Arabis.] crucifer^. 33 



liitlle Town, in great plenty. At Fishbouvne. Tn a field close to Uplands near 

 Ryde, in great abundance, Br. Bell-Salter. Between Quarr abbey and Fish- 

 houses. About Landguard farm and elsewhere near Shanklin very commonly, 

 and where I have seen fields sometimes quite yellow with it. 



W. il/ed.— Northwood park, plentiful, Miss G. Kilderbee. 



The whole plant quite glabrous, 1—2 feet in height. Root white, tapering, in 

 the larger plants much branched, slightly pungent. Stem erect, sharply ang:ular, 

 furrowed, branching from the base in old and luxuriant plants, with many erect 

 branches ; in the smaller often nearly simple, purplish below. Radical leaves 

 numerous, spreading in a circle, lyrato-pinnatifid, their lobes roundish, waved 

 fleshy and shining, the terminal one much the largest, roundish, bluntly notched 

 or lobed, the lower ones entire or nearly so : stem-leaves pinnatifid, their lobes 

 becoming narrower as they ascend, and on the uppermost leaves nearly linear ; 

 the lowermost lobe in all is clasping, and produced into an auricle fringed with a 

 few stift" hairs. Flowers erect, bright yellow, in constantly elongating corymbs 

 very like those of the last species. Sepals equal, oblong, obtuse, concave 

 and erect, at first greenish, afterwards yellow, broader and more rounded than in 

 the last. Hypogynous glands 6, namely, one on each side of the two shorter fila- 

 ments at their base, larger, paler and horizontal, and another on the outside of the 

 two pair of longer filaments, smaller, deep green and nearly erect. Style 

 extremely short, not ^ a line in length, always bent to one side : stigma flat 

 roundish and simple. Siliques very long (2 — 2\ inches), far less crowded than 

 in B. vulgaris, erecto-patent, on short stalks that diverge at an angle of about 

 45°, slender, straight, ancipiti-quadrangular, the valves with a strong dorsal keel, 

 glabrous and wrinkled, tipped with the very short obtuse and oblique style. Seeds 

 numerous (often 20 or more in each cell), pendulous, in 2 rows, brownish or yel- 

 lowish, with darker edges, somewhat orbicular, plane on their outer side, gibbous 

 and bluntly angular on that next the thin membranous dissepiment, covered with 

 depressed pellucid dots, and hence appearing reticulated, twice as large as the 

 seeds of B. vulgaris. 



This species is generally thought to have been introduced to Europe from the 

 New World, whence the names of American or Belleisle Cress (from the Straits of 

 that name between Labrador and Newfoundland). Be that as it may, no plant 

 is more thoroughly naturalized amongst us than the present, and in no part of 

 Britain perhaps does it abound more than in this island. In America B. praecox 

 extends beyond the Arctic Circle. It aflbrds an excellent spring salad, very supe- 

 rior to the common Winter Cress, as was remarked to me by my friend the Kev. 

 Wm. Darwin Fox, who, having been accustomed to the use of the latter in Der- 

 byshire, on coming to reside in this island having unknowingly substituted the 

 former and more abundant species here, though puzzled to account for the diffe- 

 rence, was immediately sensible of having made an exchange for the better. The 

 taste is much more pungent and cress-like, and Mr. R. Loe of Newchurch- tells 

 me it is often substituted by the people of this island for the common Water 

 Cress, being known by the opposite cognomen of Land Cress. 



V. Arabis, Linn. Kock-cress. 



" Pod linear, compressed, crowned with the nearly sessile stig- 

 ma ; valves nerved or coarsely veiny. Seeds in one row. Calyx 

 erect." — Br. Fl. 



1. A. hirsuta, E. Br. Hairy Rock-cress. " Leaves all hispid 

 dentate, cauline ones semi-amplexicaul, pods erect straight, their 

 valves 1-nerved."— ^r. Fl. p. 25. Turritis, Z. : E. B. t. 587. 



On dry banks, walls and rocks, rare. Fl. May— August. 2^. (<?. Hook.) 



W. >/(■(/.— Area of Carisbrooke castle. In the fosse of Carisbrooke castle on 

 the N. side, and elsewhere (within the walls), in some plenty. Carisbrooke-castle 

 hill, and High Down by Freshwater, Mr. Dawson Turner in B. T, W., in which 



F 



