70 



CRUCIFER^E. (MUSTARD FAMILY.) 



what toothed; pods nearly erect on very short pedicels, elongated (3' -4' long), ex- 

 actly 4-sided; stigma 2-lobed. — Ohio (on limestone cliffs) to Illinois, and 

 southwestward. June, July. — Plant stout, l°-2° high; the crowded bright 

 orange-yellow flowers as large as those of the Wall-flower. Petals orbicular, 

 on very slender clawsi. 



8. SISYMBRIUM, L. Hedge Mustard. 



Pod terete, flattish, or 4-6-sided; the valves 1-3-nerved. Seeds oblong, 

 marginless. Cotyledons incumbent. Calyx open. — Flowers small, white or 

 yellow. (An ancient Greek name for some plant of this family.) Ours are 

 annuals or biennials. 



1. S. officinale, Scop. (Hedge Mustard.) Leaves runcinate ; flowers 

 very small, pale yellow; pods awl-shaped, close pressed to the stem, scarcely 

 stalked. — Waste places. May - Sept. — An unsightly branched weed, 2° - 3° 

 high. (Nat. from Eu.) 



2. S. ThaliAna, Gaud. (Mouse-ear Cress.) Leaves obovate or oblong, entire 

 or barely toothed ; flowers white ; pods linear, somewhat 4-sided, longer than 

 the slender spreading pedicels. (Arabis Thaliana, L. ; the plant resembles A. 

 lyrata.) — Old fields and rocks, Massachusetts to Kentucky. April, May. — 

 A span high, slender, branched, hairy at the base. (Nat. from Eu.) 



3. S. eanescens, Nutt. (Tansy Mustard.) Leaves 2-pinnatifid, often 

 hoary or downy, the divisions small and toothed ; flowers yellowish, very 

 small ; pods in long racemes, oblong-club-shaped or oblong-linear, shorter than 

 their mostly horizontal pedicels ; seeds 2-ranked in each cell. — Penn. and New 

 York (Lucifer Falls, Tompkins Co., J. W. Chickering) to Lake Superior, thence 

 southward and westward. June - Aug. 



S. Sophia, L., with slender linear pods nearly erect on ascending pedicels, 

 and one-ranked seeds is nat. from Eu. in Canada East. — S. incisum, Engelm., 

 differing only in the shorter pods widely spreading on horizontal pedicels, is wild 

 beyond the Mississippi. 



9. BRASSICA (Brassica and Sinapis), Tourn. 



Pod linear or oblong, nearly terete or 4-sided, with a stout 1-seeded beak or a 

 rigid style ; valves 1 - 5-nerved. Seeds globose, one-rowed. Cotyledons incum- 

 bent, folded around the radicle. — Annuals or biennials, with yellow flowers. 

 Lower leaves mostly lyrate, incised, or pinnatifid. (The Latin name of Cab- 

 bage. Sinapis is the Greek livam, which is said to come from the Celtic nap, 

 a turnip.) 



1. B. SiNApf strum, Boissier (or Sinapis arvensis, L., the English Char- 

 lock), with knotty pods, fully one third occupied by a stout 2-edged beak 

 (which is either empty or one-seeded), the upper leaves barely toothed, is a 

 noxious weed in grain-fields, from Pennsylvania and New York westward. 

 (Adv. from Eu.) 



2. B. (or Sinapis) alba. (White Mustard.) Pods bristly, ascending on 

 spreading pedicels, more than half its length occupied by the sword-shaped one- 

 seeded beak; leaves all pinnatifid; seeds pale. (Cult, and adv. from Eu.) 



