Bot. Also 7 thlaspe, 8 thlaspy. [mod.L., a. Gr. θλάσπι, -ις, ‘a sort of cress, the seed of which was bruised and used like mustard’ (L. and Sc.).] A genus of cruciferous plants (tribe Thlaspideæ), containing about thirty species, chiefly annuals, bearing insignificant white, pink, or purplish flowers, succeeded by flattened orbicular seed-pods. T. arvense, Penny-cress, was formerly in repute for its medicinal qualities.
Formerly including Capsella or Shepherd’s Purse, and loosely applied to Candytuft, etc.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 152. Thlaspi is named … in English triacle mustard, boures mustard, or dishe mustarde.
1579. Langham, Gard. Health (1633), 634. Thlaspi seeds eaten, purge choller.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. xix. 207. The seede of Thlaspi … helpeth the sciatica.
1640. Parkinson, Theat. Bot., VII. xii. 839. That Thlaspi that the best do allow for the truest Thlaspi to be used in Treakle and Mithridate.
1725. Bradley’s Fam. Dict., s.v. Shepherds Purse, Somewhat like the Leaves of Thlaspi.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXIV. 384/2. The genus Thlaspi is known by its silicles being emarginate at the apex with the valves winged at the back.
