44 



THE CRUCIFER FAMILY. 



A native of rocky situations, in south- 

 ern Europe, but spreads rapidly from 

 cultivation, and is now abundant, ap- 

 parently wild, on walls, old buildings, 

 and rocky places near habitations, in 

 many parts of central and even northern 

 Europe. In Britain very frequent under 

 similar circumstances. Fl. spring. 



Fig. 49. 



III. WINTERCRESS. BAKBAREA. 



Herbs, only differing from the yellow-flowered Watercresses by their 

 longer pod, the midrib more conspicuous, and the seeds apparently ar- 

 ranged in a single row, and from Erysimum and Sisymbrium, in the 

 radicle accumbent on the edge of the cotyledons, not incumbent on the 

 back of one of them. 



A small genus, generally spread over temperate regions of the globe. 



1. Common Wintercress. Barbarea vulgaris, Br. (Fig. 50.) 



{Erysimum Barbarea, Eng. Bot. t. 443. Wintercress. Yellow 'Rochet.) 



A perennial of short duration, stiff and 

 erect, green and glabrous, sparingly 

 branched, 1 to 2 feet high. Leaves 

 mostly pinnate, with the terminal lobe 

 large, broad, and very obtuse, whilst the 

 lower ones are few, small and narrow ; 

 very rarely all the lobes are narrow, or 

 some of the leaves oblong and undivided, 

 but deeply toothed at the base. Flowers 

 rather small, bright yellow. Pods usually 

 very numerous, erect or slightly spread- 

 ing, and crowded in a long dense raceme, 

 each one from f to 2, or even 3 inches 

 long, terminated by an erect, usually 

 pointed style, varying from \ a line to 2 

 lines in length. 



Hedges, or pastures and waste places, 

 common all over Europe, in Eussian Asia 

 and northern America. Frequent in 

 Britain. FL spring and summer. It varies much in the relative size 

 of the lobes of the leaves, in the size of the flowers, in the length and 

 thickness of the pod, in the length of the style, etc. A form with a very 



Eig. 50. 



