3 , I 586 ]
D R ABA verna.
Common Whitlow-grafs.
T E T R A D Y N A M I A Siliculofa.
G f.n . Char. Pouch entire, long-oval: valves flattifh,
parallel to the partition. Style fcarcely any.
Spec. Char. Stalks naked. Petals cloven. Leaves
lanceolate, hairy, flightly cut.
Syn. Draba verna. Linn. Sp. PI. 896. Hudf. 278.
With. $6$. Relh. 246. Sibth. 198. Curt.Lond.
fafc. 1. t. 49.
Paronychia vulgaris. Rail Syn. 292.
T P H E tops of walls, and every dry bank, cottage roof, or
barren pafture, are covered with the ^ Draba verna in the
months of March or April, “ a feafon when any kind of blof-
fom (as Mr. Curtis elegantly obferves) is viewed with pleafure,”
Otherwife this little plant has no {hiking attractions; nor
would its confequence probably be much advanced by any one
who (hould rely on it for the cure of a whitlow. Indeed the
old controverfy about the true Paronychia, or whitlow-grafs of
the ancients, is fcarcely worth reviving.
Root annual. All the leaves radical, lanceolate, either entire
or irregularly dentate, clothed with Ample hairs frequently
intermixed with forked ones. Stalks about 2 or 3 inches high,
,ere£t, round, Ample, Aightly hairy, quite deftitute of leaves,
terminating in a corymbus of many fmall Aowers, foon lengthened
out into a fomewhat zigzag racemus. Calyx-leaves
fpreading. Petals white, cloven about half-way down. Pouch
elliptical, Battifh, fmooth, containing many feeds, and crowned
with the permanent felAle ftigma.
The whole herb has a pungent crefs-like Aavour. After
ripening its feed it foon withers away.