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COCHLEAR IA officinalis.
Common Scurvy-grafs.
T E T R A D Y N A M 1 A Siliculofa.
Gen. Char. Pouch turgid, rugged ; valves gibbous,
obtufe. Calyx fpreading, concave.
Spec. Char. Radical leaves roundith ; thofe on the
item oblong, and tbmewhat finuated. Fruit
globofe.
S y n . Cochlearia officinalis. Linn. Sp. PI. 90 3 . Hudf.
2 8 3 . With. 5 7 1 .
Cochlearia. Ran Syn. 302.
C o m m o n on thefea-coaftinmuddyor rocky places, and
like the Statics Armeria, and a few other fea plants, it is alfo
found in alpine fituations far inland. Ray tells us he fowed
the feed of the mountain variety, which is fmaller, in his garden,
where it produced plants of the fize and appearance of
thofe that grow on the coaft. Yet Dr. Richardfon and Dille-
nius, in the next paragraph of the Synopjis, contradict this,
faying the plants from Wales and Craven yearly fowed them-
felves in their gardens, and continued unchanged. Their plant
therefore thould feem to-be C. grcenlandicd, which by the
Linnsean fpecimen, and one I had long ago^ from Mr. Curtis s
garden, appears to be diftinCt from officinalis.
The common Scurvy-grafs, here delineated from wild Norfolk
fpecimens, varies very much in fize and luxuriance. Its
root is annual. Stems angular, fmooth, branched in a corym-
hofe manner, and in the month of May ornamented with numerous
tufts of white flowers. Leaves all fmooth and rather
fucculent; the radical ones on long footftalks, of a roundith
kidney-fhape, a little waved or angular; the Hem-leaves are
feffile, embracing the ftem, alternate, oblong, angular or hnu-
ated. Flowering branches corymbofe, foon lengthened out
into fpikes. BraCleae none. Calyx-leaves ovate, obtufe, concave.
Petals obovate, blunt, entire, with longilh claws. Stamina
6, incurved. Pouch globular, crowned with a lhort
ftyle, very flightly rugofe, and fcarcely perceptibly veined, by
which this fpecies is diftinguifhed from the anglica and damca,
whofe capfules are elliptical, and very ftrongly marked with
net-like prominent veins.