152 BRASSICACEAE. 



4. STREPTANTHUS Nutt. 



Erect branching often glaucous annual or biennial 

 herbs, with entire or toothed rarely pinnatlfid leaves 

 and purple or white flowers. Sepals ovate or oblong, 

 equal at base or 1 or rarely both pair saccate at base, 

 usually colored, their tips erect or spreading. Petals 

 narrow or with a well developed blade and channeled 

 claw, twisted or undulate. The longer filaments some- 

 times connate; anthers elongated, sagittate at base. 

 Pod linear, compressed; valves 1 -nerved. Seeds in 1 

 row, flattened and more or less winged- Cotyledons 

 accumbent. 



1. S. heterophyllus Nutt. More or less pubescent throughout 

 with spreading simple hairs; stem usually simple, 1 m. high or less; 

 leaves linear, at least the lowest pinnatifid with divaricate lobes or 

 toothed, the upper usually entire; flowers purplish or white, 8-12 

 mm. long; calyx narrow; sepals slightly saccate; pods abruptly 

 reflexed on slender pedicels 5-7 cm. long, about 1.5 mm. wide, 

 beaked by a slender style; seeds small and crowded, narrowly 

 winged. 



Occasional throughout our range; confined mostly to the chaparral 

 belt. April-May. 



5. LEPIDIUM L. Peppergrass. 



Erect or diffuse, glabrous or pubescent, annual or 

 rarely biennial or perennial herbs, with pinnatifid, lobed 

 or entire leaves and racemose white or whitish flowers. 

 Petals small or rarely wanting. Stamens often fewer 

 than 6. Stigmas, in ours, sessile or nearly so. Silicles 

 oblong or obovate, flattened contrary to the partition, 

 more or less emarginately winged at the apex; valves 

 keeled, dehiscent. Seeds 1 in each cell, flattened. Coty- 

 ledons incumbent or rarely accumbent. 



Capsule merely emarginate. 



Pedicels terete. 1. L. medium. 



Pedicels flattened. 



Stems spreading or decumbent, hirsute. 2. L. lasiocarpum. 

 Stems erect, glabrate or sparsely pubes- 

 cent. 3. L. nitidum. 

 Capsule with 2 distinct apical teeth. 4. L. acutidens. 



1. L. medium Greene. Glabrous or nearly so; stems simple 

 below, branching above, erect, 2-9 cm. high; leaves lanceolate, 

 dentate, rarely pinnatifid; stem leaves entire; pedicels slender, 

 terete, spreading or divaricate, longer than the capsule; stamens 

 2-4; capsule orbicular, retuse, glabrous. 



Common in the valleys and mountains throughout our range. 



