2. IBERIS GIBRALTARICA. 



GIBRALTAR CANDY TUFT. 



Tins genus contains plants of the herbaceous, annual, peren- 

 nial, and under-shrubby kinds. 



It belongs to the class and order Tetradynamia Siliculosa, and 

 ranks in the natural order of Siliquosce, or Cruciformes. 



The characters are : that the calyx is a four-leaved perianthium : 

 leaflets obovate, concave, spreading, small, equal, deciduous: the 

 corolla is four-petalled, unequal: petals obovate, obtuse, spreading: 

 claws oblong, upright: of these the two exterior petals are far larger, 

 and equal to each other : the two interior very small, reflex : the 

 stamina have six awl-shaped filaments, upright: of which the two 

 lateral ones are shorter: anthers roundish: the pistillum is a roundish, 

 compressed germ : style simple, short: stigma obtuse: the pericar- 

 pium is an upright, suborbiculate, compressed silicic, emarginate, 

 surrounded by a sharp edge, two-celled : partition lanceolate : valves 

 navicular, compressed, carinated : the seeds a few, and subovale. 



The species are : 1. 1. umbellata, Purple Candy-tuft; 2. 1. amara, 

 White Candy-tuft; 3, I. linifolia, Flax-leaved Candy-tuft; 4. I. odo- 

 rata, Sweet-scented Candy-tuft; 5. I- rotundifolia, Round-leaved 

 Candy-tuft; 6. 1. semperjlorens, Broad-leaved Evergreen Candy-tuft; 

 7- /. sempervirem, Narrow-leaved Evergreen Candy-tuft; 8. /. Gibral- 

 tarica, Gibraltar Candy-tuft. 



The first has an annual root, white, oblong, fusiform : the stem 

 upright, leafy, half a foot, or from a span to a foot in height, suban- 

 gular, green, smooth, branching: the leaves are frequent, alternate, 

 lanceolate, acuminate, smooth: the flowers in a hemispherical co- 

 rymb, on peduncles half an inch in length, of a pale purple colour. 

 It is a native of the south of Europe, flowering in June and July. 



