42 



WEEDS AXD USEFUL PLAXTS. 



4. SAXGUIXA'RIA, L. Bloodeoot. 



[Latin, Sanguis, blood ; in reference to the red color of its juice.] 



Sepah 2. Petals 8 - 12, spatulate oblong, the inner narrower. Stigmas 

 2-grooved, subsessile. Capsule oblong, ventricose, tapering at each^nd, 

 2-valved. Seeds strongly crested. Perennial herbs with thick rooistocks 

 containing an orange-red acrid juice ; flowers on scapes. 



1. S. Caiiaden'sis, L. Leaf mostly solitary, cordate reniform, long 

 petioled ; flowers white, solitary on naked scapes. 



Caxadiax Saxguixaria. Bloodroot. Puccoon. 



Rootstock thickish, fleshy, reddish-brown, about 2 inches long. Leaf about three 

 inches long and wider than long ; petioU erect, finallv 6-10 inches'in length. Scape 4-8 

 inches high. 



Rich woods ; common. April -May. 



Obs. This is one of our earliest and most beautiful spring flowers. 

 The flower, which is large for the size of the plant, is carefully protected 

 by the leaf which envelopes it before expansion. Late in the season 

 the leaves increase so much in size, and are so altered in appearance, 

 that they but little resemble their early state. The plant does well in 

 cultivation. An orange-colored juice is found in all parts of the plant, 

 but is most abundant in the rootstock, which, under the name of Blood- 

 root, is used in medicine ; it is an emetic, and is also used for coughs, 

 &c. ; in large doses it is poisonous. In some parts of the country "the 

 leaves are given to horses to promote the shedding of their hair^ and 

 the roots are given to destroy bots. 



Oeder YL CRUOIF'ERAE. (^Iustard Family.) 



Herbs with a pungent, watery juice, leaves alternate without stipules, and flowers in ra- 

 cemes or corymbs ; the pedicels without bracts. Calyx of 4 sepals, deciduous. Corolla of 

 4 regular unguiculate petals, their spreading limbs forming a cross. Stamens 6. 2 of them 

 shorter (tetradynamous) . J'z-wit a pod (called a Silique when much longer than broad, 

 and a Silicle when short) , which is 2-celled by a membranaceous partition that connects the 

 two marginal placentae, from which the two valves usually fall away. Seeds without 

 albumen. Embryo curved ; cotyledons flat or phcate, either with their edges to the radicle 

 or with the back of one of them to the radicle. 



This order is a remarkably natural or homogeneous one, as well in the sensible proper- 

 ties as in the botanical characters of the plants belonging to it. The flowers so nearly 

 resemble one another throughout the family, that the characters for genera are taken 

 from the pods and seeds. There are but few important ones, however, besides those 

 here noticed. The Woad, or Dyer's weed (Isatis tinctoria, L.) is cultivated in Europe for 

 its blue coloring matter,' but I believe it is little known or attended to in the United 

 States. 



^ 1. Pod separating into two valves when ripe. 



Pod usually many times longer than wide (silique.) 

 Pod not beaked. Seeds flat or oblong. 



Pod varying from oblong-linear to ovoid, nearly terete ; valves 



nerveless. Flowers white or yellow. . 1. XAsrrRnra. 



Pod obtusely 4-angled ; valves 1-nerved. Flower yellow. 2. Barbarea. 

 Pod awl-shaped, pressed close to the stem. Flowers small, 



pale yellow. 3. SiSTiEBRirir. 



