CKUCIFER.E. 2()7 



lo. XASTURTIUM, Plitni. Branching herbs gTowiug in water or 

 wet places, glabrous, or hirsute with simple hairs; the roots annual, 

 biennial or perennial. Leaves usually ly rate-toothed or pinnatifid; the 

 petioles often aiiriculate-dilated at base. Flowers small, yellow or white. 

 Sepals equal at base, often yellowish, spreading. Petals spreading, 

 obovate or cuneiform, sometimes 0. Pods usually oblong or linear, 

 sometimes much shorter and even subglobose, rather turgid, the strongly 

 convex valves without midvein. Seeds very small, usually numerous 

 and forming 2 rows in each cell, rounded, somewhat flattened, impressed- 

 pnnctate; cotyledons accumbent. 



* Petals irliiie, exceeding the calyx; stems rooting at the decutnbent base; 



roots fibrous. — Genus Caedaminum, Moench. 



1. N. OFFICINALE, R. Br. Hort. Kew. 2d ed. iv. 110 (1812). Cardaininuin 

 nasturHnni, Mcench, Meth. 262 (1794:). Sisymbriuiii nasturtliun, Linn. 

 Sp. PI. ii. 657 (1753). Nasturtium aquaticum, Trag. Hist. 82 (1552). 

 (Watercress). Aquatic, decumbent or procumbent, rooting at the 

 lower joints, the branches f^ — 5 ft. long, stoutish and hollow: leaves 

 I)innate, with rounded or elongated obtusely sinuate leaflets, the terminal 

 one largest: petals 1}4 — 2 lines long: pods )^ in. or more, acute at each 

 end, equalling the spreading pedicels; valves faintly nerved; style short, 

 thick. Abundant in shallow ponds and pools and along streamlets; 

 naturalized from the Old Workl, where from time immemorial it has 

 been used as a culinary and medicinal herb. It is of very rank growth 

 in California; stems five or six feet high having been observed. 



* * Petals vihite; stems stout and, with the large leaves, erect from a large 

 perpendicular simple or branching root. — Genus Aemoracia, Ruppius. 



2. N. Aemoracia, Fries, ex Gray Man. 65 (Hoese Radish). Earlier 

 radical leaves pinnatifid; later ones very large, oblong, crenate: stem 

 2 — 3 ft. high: pods globular (seldom formed); style very short. -Escaped 

 from cultivation and naturalized in moist lands along the lower San 

 Joaquin. 



* * * Sepals and petals very small, spreading, yellow or greenish; pod 



often short; root biennial or annual (ejcept in n. 3). — 

 Genus Radicula, Dillenius. 



3. X. simiatuiii, Nutt.; T. & G. Fl. i. 73 (1838). Ascending or decum- 

 bent, from slender perennial rootstocks, 3 — 10 in. high; sparingly villous: 

 leaves of oblong-lanceolate outline, 1 — 3 in. long, all alike sinuate- 

 pinnatifid with mostly entire lobes: fl. light yellow, 2 lines long, on 

 pedicels twice as long; sepals and petals disposed to be persistent: 

 silicle oval or oblong, \% — 4 lines long; style one-third the length of 

 the silicle. — In the Sierra from Lake Tahoe northward and eastward. 

 Our plant is as here described; but much longer and even curved pods are 



