io8 



MUSTARD FAMILY 



toothed. Calyx cylindric, ^ to y 2 in. long. Corolla about Y^ 

 in. across, the petals with slender claws and obovate blades. 

 Pods linear, ascending or spreading, 4-sided, 3 or 4 in. long, 

 with a stout beak. 



The stout, erect, mostly simple stems of this Wall Flower 

 bear showy terminal racemes of usually bright-orange flowers. 

 In this form it is common from the foothills up through the 

 pine forests to about 8000 ft. alt., but on the high mountains 

 it is replaced by the var. perenne Coville, which has lemon- 

 yellow iflowers. In both forms the root may be either biennial 

 or perennial. 



11. RADICULA. Water Cress. 

 Nearly or quite glabrous plants of wet places. Pods linear 

 or oblong, nearly cylindric, on spreading pedicels. Seeds 

 minute, in 2 rows in each cell. 



1. R. nasturtium-aquaticum B. & R. Water Cress. Stems 

 creeping and rooting at the joints but 

 with erect flowering branches. Leaves 

 with roundish or elliptic segments, the 

 terminal one largest. Flowers white, 

 less than J4 m - across, the petals twice 

 as long as the sepals. Pods y 2 to 1 in. 

 long, on spreading pedicels about as 

 long. (Nasturtium officinale R. Br.) 



The Water Cress is an excellent 

 salad plant, the herbage being very ten- 

 der and palatable and, like all other 

 members of the Mustard Family, en- 

 tirely free from poisonous properties. 

 It grows only in wet places at middle 

 and lower altitudes, where the succu- 

 lent, leafy stems may be seen rising 

 from the water or trailing along damp 

 banks and bearing short racemes of 



white flowers. Especially good specimens were noted in the 



Yosemite Valley. 



2. R. curvisiliqua Hook. Western Yellow Cress. Stems 

 y 2 to V/ 2 ft. long, often rooting in mud from the lower joints. 

 Leaves pinnatifid, the segments either narrow or broad. 

 Flowers small, yellow. Pedicels -fV in. or less long, spreading. 

 Pods % to 24 in - l° n g> cylindric, erect, often curved; seeds 

 in 2 rows in each cell. (Nasturtium curvisiliqua Nutt.) — Near 

 streams and in other wet places. 



