228 Rhodora [SEPTEMBER 
In 1838 Torrey & Gray described as follows 
Turritis brachycarpa: glabrous and glaucous; radical leaves 
spatulate, toothed; cauline ones linear-lanceolate, acute, sagittate and 
somewhat clasping ; siliques short, rather broadly linear; pedicels of 
the flowers pendulous, of the fruit spreading or ascending. 
Fort Gratiot, Michigan, and Shore of Lake Superior, Dr. Pitcher / 
—2 Stem 1-2 feet high, simple or sparingly branched above. 
Radical leaves pubescent. Flowers rather large, pale purple; the 
pedicels mostly bent downward. Silique about an inch long and 
nearly a line wide, straight or somewhat curved, usually spreading at 
right angles to the stem. Seeds mostly abortive, in 2 distinct rows 
when young ; the ripe and perfect ones nearly as broad as the cell, 
winged on the margin. — The whole plant is sometimes of a purple 
color. Nearly related to the preceding [7: retrofracta, Hook. Arabis 
retrofracta, Graham, probably A. Holboellii, Hornem.]; but dis- 
tinguished by its short siliques." ! 
From the description alone it is tolerably clear that Torrey & Gray 
had a plant habitally resembling the Tadousac-Winnipeg com- 
ponent of Arabis confinis. This interpretation has been further 
strengthened by a tracing and by fragments of the original Pitcher 
material from Fort Gratiot kindly furnished -the writer by Dr. John 
K. Small of the New York Botanical Garden. ‘This material shows 
that not only in habit but in the closely stellate basal leaves is 
Turritis brachycarpa exactly the plant found by Mr. Williams and the 
writer at New Carlisle, and included by Dr. Watson under 4. confinis 
from Tadousac, Lake Winnipeg. and Dixon, Illinois. This charac- 
teristic plant should be known, therefore, as Arabis brachycarpa, 
Britton, based upon Zurritis brachycarpa, Torr. & Gray, the first 
clearly defined name for the plant with spreading pods and stellate- 
pubescent basal leaves. 
The other component of Arabis confinis, the plant with erect pods 
and with the basal leaves glabrous or somewhat pubescent with cen- 
trally attached hairs, although separated by Dr. Watson from 4. 
Drummondi, presents surprising similarities to that species. In fact, 
the very characters by which the * western” 4. Drummondi was dis- 
tinguished from the eastern plant are present in this second compo- 
nent of A. confinis. 
A. Drummondi, Gray, was based upon Zurritis stricta, Graham, 
“which is a true Arabis. — A. Drummond’?  Turritis stricta, 
Graham, based upon material raised in the Royal Botanic Garden at 
! Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 79 (1838). 
? Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. vi. 187 (1866). 
