a blue colouring matter, called woad, 

 formerly a favourite dye, until superseded by Indigo. Numerous species are 

 cultivated as ornamental plants, as the wall flower, stock, rocket, <$sc. 



Order 11.— CAPPARIDACE^.— Lindley. 



Sepals 4, either distinct, imbricated or valvate, equal or unequal, or cohering in a tube, 

 the limb of which is variable in form. Petals 4, hypogynous, cruciate or irregular, 

 usually unguiculate and more or less unequal, sometimes wanting. Stamens seldom 

 tetradynamous, usually 6-12 or a high multiple of 4, definite or indefinite, inserted on a 

 short or sometimes elongated torus ; anthers innate or introrse, with a longitudinal de- 

 hiscence. Ovary stipitate or sessile, 1-celled, with two or more parietal placentae ; style 

 none or filiform ; stigma generally roundish. Fruit either pod-shaped and dehiscent, or 

 baccate, rarely 1-2, mostly many-seeded. Seeds generally uniform, exalbuminous, but 

 with the lining of the testa tumid. Embryo curved ; cotyledons flattish, foliaceous : 

 radicle taper, turned to the hilum. 



A somewhat extensive order of herbs, shrubs, or rarely small trees, with 

 alternate, petiolated, undivided or palmate leaves, without true stipules, but 

 sometimes with spines in their places. The species are chiefly natives of the 



