48 
PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
[Crucrfem. 
Lepidium leptopetalum.— Monoploca leptopetala, F. M. in Transact . Phil. Soc . Viet. i. 35. 
Fniticulose ; brandies numerous, finely scabrous; leaves semi terete, undivided ; their base without 
appendages; pedicels corymbose or short-racemose, nearfy as long as the fruit; petals scarcely longer than 
the large spreading sepals, linear-oblong; stamens 6; silicle large, ovate, very compressed, with conspicuous 
rather blunt lobes, winged towards the apex; style elongate, capillary, free; seeds broad-ovate, very com¬ 
pressed ; moistened testa very gelatinous; cotyledons undivided. 
On the high barren limestone banks of the Murray River and in the surrounding desert. 
A rather low shrub. Adult branches brown-black, spreading. Leaves glabrous, opaque, above slightly 
convex or channelled, beneath very convex, 1 inch long, line broad, acute, in a young state not 
unfrequently fasciculate. Corymbs terminal, generally few-flowered, in age sometimes lengthened into short 
racemes, but occasionally also contracted nearly to an umbel. Pedicels rather stout and very spreading, 2-3 
lines long, not distinctly flattened. Sepals narrow-oblong, nearly 3 lines long*, pallid, membranous, channelled 
towards the apex. Petals tender, white, tapering* towards the base, incurved and concave at the apex, one- 
nerved towards the lower portion. Longer filaments nearly as long as the sepals, filiform. Anthers yellow, 
§ line long, oblong-linear, with sagittate base, in age recurved. Germen truncate, bidentate. Style free, a 
little exceeding 1 line, filiform, exserted. United stigmas minute, hardly thicker than the style, depressed. 
Silicle 2J-4 lines long, about 2 lines broad, patent, above by slightly upwards turned margins somewhat 
hollow, beneath convex, winged towards the apex. Terminal lobes J-g line long, bluntly triangular, forming 
a narrow sinus. Replum firm. Septum pellucid, lanceolate-linear or narrow-lanceolate. Funicles very short, 
subulate. Seeds 1^-1 \ line long, smooth. Testa when moistened emitting a large quantity of slightly opaque 
homogenous mucilage. Cotyledons except their base straight, exactly incumbent; but their commissural line 
stretching around the base of the embryo, ascending for a short distance towards the radicle, which they 
consequently surpass somewhat in length, never channelled or longitudinally indexed. But the seeds exhibit 
occasionally truly plicate or almost sigmoid cotyledons. To this variability in the direction of the cotyledons 
also of the preceding species attention has been called already in the Linnsea 1852, p. 370. 
The usual shape of the embryo is in no way different from at least some legitimate Lepidiums; for 
instance, L. ruderale, in which the division of the cotyledons extends also generally quite around the base of 
the seed, as easily observable when the testa after maceration is removed. The base of the inner cotyledon 
becomes naturally in these cases simply plicate. 
The genus Monoploca, being founded solely on this embryonic structure, is unhesitatingly here 
recombined with Lepidium. 
Lepidium leptopetalum is closely allied to the preceding species, but according to our certainly rather 
imperfect herbarium-specimens not combinable with the same. Iberis linearifolia, Cand. Syst. ii. 405 
(Monoploca hnifolia, Bunge in Lehm. PI. Preiss. i. 2G0), is perhaps fi-om it not specifically distinct. 
In flower throughout the spring. 
STENOPETALUM. 
B. Brown , in Candolle Syst. ii. 
Sepals coherent, erect, unequal at the base. Petals terminated by a lone/ very narrow acumen , 
unguiculate, circulate in aestivation. Stamens free, without teeth. Stigmas united, subsessile. Silicle 
turgid, linear 01 mate- 01 globose-ellipsoid, or subglobose. Valves one-nerved or nerveless. Septum 
broad. Funicles short. Seeds few or many and biseriate in each cell, subovate, without a border. 
Cotyledons incumbent; their edges facing the septum. 
Heibb of frequently if not always annual duration, occurring in the extra tropical parts of the 
Austialian continent and larely in Tasmania. Leaves generally narrow, entire or particularly the 
lower ones divided, none clasping. Pedicels racemose, bractless. Petals white, fulvous, sordidly 
purple or yellowish, or almost saffron-colored .—EndUcher, Enum. Plant Hueg. 4 . 
