80 



THE CRUCIFER FAMILY. 



XXIII. CRESS. LEPIDIUM. 

 Annuals or perennials, glabrous or hairy, with numerous small white 

 flowers. Petals equal. Stamens without appendages. Pods ovate or 

 shortly oblong, rarely orbicular, compressed laterally (at right angles 

 to the narrow partition) ; the valves boat- shaped, either without wings 

 or the keel expanded into a narrow wing at the top. Seeds one in each 

 cell, the radicle usually incumbent on the back of the cotyledons. 



A numerous and rather natural genus, widely diffused over the whole 

 range of the Order. It is readily distinguished from Candytuft by 

 the small petals all equal, and from all other British siliculose Crucifers, 

 with laterally compressed pods, except Senebiera, by the single seeds 

 in each cell. 

 Pod winged at the top. 



Tall annual, with a single stem. Style short . . . . 1. Field C. 

 Perennial, branching at the base. Style longer than the 



notch of the pod 2. Smith 1 s C. 



Pod not winged. 



Stem stout and erect. Leaves oblong or broadly lanceolate. 

 Upper leaves auricled and clasping the stem. Pod 2 



lines broad 3. Hoary C. 



Upper leaves narrowed at the base. Pod 1 line broad 4. Broad-leaved C. 

 Stem much branched and wiry. Leaves linear or 



pinnate 5. N arrow-leaved C. 



The common Cress of our gardens is the L. sativum, a native of west 

 central Asia. 



1. 



Field Cress. Lepidium campestre, Br. (Fig. 101.) 

 {Tlilaspi, Eng. Bot. t. 1385. Mithridate Fepperwort.) 



An annual or biennial, near a foot high, 

 more or less hoary with minute scaly 

 hairs, or rarely quite glabrous ; the stem 

 solitary, erect or nearly so, usually 

 branched in the upper part. Radical 

 leaves stalked, oblong, entire or pinna- 

 tifid, with a large terminal lobe ; the 

 upper ones oblong or lanceolate, entire 

 or slightly toothed, clasping the stem 

 with short, pointed auricles. Flowers 

 very small. Pods numerous, on spread- 

 ing pedicels, broadly ovate, thick when 

 ripe, nearly surrounded by the wing, 

 which is narrow at the base, but broad 

 and slightly notched at the top, with a 

 Fig. 101. short, often very minute style. 



