Candytuft - iberis

CANDY, or Candie, is the old English name for the island of Crete, and the tufted flower before us having been brought from Crete, obtained the name of candytuft. It is recorded by Gerarde that he received seeds of the "candie-mustard" from Lord Edward Zouche, and that they produced in his garden flowers that were "somtimes blewe, often purple, somtimes carnation or horse-flesh, and seldom white," their leaves being of "a graie or ouerworne greene colour." The generic name Iberis refers to the Spanish peninsula, the ancient Iberia, where the candy-tufts abound.