100 CRUCIFER^. Vbsicaria. 



Wet prairies, Arkansas, NnUall ! Dr. Pitcher. /?. Near St. Au^stine, 

 Texas, Dr. Leavenworth ! March- April.— Stem 4-8 inches high, branch- 

 ing from the base, 3-sidecl. Leaves pinnatifid, the radical ones somewhat 

 rosulate, with the segments more or less toothed. Raceme at first corym- 

 bose, but afterwards elongated into a leafy raceme ; the pedicels with a folia- 

 ceou's bract at the base of each, or rather axillary, the leaves gradually di- 

 minishing in size upward. Flowers about half an inch in diameter, golden 

 yellow, fragrant. Sepals linear-oblong, yellow. Petals spatulate, entire, near- 

 ly twice as long as the calyx. Glands 8 by pairs at the base of the sepals, 

 and 2 (emarginate) at the base of the shorter stamens. Ovary linear-oblong, 

 flat : style ensiform : stigma capitate. SiUcle 5-6 lines long and 3-4 broad, 

 (in /?. one-third larger), abruptly acuminated with the persistent style : valves 

 very thin, reticulated with slightly prominent veins : septum complete m the Ar- 

 kansas plant, a mere narrow border in /?., the central part being entirely want- 

 ing ; areolee linear. Seeds in a double series^ exactly orbicular, with a notch 

 at the hilum, dotted ; the border thin, but rigid. Radicle scarcely half as 

 long as the cotyledons, not truly accumbenl, but lying on the side of one of 

 the cotyledons,' very near its edge.— This remarkable plant resembles the 

 tribe Cremolobeaj of R. Brown (Oudney, p. 7.) in its inverted or resupinate 

 seeds ; but differs in so many respects, as well from that, as from all the tribes 

 of De CandoUe, that we have been obliged to give it a place by itself. 



Tribe V. ALYSSINE^. DC. 



Silicle dehiscent ; valves plane or convex : septum broadly oval and 

 membranaceous. Seeds compressed, often margined. Cotyledons 

 plane, accumbent (lying next the placentae), parallel with the septum. 



21. VESICARIA. Lam. ill. t. 559 ; DC. syst. 2. p. 295. 



Silicle globose or ovate, inflated ; valves hemispherical, membranaceous 

 or somewhat rigid. Seeds several (4-6 in each cell, or by abortion' fewer), 

 sometimes margined: funiculi partly adnate to the septum. Petals entire. — 

 Flowers yeUow. 



§ 1. Silicle globose, membranaceous, inflated. — Vesicariana, DC. 



1. F. arc^icct (Richards.): canescent with a steUate pubescence ; radical 

 leaves crowded, spatulate, mostly entire, obtuse ; cauhne ones few, linear ; 

 style slender, about half the length of the globose silicle. — Richards, app. 

 Frankl. journ. ed. 2. p. 26 ; Hook. ! fl. Bor.-Am,. 1. p. 48. 



a. flowers larger; silicles glabrous [or minutely pubescent]. Hook. — V. 

 arctica, Richards.; DC. prodr. 1. p. 159. Alyssum arcticum, Fl. Dan. t. 

 1520. 



/S. flowers smaUer; silicles [densely] pubescent. Hook. — V. arctica. Hook, 

 bot. m.ag. t. 2882. V. arenosa, Richards. I. c. 



British America, from Canada ! to the Arctic Regions ! Island of Anti- 

 costi, Mr. Shepherd! April-May. — 11 Stem 3-8 inches high; the neck 

 marked with the vestiges of former leaves. Pedicels 4-6 lines long. Sflicle 

 somewhat ovate-globose, as large as a small pea. Style filiform: stigma ca- 

 pitate, distinct. Seeds 4-6 in each cell, roundish, without a margin. Funi- 

 culi adnate to the septum towards the base. 



