Arabis Alpina. Alpine Wall-Cress

Class and Order:

Tetradynamia Siliquosa.

Generic Character:

Glandulae nectariferae 4, singulae intra calycis foliola, squamae instar reflexae.

Specific Character and Synonyms:

ARABIS alpina foliis amplexicaulibus dentatis. Linn. Syst. Vegetab. ed. 14. Murr. p. 599. Ait. Kew. Vol. 2. p. 399. Mill. Dict. ed. 6. 4to.

DRABA alba siliquosa repens. Bauh. Pin. p. 109.

No. 226.

An early-blowing plant, if it has no great pretensions to beauty, brings with it a powerful recommendation, more especially if its flowers are not of the more common hue; such are the claims which the present plant has to a place in this work: it is perennial, hardy, herbaceous, of low growth, rarely exceeding a foot in height, producing its white blossoms in April and May: its size renders it a suitable plant for the border of a small garden, or for the covering of rock-work.

It is readily increased by parting its roots in autumn.

Grows spontaneously on the Alps of Switzerland, Austria, and Lapland, and was cultivated (vid. Hort. Kew) in the Botanic Garden at Oxford, in 1658.