THE CANDYTUFT. 



Ibcri 



ANDY, or Candie, is the old 

 English name for the island of 

 Cretej and the tufted flower 

 before us having been brought 

 from Crete, obtained the name 

 of candytuft. It is recorded 

 by Gerarde that he received 

 seeds of the "candie-mustard" 

 from Lord Edward Zouche, 

 and that they produced in his 

 garden flowers that were " som- 

 times blewe, often purple, som- 

 times carnation or horse-flesh, 

 and seldom white," their leaves 

 being of " a graie or ouerworne 

 greene colour." The generic 

 name Iberls refers to the 

 Spanish peninsula, the ancient Iberia, where the candy- 

 tufts abound. 



These are cruciferous plants, and particularly worthy 

 the attention of young botanists, because of the irregular 

 form of the corolla. One of their number is an inhabitant 

 of Britain : it is Iberis amara, the bitter candytuft; a rare 



weed in chalky corn-fields, more often met with in Oxford- 

 4 S 



