dittander, or Pepperwort: A genus of the filiculose order, belonging to the tetradynamia class of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 39th order, Silicoferae. The filicula is emarginated, cordated, and polypermous, with the valves carinated contrary or broader than the partition. There are 19 species, of which the only remarkable one is the latifolium or common dittander. This is a native of many parts both of Scotland and England. It hath small, white, creeping roots, by which it multiplies very fast, and is difficult to be eradicated after it has long grown in any place. The stalks are smooth, rise two feet high, and send out many side-branches. The flowers grow in close bunches towards the top of the branches, coming out from the side; they are small, and composed of four small white petals. The seeds ripen in autumn. The whole plant has a hot biting taste like pepper; and the leaves have been often used by the country-people to give a relish to their viands instead of that spice, whence the plant has got the appellation of poor man's pepper. It is reckoned an antiscorbutic, and was formerly used instead of the horse radish curvy-grass.