CANDYTUFT 105 



segetum), Cabbage Moth (Mamestra brassicte), Bright-line Brown Eye 

 (M. oleracea), Pint el la criiciferarum (Leptdoptera) feed on it. 



Brassica is Latin for cabbage, and arvensis means belonging to 

 arable land. 



It is called Charlock; Brassies (from the Latin which was used 

 in old leases, in which were conditions as to its being kept under); 

 Corn Kale, so called when hawked as a salad, before flowering, 

 in Dublin. It has been grown as a salad, and mixed with Black 

 Mustard as mustard. It contains an oil, and the seeds are hot and 

 acrid. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



34. Brassica arvensis, O. Kuntze. Stem thick, hirsute, purple at 

 the joints, radical leaves petiolate, sublyrate, upper sessile, dentate, 

 flowers yellow, large, pods knotted, subcylindrical, many-angled, with 

 conical beak. 



Candytuft (Iberis amara, L.) 



No instance of its occurrence before the present day is known as 

 yet. It is found in the Warm Temperate Zone to-day in Europe to 

 the south of Belgium. It is common in Great Britain, occurring in 

 Somerset, S. Wilts, Dorset, N. Hants, Surrey, Herts, Berks, Oxford, 

 Bucks, W. Norfolk, Cambridge, Carnarvon, Flint, Anglesea, Bedford, 

 or principally, that is to say, in Mid and East England, and it is rare 

 in Scotland, according to Watson, being only a colonist. 



The Candytuft, as really but a wild form of the cultivated form, is 

 in England an escape from gardens or cultivated sources. It is found 

 in cornfields and on cultivated ground entirely, indicating its want of 

 permanence and source of introduction. As a rule the soil it favours 

 is dry, and it usually occupies a lowland station. 



It is an herbaceous plant, erect, with a branched stem, giving 

 it a shrubby appearance on a small scale. The leaves are narrowly 

 elliptical with several blunt teeth, and the whole plant is fleshy. The 

 stem is ribbed and downy along the ribs, smooth elsewhere. The 

 leaves are not very closely placed, and are stalkless, and occasionally 

 fringed to some extent with hairs. 



The flowers are white or purple, two outer petals exceeding the 

 others and spreading. The flowers grow in a corymb or flowerhead, 

 or in lengthened racemes. The pods are heart-shaped at the tip, with 

 a triangular notch, and the valves are winged, usually flat. The style 

 is longer than the wings, and the stigma notched. 



Candytuft rarely reaches a height of i ft., being usually 6-9 in. 



