86 CRUCIFERAB 



Tax. note. — This plant differs in so small a degree from L. virginicum that by the present 

 ■writer it was disposed as a variety of that species in the Manual of the Flowering Plants of Cali- 

 fornia. It is, in our judgment, a nicely doubtful case as to status, though most authors receive 

 it as a species, usually without comment. The lack of corolla is not especially significant, since 

 this organ may sometimes be present in a reduced state ; and in the related Lepidium divergens 

 Ostcrh. the petals may, likewise, be present or absent. 



Locs. — Potrero, San Diego, Cleveland; Escondido, C. V. Meyer 90; Barstow, Jepson 6623; 

 Kesslcr Peak, Ivanpah Mta., Jepson 15,819; Wells Ranch, Inyo Co., Kennedy; Silver Canon, 

 White Mts., Jepson 7231; Mono Lake, Ottley 1056; Yosemite, Jepson 10,477; Big Valley, Lassen 

 Co., Baker 4- Nutting; Jarnigan, Humboldt Co., Chesnut 4- Drew; Yreka Creek, Butler 130, 1612. 



Eefs. — Lepidium densiflorum Schrad. Ind. Sem. Goett. 4 (1832), based on a garden plant 

 in the Goettingen garden. L. virginic^ivi var. calif ornicum Jepson, Man. 439 (1925), type loc. 

 Barstow, Mohave Desert, Jepson 6623. 



11. L. pubescens Desv. Wayside Pepper-grass. Stems several from the base, 

 branching, diffuse or prostrate, 3 to 6 inches long, the plants often closely matting 

 the ground; herbage light green, puberulent; blades of leaves pinnately divided 

 or parted, Y'2 to 2 inches long, the segments linear and entire, or commonly 3-toothed 

 or 3-eleft, l"to 3 lines long; racemes many, dense (often with the pods imbricated), 

 and rather narrow, the pedicels shorter than the pods, ascending, % line long; 

 petals setaceous, minute, white; silicles elliptic, V/^ lines long, glabrous, faintly 

 reticulate, the teeth at the apex short and obtuse, the sinus v-shaped. 



Common in hard beaten soil, by paths and waysides, 5 to 1500 feet; Coast 

 Ranges from Humboldt Co. to San Luis Obispo Co. ; northern Sacramento Valley 

 and south to the northern borders of the San Joaquin Valley; Sierra Nevada foot- 

 hills. Naturalized from Chile. Mar.-Apr. 



Flower note. — This species has often been described as lacking petals. In reality there are 

 petals present ; they are setaceous, minute, and may have been mistaken for filaments. The fertile 

 stamens are 2, but 4 sterile filaments also occur. The sepals are more or less white-margined. 



Note on origin. — In his monograph. Die Gattung Lepidium, Thellung regards our plant 

 (L. menziesii and L. bipinnatifidum of Cal. authors) as conspeeifie with L. pubescens Desv. and 

 we here accept his view. He raises, however, the query as to whether this species may not have 

 arisen independently in both the Californian and Chilean areas. In our view no problem exists 

 on that hypothesis. The species, as it occurs in California, is certainly an introduction, undoubt- 

 edly from South America. It has all the habits and peculiarities of an introduced plant, an argu- 

 ment already well expressed by Greene in Erythea (1:181). It was evidently introduced in the 

 central coast region in the 1870s. It is noticed in the Botany of the California Geological Survey 

 (1876) from one station only (Plaeerville) as a var. strictum Wats, of L. oxycarpum. 



The earliest collections known to us are as follows: San Francisco, Vasey in 1875; Hupa 

 Valley, Rattan in 1878; live oaks of the Mokelumne River, Rattan in 1878; Petaluma, Congdon 

 300 in 1880. While thus introduced so long ago it does not appear to occur in Southern Calif oi'nia 

 even at the present day. 



Locs. — Coast Ranges : Hydesville, Humboldt Co., Tracy 3276 ; Round Valley, Mendocino Co., 

 Westerman; Calistoga, Jepson 13,361 ; Denverton, Solano Co., Jepson 13,358 ; Bolinas, Chesnut 

 4- Brew; Olema, E. A. Walker 1172; Mt. Diablo, Chandler 942; Berkeley, Davy 4233; San Fran- 

 cisco, Kellogg ; San Bruno, San Mateo Co., Jepson 13,362 ; Coyote Creek, Santa Clara Co., Chand- 

 ler 924a; Estrella, San Luis Obispo Co., Jared. Great Valley: Redding, Blankinship; Grease- 

 wood Hills, w. Tehama Co., Jepson 13,359 ; Marysville Buttes, Jepson 13,360 ; Sacramento, 

 Bolander; Waverley, San Joaquin Co., Sanford. Sierra Nevada foothills: lone, Jepson 15,211; 

 Copperopolis, Calaveras Co., Davy 1329; Rattlesnake Gulch, e. of Friant, Jepson 15,119. 



Refs. — Lepidium pubescens Desv. Jour. Bot. 3:165, 180 (1814), type loc. Peru, Dombey. 

 L. menziesii Greene, Fl. Fr. 275 (1891), Man. Reg. S. F. Bay 24 (1894). L. Upinnatifidum K. 

 Bdg. Zoe 3:49 (1893), 4:300 (1894) ; Rob. in Gray, Syn. Fl. li:128 (1895) ; Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. 

 Cal. 227 (1901), ed. 2, 192 (1911), Man. 439, fig. 425 (1925). L. strictum Rattan, Anal. Key 25 

 (1888) ; Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 11. cc. L. oxycarpum var. strictum Wats. Bot. Cal. 1:76 (1876), 

 type loc. PlacervOle, Rattan. 



L. reticulatum Howell, Fl. Nw. Am. 64 (1897). Greene in Pitt. 3:156 (1897) identifies this 

 with the plant well-known to California authors, by some called L. bipinnatifidum (K. Brandegee, 

 Zoe 4:300), by others L. menziesii (Greene, Erythea 1:181). Thellung (Gatt. Lepidium 253) 

 takes up the name L. reticulatum and quotes as a synonym the name L. bipinnatifidum as used 

 by North Ajnerican authors (Gray, Brandegee), One of the collections which he cites (Parish 

 1187, San Bernardino) is, however, L. densiflorum. As we have indicated above Thellung also 

 (I.e. 249) extends the species L. pubescens of Chile to California; he cites (amongst other coUee- 



