CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY NOI 515 ISia 



and inaimbent cotyledon Rydberg of course proposes new. iiamef"jf or --<iadh 

 of these forms so far as he has seen them, which is not far. Robinscm 

 particularly mentions the "flat'* seeds of Virginicum^ but there. ar?j)ust. as 

 flat seeds with incumbent cotyledons and apetalous flowers. The dissection 

 of the leaves amounts to nothing. Southern forms almost allvays have more 

 dissected leaves. An example of this is in the proposed L. JTbuirheii 

 Wooton, which is a strict fomi of mcatanum with congestedniijifloraBceitee, 

 another common southern form, but the style at once gives Thurbierii awmy 

 as a derivative of montanum. AiKJther case of abnommlity is in IL. 

 Eastwoodae Wooton, which is a tall and straight alyssoides tendin^itoTvarfl 

 the annual forms (apetalum). To admit all the proposed species of 

 recent authors is an admissi<Hi feat fliere are no characters wtirth '"wftileMa 

 the genus. On the other hand fiiere are certain groupsj:lhat"are^ w3i 

 marked. L, integrifolium nanum and Fremoati are clearly definable 

 fcpecies, scopulorum and montanum are less so. Among the winter annuals, 

 which include all the rest, there is hopeless crossing except in dictyotum. 

 The apetalous form seems the most permanent I^Liusiocarpumf seems -Jb 



with apetalum. 



J 



but there is more or less hybridizing 

 ■g*s lack of preciaon is ih^his mating "the 



as my Lepidium montanum var, alyssoides (Zoe 4* 266)V-""Not'6ray['*' 

 In the place where I created the new name var alyssoides T state tfeat"^!! 

 is based on Gray's "Lepidium alyssoides PI. Fend IC'T I >da not'^citE 

 any type locality for my name. Tlien of coarse as P intended Lc^alys- 



lynonym 



oes 



type 



Tonesii. "^ Tlis 



first place puts L. Jonesii as a synonym of L. alyssoides Gray as the first 

 line of his name shows where he quotes my var."^ alyssooides as a-synonym 

 of his Jon^ii, Though later on he quotes my specimen" of L.^ alyssoides 

 from St. George as the type of his Jonesii he cannot make two'diifferent 

 things the type of anything, and so his Joehsii passes into synonymy and 

 he must perforce make a new name for the St. George specimen. Now~all 

 this fuss over the thing is made without 'his ever at the time having been 

 on the field or knowing anything about' the variations of L. montanum, 

 £nd yet throughout his botanical inspiration he knows that my Sf7 George 

 specimen is a new species. Too bad the rest" of us have to depend on 

 reason for our work, when it would be so much easier to chip off a" "slice 

 of botanical inspiration from his botanical god and 'get the trnth 'without 

 so much labor. There is nothing more certain than that Rydbefg is ah;va;\^ 

 a blunderer, both in identification and biblioffraphv, and cannot be trtjsfed 



utmosf 



on Lemdium 



nrheHtfngV Imiivifffitting^*^ 



