Cruciferce.] 
THE COLONY OE VICTORIA. 
43 
Root either forming' a woody descendent rhizome or underground fibrilliferous runners. Stems erect 
or ascendent, from 2-8 inches long, oftener simple than branched, more or less densely clothed with short 
crisp branched hair, leafy in its lower portion or occasionally up to the corymb, rarely quite leafless. Radical 
leaves numerous, tapering into a conspicuous petiole, sometimes blunt, sometimes rather acute, exclusive of 
petiole l-l inch long, rarely longer, minutely or grossly toothed, seldom without teeth. Stem-leaves similar 
to the radical ones, but smaller and attenuated into a shorter petiole; the upper ones often diminutive and 
sessile. Corymb densely many-flowered, in age not lengthened into an extensive raceme. Pedicels when in 
flower 1-2^ lines long, when in fruit 2-4 lines long, and then almost horizontally spreading. Sepals oval or 
oblong, somewhat patent or rather erect, glabrous, about 1-1 1 line long, not rarely tinged with purple. 
Petals white or pink, with addition of the narrow often purplish unguis 2-3 lines long. Stamens 6. Fila¬ 
ments linear-subulate 1-1A line long, white or purple. Anthers only \ or £ line long, cordate-ovate, yellow. 
Pollen-grains ellipsoid, bursting longitudinally. Silique or silicle turgid, spreading, 2J-3* lines long, hardly 
more than 1-1i line broad, acute at both extremities, terminated by a short style, which is crowned by a 
small depressed quite confluent pair of stigmas. Valves carinate by the middle nerve, not membranous. 
Funicles short, subulate. Ovules many. Seeds 3-8 in each cell, inordinate biseriate, turgid, ovate, about 
J line long. Testa exuding, if softened by moisture, a clear faintly radiating mucus, much less copiously, 
however, than the species of Blennodia. Face of cotyledons turned irregularly towards the septum. Embryo 
normally notorrhizal. 
In flower during the summer. 
This plant, one of our veiy few endemic alpine Cruciferae, stands undoubtedly in near relationship to 
the Capsella alpina, F. 31. (Hutchinsia alpina, R. Br. in Hort. Kew. ed. ii. 4, 82), which delights likewise 
in cold regions. The comparison shows the Australian plant to be larger and more robust than its contype, 
the leaves are not deeply divided into many small lobes, the funicles are less rigid, and are, in consequence 
of the capsule being many- not two-seeded, existing also in the lower part of the fruit, finally the testa is 
not smooth. 
Capsella elliptica, C. A . 3Ieyer , Verzeichn. von Pfanzen des Caucasus , p. 194 ; Flora Altaica, 
iii. 199; C. procumbens, Fries , Novit. Flor . Suedes , Mantiss . i. 14; Lepidium procumbens, Linne , Spec. 
Plant. 898; Hutchinsia procumbens, Desvaux , Journ. iii. 168; Cand . Syst. ii. 391; Hymenolobus pro¬ 
cumbens, divaricatus et erectus, Nuttall in Torrey and Gray , Flora of North America, i. 117 ; Hooli. Icon, 
t. 2 77; Stenopetalum incisifolium, J. Hook. Icon . Plant . 276. 
Annual, glabrous; stems slender, leafy; leaves lanceolate or subovate or the upper ones linear, entire, 
toothed or pinnatifid; pedicels capillary, at last elongate-racemose, frequently twice as long as the ellipsoid 
or roundish-ovate blunt silicle; petals minute, obovate-cuneate, hardly longer than the calyx; valves rather 
turgid, membranous, lightly one-nerved; septum often narrower than the contrary transverse diameter of the 
fruit, lanceolate; seeds rather numerous in each cell, pale-brown, smooth. 
In boggy slightly saline places around Port Phillip Bay, and on the Murray River. Found also at 
St. Vincent's Gulf and Lake Alexandrince in South Australia, further in Tasmania and Western Australia ; 
also occurring throughout Europe, in various parts of Asia and Africa, and as well in extratropical North as 
South America. 
A generally ascendent occasionally erect or procumbent herb, 2-9 lines long'. Root thin, flexuose, 
with capillary fibres. Stems from each root several or numerous. Leaves 2 lines to 1 inch long, entire or 
more frequently acutely and grossly toothed or more or less deeply pinnatifid; the lower ones stalked, the 
upper ones not rarely sessile; lobes half-lanceolate or triangular or oblong or broad-linear, always few. 
Pedicels numerous, rarely few, when flower-bearing corymbose and 1-2 lines long, when fruit-bearing 
racemose, 2-4 even 6 lines long and rather spreading. Peduncle often flexuose. Sepals oval, pale-green, 
scarcelv shorter than the stamens. Petals white, hardly longer than \ line, obovate- or oblong-cuneate. 
F 2 
