XCIII.— GARLIC MUSTARD. 
Alliaria officinalis Andrzej owski. 
F rom what we have already said as to the uniformity of character among the 
Cruciferic it will be readily understood that the discrimination of the genera in 
that Family is no easy matter. Thus it comes about that the very common and 
long-recognised hedgerow plant with which we have now to deal, has at different 
times been referred to several genera, such as Hesperis, Erysimum^ and Sisymbrium, as 
well as to a genus of its own, Alliaria. It was called Alliaria, from its resemblance 
in smell to the true Garlics of the genus Allium, by Fuchs, Dodoens, Matthioli, 
Lobel, and other pre-Linnaean botanists. Ray and Morison named it Hesperis 
allium redolens : Linne called it Erysimum Alliaria ; and Scopoli, Sisymbrium Alliaria ; 
and it is unquestionably closely related to these genera. Together, they form a Tribe 
Sisymbrieie, characterised by having the seeds in a single row, and flattened, and the 
radicle incumbent. In this Tribe, Alliaria, Sisymbrium, and Erysimum have a flat 
disk-shaped stigma with a thickened margin, while Hesperis — represented in our 
flora by the fragrant lilac-flowered Dame’s Violet {Hesperis matronalis Linn6), which 
is not truly indigenous — has two erect stigmatic lobes. Erysimum has bifurcate or 
trifurcate hairs lying flat against its surface, a four-angled seed-pod, the two valves 
of which are prominently keeled with one longitudinal vein, and a slender thread-like 
funicle or stalk to its seeds. Sisymbrium has unbranched hairs spreading outwards 
from its surface, or reflexed, seed-pods which may be four-edged or terete, but with 
three longitudinal veins to each valve, and a slender funicle. Alliaria is almost 
glabrous, its few scattered hairs spreading and unbranched like those of Sisymbrium : 
its pod is terete with three longitudinal veins to each valve, though the middle one 
is much more prominent than the others ; but the seeds are oblong and slightly 
furrowed or striate, and are borne on flattened, winged funicles. Being for these 
reasons recognised as the type of a distinct genus, and such double names as 
Alliaria Alliaria being now considered inadmissible, our Garlic Mustard comes to 
bear the name Alliaria officinalis given to it in t 8 1 9, in the third volume of the 
“ Flora Taurico-caucasica ” of F. A. Marschall von Bieberstein (1768-1826), by 
A. L. Andrzejowski (1784-1868), the author of the Ukraine Flora. 
Common in almost every hedgerow in England, this plant occurs over the 
greater part of the Palaearctic Region, attracting attention by the pleasing bright 
green of its young spring foliage and the succeeding corymbose clusters of white 
flowers, and sowing itself freely in shady places, in ground unoccupied in the earlier 
part of the year. It is annual or biennial, and grows erect with a slightly branched 
stem to a height of from one to three feet ; but the stem is often decumbent or 
prostrate at its base, and when young and slender is somewhat flexuous in its growth. 
The leaves are all stalked, thin, and prominently veined, the radical ones reniform, 
cordate, and crenate, and often three inches across, while the upper ones are acutely 
