CRUCIFERA. 151 
green, more or less clothed with short stiff simple hairs, and on 
the stem there are also smaller and more numerous starlike ones. 
Dame’s Rocket, Dame’s Violet, Queen’s Gilliflower, and (according 
to Gerarde) Damask Violets. 
French, Julienne des Dames. German, Die Gemeine Nachtviole. 
The specific name signifies mother, the Mother of the Evening, at which hour the 
blossoms exhale a pleasant perfume, which is not appreciable in the daytime. This 
pretty plant is known only for its attractive appearance and sweet scent, and is conse- 
quently but little noticed by writers, excepting such as deal in poetical fancies. We 
find its praises sung thus :— 
“ Rich and profuse the breath you send 
Through air, though none are nigh ; 
Oh ! ’tis the incense from the earth, 
Your tribute sent on high. 
Emblems are you, night-scenting flowers, 
Of hope to sorrow given ; 
Strongest through tearful, darkling hours 
Are breathings unto Heaven.” 
Trine VI.—ARABIDE. 
Cotyledons flat, with the radicle lying along their edges on one 
side (accumbent). Pod elongate, 2-valved. 
GENUS VITI—-MATTHIOLA. R. Brown. 
Sepals erect, the lateral ones gibbous at the base. Petals 
equal, entire, with long claws and spreading laminz. Filaments 
without wings or teeth. Pod elongate-cylindrical or cylindrical- 
compressed; valves with a dorsal nerve. Style short, conical. 
Stigma cleft into 2 oblong obtuse erect contiguous lobes, often 
thickened or produced into horns on the outer side. Replum thick, 
scarcely transparent. Seeds orbicular or oval, compressed, often 
winged round the margin. 
Herbs or undershrubs, thickly clothed with stellate down. 
Leaves oblanceolate, elliptical-oblong or linear, entire, toothed or 
sinuated. Flowers large, usually purple, disposed in short racemes, 
which afterwards elongate. 
Stock. 
French, Matthiole. German, Zwerglevkoje. 
This genus of plants was named in honour of Peter Andrew Matthioli, an Italian 
physician, who died in 1577. He was physician to Ferdinand of Austria, and author 
of a commentary upon the works of Dioscorides. 
