78 



THE CEUCIFJER FAMILY. 



A genus of several south European and western Asiatic species, some 

 of which are cultivated in our flower-gardens under the name of Candy- 

 tufts, and all readily known by the unequal petals. 



1. Bitter Candytuft. Iberis amara, Linn. (Fig. 98.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 52, the inflorescence too much elongated) 



An erect, rather stiff annual, 6 inches 

 to near a foot high, with a few erect 

 branches forming a terminal flat corymb. 

 Leaves oblong-lanceolate or broadly 

 linear, with a few coarse teeth, or slightly 

 pinnatifid, seldom quite entire. Flowers 

 white. Pod nearly orbicular, the long 

 style projecting from the notch at the 

 top. 



Common as a weed of cultivation in 

 western, central, and southern Europe. 

 Appears occasionally in cornfields in 

 England, especially in limestone dis- 

 tricts. Fl. with the corn. 



Fig. 98. 



XXI. HUTCHINSIA. HUTCHINSIA. 



Dwarf annuals or perennials, with pinnate leaves and white flowers, 

 separated from Cress as having two seeds in each cell of the pod instead 

 of one. 



A genus limited by some to one species, by others extended to a few 

 allied ones from southern Europe and Russian Asia, or also to two or 

 three perennials from the higk mountain-ranges of central and southern 

 Europe. 



1. Rock Hutchinsia. Hutchinsia petrsea, Br. (Eig. 99.) 



(Lepidium, Eng. Bot. t. 111.) 



A glabrous, delicate, erect annual, seldom 3 inches high, branching 

 at the base. Radical leaves about half an inch long and pinnate ; stem- 

 leaves few and smaller, with fewer and narrower segments. Flowers 

 very minute. Pod oval, rather more than a line long. Radicle of the 

 seeds incumbent on the back of the cotyledons, but very near the 

 edge. 



