A flora of Manila - Rainforestation

CRUCIFERAE 213
1. A. MEXICANA L.
An erect, rather stout, branched, annual herb 1 m high or less, with
yellowish sap. Leaves 5 to 15 cm long, more or less variegated with
green and white, glaucous, the base broad, half-clasping the stem, prominently
sinuate-lobed, spiny. Flowers terminal, yellow, 4 to 5 cm ii)
diameter. Capsule spiny, about 3 cm long. (Fl. Filip. pi. 187.)
Waste places, roadsides etc., fl. most of the year. A native of tropical
America, introduced into the Philippines at an early date and now widely
distributed; tropics of the w^orld.
58. CRUCIFERAE (Mustard or Mostaza Family)
Herbs with watery, often pungent juice. Basal leaves in a rosette,
those on the stem alternate, variously toothed or lobed, or entire. Flowers
racemose. Sepals 4, free, the two lateral ones often large and saccate at
the base. Petals 4, free, imbricate. Stamens usually 6, the two outer
opposite the lateral sepals, the 4 inner longer, in opposite pairs. Disk
usually with 4 glands opposite the sepals. Ovary 2- or 1-celled; styles
short or none; ovules usually many and 2-seriate. Fruit usually a 2-celled,
2-valved pod, the valves diciduous and leaving the seeds on the placentas,
or indehiscent, or jointed. Seeds small.
Genera 218, species about 2,000, mostly in the temperate regions of the
Old World, 4 genera and about 6 species in the Philippines, mostly in-
troduced.
1. Pods dehiscent.
2. Seed 2-seriate; cotyledons plane, accumbent 1. Nasturtium
2. Seeds 1-seriate; cotyledons conduplicate 2. Brassies,
1. Pods indehiscent 3. Raphanus
1. NASTURTIUM R. Brown
Erect, simple or branched, glabrous or hairy herbs. Leaves entire, lobed
or pinnatifid. Flowers small, yellow, racemose. Sepals short, spreading,
equal at the base. Petals short, narrowed below, or wanting. Stamens
2, 4, or 6. Pod slender, cylindric, short or long. Seeds small, 1-seriate,
the cotyledons accumbent. (Latin name of a strongly scented cress, from
"nose" and "to twist.")
Species about 20 in temperate and tropical countries, 1 in the Phil-
ippines.
1. N. INDICUM DC.
An erect, usually branched nearly glabrous herb 20 to 40 cm high.
Leaves oblong, variously lobed and toothed, 5 to 10 cm long, often lyrate,
petioled, the upper ones sessile or nearly so. Racemes long, many-flowered,
flowering at the tip. Flowers small, yellow, 2.5 to 3 mm long, the sepals
as long as the petals. Pods spreading, slender, cylindric, 1 to 2 cm long.
Damp ditches along roadsides, etc., fl. all the year, widely distributed in
the Philippines, and undoubtedly introduced. India to Japan, southward
to Malaya.
2. BRASSICA Linnaeus
Erect, simple or branched, glabrous or hairy herbs. Leaves large, lyrate
or pinnatifid, sometimes entire. Racemes long, many-flowered. Flowers
small, yellow. Sepals erect or spreading, the lateral ones usually sacc'ate
at the base.' Pods slender, dehiscent, cylindric or angular, often with an