CRUCIFER. 171 
This genus was anciently called St. Barbara’s Herb, and the species were considered 
to be peculiarly under the patronage of that saint, probably because they were sown 
about the day formerly consecrated to her, our 16th of December. 
SPECIES I—-BARBAREA VULGARIS. &. Brown. 
Pirates CXX. CXXI. CXXII. CXXIII. 
Radical leaves lyrate, with the terminal lobe usually very large, 
equalling or exceeding in breadth the width of the leaf measured 
across the uppermost pair of leaflets, and generally three or four 
times the length of one of them. Pods in a dense raceme, three to 
eight times as long as the pedicels, and at the broadest part 
considerably exceeding the pedicels in thickness, contracted at the 
tip into a style longer than the greatest width of the pod. 
Winter Cress, Herb St. Barbara, Yellow Rocket. 
French, Loguette, L’Herbe Sainte Barbe, Barbarée a Siliques Etalées. 
German, Winterkresse, Barbenkraut. 
Under the name of Winter Cress and Winter Rocket this plant has long been 
cultivated in gardens as an early salad. In Sweden they boil and eat it as a vegetable 
in the same way as cabbage. The constant use of smoked and dried meat and fish, 
especially during the long winter, renders any addition desirable to the fresh vegetable 
diet of the people. It is worthy of remark that numbers of our Cruciferous and com- 
monest wayside plants might with great advantage be used as articles of food, and would 
be valuable to our poor families in cold winters when garden vegetables are scarce or 
expensive. Many field and roadside herbs, such as Charlock, Shepherd’s Purse, 
Hedge Garlic, &e., which are commonly thrown aside as useless or noxious weeds, 
would afford wholesome food in times of scarcity. The habit of eating fresh green 
vegetables is almost essential to health, and it would be well if our clergy and people 
of influence in rural districts would acquaint themselves with the properties and nature 
of our common plants, in order to instruct and guide their poorer neighbours to the 
right use of the health-giving substances with which they are surrounded. This Winter 
Cress is seldom destroyed by the frost, and may be seen peeping up through the snow 
in the depth of winter. It has a pungent and somewhat bitter taste. Cows eat it, 
but horses, goats, and sheep rarely touch it. 
Sus-Srecres I—Barbarea eu-vulgaris. 
Pirate CXX.* 
B. vulgaris, Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. I. Yet. Tab, XLVIL. Fig. 4356, 
B. vulgaris, Auct. Plur. 
Erysimum Barbarea, Zinn. Sm. Eng. Bot. No, 443. 
Radical leaves lyrate, with a large roundish terminal lobe 
usually very slightly exceeding in breadth the width of the leaf 
* The Plate is E. B. 443, unaltered, 
