1909]  Fernald,— North American Species of Barbarea 135 
podded plant from Seattle, Washington, which is specially commented 
upon in the Synoptical Flora. 
The second group is typified by the sometimes cultivated European 
Barbarea verna (Mill.) Asch. (B. praecox Sin.), the silique of which has 
a characteristically short broad beak (0.5-2 mm. long) and the cauline 
leaves of which are lyrate-pinnatifid. Besides this introduced B. 
verna, however, we have in America a number of well marked indig- 
enous plants with short thick beaks and usually lyrate-pinnatifid 
upper leaves. The most widely distributed of these is the plant 
named by Dr. Rydberg B. americana, but taken by many other recent 
authors to be indigenous forms of both B. vulgaris and B. stricta. 
The relationships and identities of certain of these plants demand 
special consideration and they may be most appropriately discussed in 
the order mentioned in the two groups above. 
Barbarea vulgaris, the common introduced plant of the East, 1s 
fairly well understood, but the status of B. arcuata Reichenb., some- 
times distinguished as a subspecies or a variety from B. vulgaris is 
more doubtful. B. arcuata is often separated, at least varietally, by 
the slightly larger flowers which are more loosely disposed in anthesis, 
the slightly arcuate and more slender siliques, and the narrower seeds; 
but in the American specimens examined these characters do not seem 
sufficiently marked to make it clear that we have two different plants. 
The plant which has been passing in the eastern United States as 
Barbarea stricta Andrz. differs, as already intimated, from the more 
northern indigenous plant which has been identified with it in the 
longer slender beak of the pod and the angulate or coarsely toothed 
but rarely pinnatifid upper leaves. ‘This plant of the Eastern States, 
like B. vulgaris, is found chiefly in the neighborhood of settlements, 
and though it is commonly recognized by its closely appressed and 
crowded siliques it is often found with some of the pedicels spreading 
in such a way as to suggest B. vulgaris. With its foliage, siliques, and 
beaks essentially as in B. vulgaris, and differing only in having the 
siliques closely appressed, this plant seems more appropriately con- 
sidered a variety of the latter species than specifically distinct. But 
that the plant is really B. stricta Andrz., with which it has generally 
been identified, is very improbable. True B. stricta of Europe (B. 
parviflora Fries) as shown by specimens from Fries, Blomberg, Anders- 
son, and Heimerl and as treated by recent European writers on the 
genus, is a plant of northern and northeastern Europe with the upper 
