Shepherd's Purse (Capsella Bursa-pastoris)—formerly Thlaspi), an annual plant of the natural order Cruciferae, a most abundant weed in gardens and cornfields in Britain, and remarkable as one of the few plants that are found over almost the whole world without the tropics, adapting themselves to almost all soils and climates. It is a very variable plant, from three inches to two feet in height, with root-leaves more or less pinnatifid, all the leaves more or less toothed, and rough with hairs. The root-leaves spread closely along the ground. The flowers are white and diminutive. The pouch, from which the English name seems to be derived, is laterally compressed and somewhat heart-shaped.
(Capsella Bursa-pastoris).