Crucifera.] 
THE COLONY OF VICTORIA. 
45 
minute wing; septum considerably narrower than the transverse contrary diameter of the ffuit ; lanceolate ; 
seeds few in each cell, smooth. 
In the sandy desert on the Mui*ray River, rare. 
An insignificant plant, only a few inches high. Root divided into long thin fibres. Leaves from a few 
lines to J inch long. Flowers as yet unknown. Fruit-pedicel 1-2 lines long. Stigma subsessile. Silicle 
measuring 1J-2 lines, scarcely more than 1 line broad,- terminal notch very distinct. Valves not mem¬ 
branous ; their cavity not extending to the apex. Funicles very short. Seeds about J line long, somewhat 
compressed. Embryo exactly notorrhizal. 
The conspicuously bilobed silicle distinguishes this at once from the preceding species, with which 
otherwise it agrees in most characters, offering a transit from them to Capsella Bursa pastoris, a now 
troublesome invader of many parts of Australia, but evidently not an indigenous species. Although the fruit- 
valves of the latter are likewise protruding at the apex, a remarkable difference consists in their being hollow 
to the very summit. 
Produces flowers at the end of the rainy season. 
LEPIDIUM. 
P. Brown, in Alton. Ilort. Kew. ed. ii. v. iv. 85.—Cress; Pepperwort. 
Sepals equal at the base. Petals undivided, equal, sometimes wanting. Stamens 6, or some¬ 
times 4 or 2, free, without teeth. Stigmas united. Silicle bivalved, round or ovate or cordate, often 
emarginate or bilobed. Valves laterally strongly compressed, rarely turgid, boat-shaped, carinate, 
wingless or at the apex rarely at their whole dorsal length winged. Septum narrow. Seeds in each 
cell solitary , very rarely twin, compressed, sometimes nearly trigonous. Funicles free, terminal. 
Cotyledons incumbent, parallel to the septum, quite exceptionally accumbent, entire, rarely divided, 
never folded except occasionally at the base, neither channelled. 
Herbs or suffruticose plants, generally of strong sometimes cress-like taste, more generally 
distributed over the extratropical parts of the globe than most other cruciferous genera. Leaves of 
manifold shape. Flowers small, generally disposed in elongate racemes. Petals white. Silicles often 
minute.— Cand. Syst. ii. 527. 
Xiepidiuzn ruderale, Linne, Spec. Plant. 900 ; L. hyssopifolium, JDesvaux , Journ. Botan. iii. 164 
and 179,* L. ambiguum, F. M. in Transact. Phil. Soc. Viet. i. 34. 
Slightly scabrous by very minute hair or almost smooth; radical leaves generally pinnatisected or 
pinnatifid, with ovate lanceolate or linear toothed or laeiniated or pinnatifid lobes ,* stem-leaves subsessile, 
linear- or cuneate-lanceolate, entire or toothed or principally the lower ones laeiniated or pinnatifid, with 
narrow lobes, subsessile, frequently appendiculate at the base; Jlowers minute generally apetalous and 
diandrous; pedicels slender, not much longer or nearly twice as long as the small roundish- or rhomboid- 
ovate slightly-notched silieje; stigma subsessile; valves smooth, very compressed, hardly winged at the 
apex; seeds subellipsoid; moistened testa sparingly gelatinous; cotyledons undivided. 
Throughout the Colony of Victoria in both fertile and sterile localities, but not in alpine elevations. 
Common also in South Australia, Tasmania, and in East Australia, as far north as the tropic of Capricorn; 
also in West Australia, and distributed over many other parts of the globe. 
An herb of strong somewhat cress-like taste, and of biennial and seemingly here also perennial 
duration^ but already as seedling producing flowers in the first year of growth. Root simple or branched, 
sending out more or less numerous often tender fibres. Stems frequently erect or diffuse, sometimes solitary 
or more generally several from each root, simple or often branched, |-3 feet long, terete, scarcely upwards 
angular, always leafy. Leaves §-4 inches long, very variable in form, minutely ciliolated, divided or 
