Erassica.] 



CBUCIFEBM. 



43 



Merwara, in cultivated ground. Distrib.: Eajputana and Punjab, 

 extending through Afghanistan to Europe and the Canary Islands. 



6. BRASSICA, Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. i. 155. 



Glabrous or hispid annual biennial or perennial herbs. Itootstock 

 often woody. Lower leaves usually pinnatifid or lyrate, the upper 

 often entire. Flowers in racemes, yellow. Sepals erect or spread- 

 ing, lateral usually saccate at the base. Fod elongate, cylindric or 

 somewhat compressed, often with an indehiscent 1-seeded beak ex- 

 tending beyond the valves. Seeds globose, ovoid or flattened ; coty- 

 ledons incumbent. 



A very important genus, containing all the different varieties of cabbage 

 and cauliflower, the colzas, rapes, turnips and mustards.* 



Pods erect, nearly glabrous, appressed to the 



axis of the raceme . . . , . . 1. jB. nigra. 

 Pods more or less spreading — 



Pods hairy, shorter than the flat beak 2. jB. alba. 



Pods smooth, longer than the slender conical 

 beak— 



Stem-leaves tapering to the base, not 

 amplexicaul. 



Stems not elongating in early 

 growth ; leaves green, those at the 

 base persisting to form a loose 

 cabbage, cauline leaves not lyrate- 

 ly lobed 3. J5. rugosa. 



Stems elongating from the com- 

 mencement of growth ; basal 

 leaves quickly withering, those of 

 the stem mostly lyrately lobed . 4. B. juncea. 



Stem-leaves broad-based, the upper 

 ones amplexicaul. 



Leaves hairy when young, glaucous 

 on both surfaces ; pods usually .stout 5. B. campestris, 



var. Sarson, 



* For a clear understanding of the various cultivated forms of each of 

 the above-mentioned groups as affecting the relation to them of the differ- 

 ent kinds of mustard cultivated in Upper India, the reader is referred to 

 Dr. Prain's exhaustive report on the cultivated mustards of Bengal, 

 published in Bulletin No. 4 (1898) of the Department of Land Records 

 and Agriculture, Bengal. 



