7 
Dicotyledons with Polypetalous Floivers. 
Natural Order 
CRUCIFERS. Tab. 6. 
Diagnosis.— Herbs often woody below, with watery juice and alternate 
exstipulate leaves. Sepals 4. Petals 4. Stamens hypogynous, tetradyna- 
mous. Ovary syncarpous with parietal placentation. Seeds exalbuminous. 
Distribution. —A large Natural Order, abundant in Temperate and Arctic regions, and frequent 
alono- the mountain ranges of the Tropics, but by far most numerous in Southern Europe, on the 
Mediterranean shores, and in the Levant. Wild Mustard and Turnip (Brassica) are frequent weeds 
of waste ground in Europe and Northern Asia. A remarkable genus (Pringlea), allied to Scurvy- 
grass (Cochlearia), with prostrate stem and cabbage-like tufts of leaves is confined to Kerguelen’s 
Island in the Indian Ocean. 
Number of British Genera, 25; Species, 57—60. 
FLOWERS regular, or occasionally irregular, owing to the centrifugal enlargement of the outer (anterior) petals, 
as in Candytuft ( Iberis ); white, yellow, red, or purple ; almost invariably in terminal racemes; in Senebiera didyma 
the racemes are lateral or leaf-opposed, owing to their becoming overtopped by axillary shoots, which apparently 
continue the axis ; rarely bracteate. 
Sepals free, deciduous. 
Petals cruciate, clawed or narrowed to the base; pinnatifid in the garden annual Schizopetalum. 
