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VELLA annua.
Annual Cress-rocket.
TETRADYNAM1A Siliculosa.
Gen. Char. Pouch with a partition twice as long as
its valves, projecting in an ovate form beyond them.
Spec. Char. Leaves pinnatifid. Fruit pendulous.
Syn. Vella annua. Linn. Sp. PL 895. Sm. FI. Brit. 675,
Buds. 278. With. 564. Hull. 143.
Nasturtium sylvestre, Erucæ affine. Rail Syn. 304,
T H IS is a native of open sandy fields, and was found in
Ray’s time near Stonehenge on Salisbury plain by Mr. Lawson.
We have heard of its being gathered there at a more recent
period; but, having never seen a wild specimen, our figure represents
a garden one.
The root is annual. The plant varies much in size according
to the luxuriance of the soil, but is not otherwise changed
by culture. The stem is more or less branched, leafy, rough
with deflexed bristles. Leaves alternate, doubly pinnatifid,
rougliish, often tinged with purple. Spikes, or rather corymbi,
of many upright flowers, whose petals are pale yellow veined
with purple, i Calyx bristly, purplish, its leaves cohering
longitudinally. Pouch bent downward as it ripens, globose or
elliptical, rough, crowned with its own partition extended in
an oval flat form much beyond the valves. Three or four
roundish seeds are lodged in each cell.
Only one more species of this singular genus is known,
V. Pseudo-cytisus, which, as well as the annua, is a native of
Spain.