OF ORNAMENTAL ANNUAI^. 65 
GENUS lY. 
SCYPHANTHUS, Swt. SCYPHANTHUS. 
Lin. Syst. POLYADELPHIA POLYANDRIA. 
Geneiuc CiLUucTEii. — Calyx deeply five-parted. Petals five, on ebort claws. Appendages peltate at the apex, lobed, and three-homed. Stamens 
numerous, the ten outer ones sterile. Capsule prismatic, silique-formed, crowned by the tube of the calyx, three-valved at the apex. — (G. Don.) 
1.— SCYPHANTHUS ELEGANS, Swt. THE ELEGANT SCYPHANTHUS. 
Esoiuvrao.— Brit. Flow. Gard. t. 238. 
Specific CauucTER. — Stem dichotomous. Segments of leaves obtuse, ciliated. — (G. Don.) 
Description, &c. — A climbing, or rather twining plant, with long slender stems, forked at every joint, and 
twisting round each other, or round anything within their reach. The flowers are yellow, and curiously formed, 
but not very beautiful. It is a native of Chili, and would require to be raised on a hotbed ; but it was lost soon 
after its introduction in 1827, and we have not heard of its having been re-introduced. 
CHAPTER VIII. 
CRUCIFER^. 
EsaENTui Character. — Sepals four. Petals four, cruciate. Stamens six, hypogynous, tetradynamous. Fruit a silique, or silicle, rarely a 
valvelcBB pericarp. — (G. Don.) 
Description, &c. — The Cruciferous plants are easily distinguished from all others by the four petals, of which 
their single flowers consist, being always placed in such a manner as somewhat to resemble a Maltese cross ; and 
hence they take the name of Cruciferous, which signifies cross-bearing. To this order belong several of om- 
commonest vegetables ; for example, all the cabbage tribe, turnips, mustard and cress, radishes, &c. All the 
Cruciferous plants abound in nitrogen ; and hence, when they decay, they not only emit an unpleasant odour like 
that of decaying animal matter, but they are equally injurious to the health. Some years ago a fever was 
occasioned at Cambridge, by a number of cabbages being left above-ground, in a confined space, to rot. None of 
the plants belonging to this order are poisonous ; on the contrary, most of them are considered wholesome and 
antiscorbutic. The roots of some, such as the horse-radish, are pungent, but none of them are injurious. 
The most interesting characteristics of the order, as regards the annual flowers belonging to it, are — that the 
plants are generally tap-rooted, like the radish, and therefore do not bear transplanting well ; that they are 
neariy all natives of the temperate zones, and therefore tolerably hardy ; that their seeds retain their vegetative 
