66 BOTANY OF THE DEATH VALLEY EXPEDITION. 



Lepidium lasiocarpum Nutt. in Torr. & Gr. Fl. i. 115 (1838). Type locality, 

 "near St. Barbara, Upper California." 



In this species the general type of pubescence on the leaves, stems, pedicels, and 

 capsules is from rough-puberulent to short-hispid, and in most cases these organs 

 are entirely covered. In some specimens, however, the leaves and capsules are merely 

 hispid-ciliate on the margins but smooth on their surfaces. Between these two ex- 

 tremes all gradations occur. No. 563 is an unusually large form growing in moist 

 alluvial soil. The species is a common desert annual. Specimens were collected in 

 the Vegas Wash (No. 407) ; in Johnson Canon (Nos. 499, 520, 563), Surprise Canon 

 (No. 636), and Willow Creek Canon (No. 773), Panamint Mountains; near Hot 

 Springs, Panamint Valley (No. 690); and iu the vicinity of Keelcr (Nos. 849, • 

 871, 878.) 



Biscutella califomica (llarv.) in Hook. Loud. Journ. Bot. iv. 77 (1815), under 

 Dithyrcea; Wats. Index, 51 (1878). Type locality, "in California." 



Collected at the mouth of the Vegas Wash (No. 103), and near Kcelor (No. 816). 

 The plant was not seen at any other place. 



Biscutella wislizeni (Engelm.) in Wisliz. Mem. 95 (1818), under DitTtyrcea [mis- 

 spelled Ditkyrea]] Wats. Index, 51 (1878). Type locality, " near Valverde and Fray 

 Cristobal, north of the Jornada del Muerto," New Mexico. 



Noar St. George (No. 1962.) 



Thysanocarpus curvipes Hook. Fl. Bor. Amer. i. 09 (1830). Type locality, " near 

 the Great Falls of the Columbia." 



Nos. 504, 1175, 1332. Determined by Screno Watson. Nos. 1175 and 1332 are from 

 the western side of the Sierra Nevada,, and are of the ordinary typo of the species, 

 with conspicuously clasping stem-leaves, ami the stems hirsute below. No. 117") has 

 pubescent capsules; No. 1332, smooth ones. No. 504, which was collected in John- 

 son Canon, Panamint Mountains, in ultramontane California, differs from typical T. 

 curvipes in having stem and leaves glabrous and glaucous throughout, and in the in- 

 conspicuously clasping character of the cauline leaves, each auricle of the latter not 

 exceeding 1 mm. in breadth. There are included, under this number, plants with two 

 distinct types of pods, one entirely glabrous, and the other densely puberulent Avith 

 club-shaped hairs, those on the cell conspicuously larger, under a lens, than those 

 on the wing. The plants were collected iu the same canon on different days and 

 through a range of altitude of about 300 meters. They were not distinguished in 

 the held, and all the specimens were put in together. In the National Herbarium are 

 other specimens from the southern portion of the Great Basin, which, while show- 

 ing an unimportant variation in the configuration of the wing of the capsule, coin- 

 cide in character with our specimens — Nos. 567 and 568, Palmer, 1876, coinciding with 

 our form having smooth capsules, and the Ives Expedition specimen with the other. 

 No. 129 of the King Survey, although from the Great Basin, is not the same as our plant. 

 The pubescence in the form with hairy capsule is different from that of I. curvipes. It 

 is probable that the future student of this genus will find in these plants at least one 

 species distinct from T. curvipes. 



CAPPARIDACE.53. 



Cleome sparsifolia Wats. Bot. King Surv. 32 (1871). Typo locality, "in Carson 

 Desert, near Kagtown, Nevada." 



Mr. Watson's type specimens were collected in August after all but the uppermost 

 imperfectly developed leaves had dropped; so that one of the most conspicuous 

 characters, the length of the petiole, was absent. These are in some of our speci- 

 mens 4.7 cm. long. The leaftcts are obloug-oblanceolate, obtuse, mucronate, mi- 

 nutely sessile-glandular on the margins, 1cm. or less long, the petiolules 1 to 1.5 mm. 

 long and of an orange-yellow color, strikingly diil'creut from the green of the petiole 



