72 TETR ADYNAMIA. SILIQ^UOSA. 



thick, resembling those of man}' species o^ Brassica, un- 

 didated, smool h, ,^laucoiiS, interruptedly and almost ly- 

 ratelypinnutitid. Flowers very numerous, raceme 12 to 18 

 or more inches long. Calix 4-leaved dt-cussate, nearly 

 an inch in diameter, of a deep and bright yellow border- 

 ing on orange, leaves ligulaic, obuise; subovate at the 

 base, a little concave, incujvately spreading. Petals 4, 

 erect, the claws connivent in tiie form of a long 4-sided 

 tube, interniilly pubescent; lin;b short and oblong, sulphur 

 yellow. Glands 4. Stam.na 6, nearly equal in length, 

 exserted and alniosi double the length of the calix, 4 of 

 them disposed by opposite pairs, (as in all other genuine 

 Cruciferous plants;) filaments flat and subulate, anthers 

 linear, at length recurved. Style and stigma scarcely ap- 

 parent Silique slender and conspicuously stipitate, 15 lines 

 long, torulose, 2-cellcd, and 2-vaived, dissepiment mem- 

 branaceous and parallel. Seeds rathersmall,br!giu brown, 

 linear-oblong, the base somewhat acute, partly plano- 

 convex; marked with a central groove. Enibryon flat 

 and erect, no;- incurved. H ab. Commencine, (as \> e obser- 

 ved,) near the confluence of Paint creek and the Missni- 

 ri, g-owing on the talus of bioken calcareous cliffs; fr(,m 

 hence it occur.-; locally for 2 or 300 miles further up tije 

 river, so that i. ap])ears only to occupy a limited belt 

 which traverses tiie .Missouri. Itfloweis in ttiemoirh of 

 May, and is by far the most splendid plant in the Natural 

 Order of CRuciFEuyE, from which it is inseparable in 

 point of afilinit\, noiv. ithstanding its very singular calix, 

 corolla, ana stipitate sihque, which la} claim to the or 

 der Capparides »n common wth the _t,enus Stephaniay 

 to which tiie present appears nearly allied, and holds that 

 kind of interesting and interniediate rank which evinces 

 the existence of a general and natural allaTice throughout 

 thr- vegetable kingdom. The ambiguous character of 

 Sta7ileya, and its near affinity to the suspicious Cappa- 

 rides, we had occasion to orove; its large, and gl^MCc^s 

 lea • B, so much like some of the cultivated varieties of 

 J5r«5s/ca6fer<icea, hud Uiduced us to collect them as ap ar- 

 ticle of diet, but 'o niore than half ol those who had par- 

 taken of this deleterious vegetable, after being boiled, it 

 proved a violent emetic; which I suspect to be the case 

 Vvitli most of liie species of Cletme. 



The Brassica li ashitana^ of Muhlenberg's Catalogue, 

 will, when better known, probably prove a second species 

 of this genvis with red or scarlet flovvers, as I have been 

 informed b\ hunters who have traversed those regions — 

 Of this plant there is no specimen in Muhlenberg's her- 

 barium. 



