132 WILD FLOWERS. 



with the whole family, a considerable quantity of 

 sulphur and nitrogen. Hence its frequent use in 

 spring diet, whether in the form of salads, or of a 

 liquid procured by expressing the juice. In the 

 latter case a wine-glass full is administered at bed- 

 time by the country people for jaundice, scurvy, and 

 several other complaints. Ray recommends an in- 

 fusion of the flowers of the hairy bitter-cress (G. hir- 

 suta) in hysterical affections. 



Four species of the cardarnine are genuine na- 

 tives of our islands ; and a fifth (G. bellidifdlia), of 

 doubtful origin, has been found in Scotland and 

 also in the county Clare. The four first are the 

 large-flowered bitter-cress (G. amdra), which is dis- 

 tinguished from the common bitter-cress (G. pra- 

 tense), by its large white and purple-anthered 

 flowers, and by the broad " angulato-dentate leaflets 

 of its upper leaves." * The last-named plant, the 

 genuine lady's -smock, we need scarcely describe, so 

 familiar must be all our readers with its pretty 

 blush-tinged flowers ; they are sometimes double, in 

 which case, as indeed occurs frequently in all the car- 

 damine tribe, young plants are produced from the old 

 leaves, which, wherever they touch the ground, send 

 forth roots and leaflets. These appear on the upper 

 surface of the parent-leaf, from whence the long 

 root-fibre creeps down until it reaches the soil below, 

 when it, of course, no longer requires nourishment 

 from the leaf from which it sprang, and a new plant 

 is thus established.t This species inhabits the 



* Hooker's "British Flora." 



t See " Botany of Eastern Borders," &c. 



