Sam. p. 5. — Dick. FI. Abred. p. 46. — Irv. Loud. FI. p. 163. — Luxf. Brig. FI. p. 
58. — Cow. FI. Guide, p. 23. — Baines’ FI. of Yorksh. p. 12. — Leight. FI. of Shropsh. 
p. 317. — Gulliv. PI. Banb. p. 14. — Mack. Catal. PI. oflrel. p. 62.; FI. Hibern. p. 
19. — Barbarea, Johnson’s Gerarde, p. 243, with a figure. — Bauli. Hist. v. ii. 
p. 868. f. 869. — Erysimum Barbarea, Linn. Sp. PI. p. 922. — Huds. FI. Angl. 
(2nd edit.) p. 286. — Willd. Spec. PI. v. iii. pt. I. p. 509. — Engl. Bot. t. 443. — FI. 
Dan. t. 985. — Sm. FI. Brit. v. ii. p. 706. — Bryant’s FI. Ditetet. p. 99. — Lightf. FI. 
Scot. v. i. p. 355. — Sibth. FI. Oxon. p. 202. — Abbot’s FI. Bcdf. p. 144. — Thomp. 
Pi. of Berw. p. 67. — Davies’ Welsh Bot. p. 64. — Purt. Midi. FI. v. i. p. 305. — Relh. 
FI. Cant. (3rd ed.) p. 268. — Eruca lutea seu Barbarea, Kay’s Syn. p. 297. 
Localities. — In moist waste places, about hedges, banks of ditches, and in 
marshy meadows ; frequent. 
Perennial. — Flowers from May to August. 
Root tapering, somewhat woody. Stem from 12 to 18 inches 
high, upright, stout, simple or branched, angular and furrowed, 
smooth, leafy. Leaves alternate, lower ones lyrate, with a large, 
roundish, terminal lobe ; upper ones inversely egg-shaped, toothed, 
often pinnatifid ; all smooth, strongly ribbed, of a firm texture, 
and clasping the stem by their arrow-shaped base. Flowers small, 
bright yellow, in roundish, corymbose clusters. Sepals oblong- 
egg-shaped, concave, 3-ribbed, upright. Petals twice the length 
of the sepals, inversely egg-shaped, veiny, their claws upright, the 
limb spreading. Pod ( siliqua) upright, strap-shaped, smooih, not 
very acutely 4-angled, six times as long as the spreading pedicel, 
crowned with the narrow, rather elongated, style, which is about 
half the length of the pedicel. Seeds inversely egg-shaped, com- 
pressed, minutely and deeply pitted. 
A variety with double flowers is cultivated in gardens, under the 
name of Double Yellow Rocket. 
The whole herb has a nauseous bitter taste, and is in some degree mucilagin- 
ous ; it is sometimes cuhivated as a Spring salad, but it has nothing in flavour to 
recommend it. In Sweden they boil the leaves as kale. Cows are said to eat 
this plant ; horses and swine to refuse it ; goats and sheep are not fond of it. — 
A minute species of Tipula, or Call Gnat, sometimes renders the flowers like a 
Hop-blossom ; but this metamorphosis does not strictly partake of the nature of 
galls, as it originates not from the egg, but from the larva, which, in the oper- 
ation of extracting the seed in some way impatts a morbid action to the juices, 
causing the flower to expand unnaturally. A parasitical, white fungus, Uredo 
Candida, of Persoon, is common on the under side of the leaves, and on the 
stem of this plant, in the Summer. 
I long to hold communion safe as sweet 
With trees and flowers ; they are no demagogues, 
They teach no treason, nor with guilty strife 
Seek for advancement through another’s fall ; 
The flow’ret that on scarce an inch of earth 
Peeps through the crevice of some mossy wall. 
Is as contented as the giant oak 
That covers half an acre with its shade *. 
* See a volume of delightful poetry, by the author of “ The Moral of Flowers,” 
intituled, “ Recollections of the Lakes, and other Poems.” 
