N. 0. CKOOIFEBiE. 
95 
An annual or biennial herb, glabrous or slightly hairy, 
glaucous. Stem 6-18 in., erect, branching. Leaves sessile, 1-4 
in , pinnatifid ; segments coarsely toothed, terminal, one broad ; 
upper leaves smaller, sometimes very entire. Flowers pale 
yellow or white, £ in. across in racemes ; veins dark. Sepals 
erect, lateral, slightly saccate. Petals clawed. Stigma capitate. 
Pods erect, "pressed against stem, oblong-ovoid, £-1 in., nearly 
terete, prolonged in a flat-pointed, seedless beak half the length 
of the valves. Seeds in two rows. Cotyledons folded longi- 
tudinally over the radicle (Collett.) 
Cultivated as a field-crop in N. W. Provinces, for the 
oil expressed from the seed. Simla. An escape; cultivated in 
Central India, Western Himalaya, Upper Gangetic valley. 
Use : — It has properties similar to those of the water-cress 
and the cuckoo flower. It is acrid and used for purposes similar 
to those of Mustard. 
The seeds are dark brown or dark grey and yield S0'8 per cent, of clear 
yellow oil with a slight mustardliko odor and taste. Sp. gr. at 15° C., 0'915 
SaponiQeation value, 175'7 ; iodine value, 1010. The oil could probably be 
used as a substitute for rape or colza oil. 100 seeds weigh only 0 25 grm. 
Bulletin Imperial Institute 1913. 
83. Capsella Buvsa-Pa3toris, Moench, h.f.b.i., 
i. 159. 
Habitat: — A cosmopolitan weed in the vicinity of cultiva- 
tion throughout temperate India. 
An annual herb, more or less covered with forked hairs ; 
root long, tapering. Stems erect, 6-18 in., blanched. Radical 
leaves variable, usually pinnatifid, sometimes lanceolate, ter- 
minal lobe broadly triangular ; segments neaily entire ; upper 
leaves pinnatifid, lobed at the base, stein-clasping ; uppermost 
lanceolate. Flowers small, T ' 0 in. diam ; white, lacemed. Sepals 
spreading, equal at the base. Pods nearly flat, triangular or 
obcordate, about £ in. broad. Seeds many, in two rows, oblong, 
punctate; radicle incumbent. 
Use: — “ 'This very common weed is bitter and pungent, 
yields a volatile oil on distillation identical with the oil of mus- 
tard, and has been used as an antiscorbutic, also in haematuria 
