136 Rhodora 1 [JuLy 
cauline leaves oval, crenate, and slightly if at all lyrate or angulate, 
and the stoutish beak of the silique only 0.5-1 mm. long. Our com- 
mon plant of the East which has passed as B. stricta has the upper 
cauline leaves coarsely angulate-dentate and the beak of the silique 
is rather slender and 2-3 mm. long. In these characters it matches 
material from England and western and central Europe which has 
been erroneously passing as В. stricta, but which is treated by Rouy 
& Foucaud as B. vulgaris, subsp. vulgaris, var. longisiliquosa Carion. 
The other plant with elongate slender style, the plant from Seattle, 
Washington, specially noted in the Synoptical Flora ' on account of its 
very short siliques, is apparently the var. brachycarpa of Rouy & Fou- 
caud. 
Of the plants of the second group, i. e., those with the upper cauline 
leaves mostly lyrate-pinnatifid and with short thick styles, Barbarea 
verna (В. praecox) needs no discussion. ‘The indigenous species, 
however, demand special comment. ‘The most broadly distributed of 
these has short thickish pedicels and is the plant thought by early 
students of our flora to be identical with the European B. praecox 
(B. verna). Richardson, Chamisso & Schlechtendal, Sir Wm. Hooker, 
Torrey & Gray, and their contemporaries all considered it B. praecox, 
Hooker separating it from B. vulgaris by the “stigma short, 
nearly as broad as the valve.” ” Nuttall apparently considered 
it a distinct species, his B. gracilis,’ from “Oregon,” but subsequent 
authors have generally identified it with the European B. vulgaris 
or B. stricta. From B. verna (B. praecox), to which the indigenous 
plant is very closely related, it differs in its basal leaves; those of the 
former plant having very numerous small leaflets, those of our northern 
species very few or none. From В. vulgaris and its variety longi- 
siliquosa our plant is quickly separated by the characters already 
emphasized. From true B. stricta the plant is readily distinguished 
by its much longer pods and by the narrower more lyrate-pinnatifid 
upper leaves. Recently this distinct plant with ‘pod 2-2.5 em. long 
and scarcely 2 mm. wide, slightly angled, ascending, or at first nearly 
erect, on pedicels 2-3 mm. long; style very short, scarcely 0.5 mm. 
long," * has been named by Rydberg B. americana. The plant 
! Robinson in Gray, Syn. Fl. i. fasc. 1. 150 (1895). 
2 Hook, Fl. Bor.- Am. i. 40 (1829). 
3 Nutt. ex Torr. & Gr. Fl. i. 75 (1838). 
4 Rydb. Mem. N. Y. Bot. Gard. i. 174 (1900). 
