BARBA'REA (from a former name, Herb St. Barbara), a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Crucifers. It has a terete 2-edged pod, the valves convex, with a prominent longitudinal nerve ; the stigma capitate, the seeds in a single row. Barbarea belongs to the first sub-order of Cruciferw, Siliguosw, which possess a linear or linear-lanceolate pod opening by two valves. The species of Barbarea are perennial herbs, with fibrous roots and erect stems. The flowers are yellow, arranged in racemes ; the pedicles without bracts.
B. rulgaria, Common Yellow Rocket, Common Winter Cress, Herb St. Barbara, has the lower leaves lyrate, upper pair of lobes as broad as the large roundish subcordate terminal lobe, the uppermost leaf undivided, toothed ; young pods obliquely erect ; seeds scarcely longer than broad. It is a native, in damp moist places, of Great Britain, and throughout Europe ; also of North America. This plant has a bitter nauseous taste, and is sometimes cultivated as a spring salad. In Sweden the leaves are boiled and eaten. It is often cultivated in gardens, especially a double variety, which forms a handsome border plant.
B. pracox, Early Winter Cress, has the lower leaves lyrate, upper pair of lobes as broad as the roundish subcordato terminal lobe, upper most leaf pinnatifid, with linear oblong entire lobes. It is a native of France and Great Britain ; abundant in North America. It is called in Germany Amerikanischer Kraut ; in French, Cresson d'Am6rique ; in England, American Cress, Black American Cress, French Cress, and Belle-Isle Creme. It is used as a salad, and is more bitter than the common Water-Cress. It can be raised for eating all the year round. In cultivating, it should be grown from seeds, a quarter of an ounce of which will serve for sowing 10 feet of drilL B. arcuata and B. strkta are two species described by Babington, and lately added to the British Flora. A few others are found in the northern parts of Europe and America. With the exception of the Double Yellow Rocket, none of the species are worth cultivating as ornamental. This plant may be propagated by cuttings, suckers, or dividing the plants at the root.
(Don, Gardener's Dictionary ; Babington, Manual.)