CRUCIFEM. 



85 



rous. Pod flat, pendulous, obovate or oblong, with a strong rib on each 

 side, indehiscent, and containing a single seed. Radicle incumbent on 

 the back of the cotyledons. 



A small genus, spread oyer southern Europe and western Asia. 



1. Dyer's Woad, Isatis tinctoria, Linn. (Fig. 108.) 

 (Eng. Rot. t. 97.) 



Stems 18 inches to 2 or 3 feet high, 

 branched in the upper part, glabrous and 

 glaucous, or with a few hairs in the lower 

 part. Radical leaves obovate or oblong, 

 coarsely toothed and stalked, 2 to 4 

 inches long ; the upper ones narrow and 

 lanceolate, with prominent auricles. Pods 

 hanging from slender pedicels, generally 

 about 7 or 8 lines long and 2 to 2| broad, 

 and tapering to the base, but somewhat 

 differing in size and shape according to 

 the variety. 



Of south-eastern origin, formerly much 

 cultivated in many parts of Europe and 

 Asia, and has thence become established 

 in stony or waste places-, as far north as 

 Sweden. Repeatedly found in several 

 localities in Britain, but scarcely fully 

 naturalized. Fl. summer. 



Fig. 108. 



XXYI. CAKILE. CAKILE. 



Maritime branching annuals, with fleshy leaves and purplish or white 

 flowers. Pod oblong-linear, somewhat compressed, without any longi- 

 tudinal partition or valves, but when ripe, separating transversely into 

 2 articles, the upper one mitre- shaped, deciduous, containing one 

 erect seed ; the lower one persistent, not unlike the head of a pike, di- 

 vided into two points, and containing a pendulous ovule, which seldom 

 enlarges into a seed. Radicle obliquely incumbent on the back or 

 towards the edge of the cotyledons. 



A genus consisting of very few species, spread over the seacoasts of 

 the northern hemisphere, both in the new and old world. 



