Alyssum. CRUCIFER^. 115 



5. LOBULARIA, Desv. (New Latin hhiilus, a little lobe, presumably 

 in reference to the two-parted or lobed hairs.) — A small group of Old World 

 plants, chiefly of the Mediterranean region, often united with Alyssum, but of 

 distinct habit and with very different and characteristic pubescence. — Jour. Bot. 

 iii. 162 (1814) ; Prantl in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenf. iii. Ab. 2, 195. Konig, 

 Adans. Fam. ii. 420. Aduseton, Adans. 1. c. ii. (23). Koniga, R. Br. in Denh. 

 & Clapp. App. 214. — The name here retained is the earliest desirable generic 

 designation, since one of Adanson's names was not Latinized and the other 

 spelled in two ways by the author himself, who completes their confusion by 

 transposing them in his prefatory errata. [By B. L. Robinson.] 



L. MARfxiMA, Desv. 1. c. (SwEET Alyssum.) Perennial, branching near the base, some- 

 times a little woody below : branches slender, leafy : leaves oblong-lanceolate to linear, 

 appressed-pnbescent with hairs attached in the middle : racemes numerous, becoming elon- 

 gated ; pedicels widely spreading or divaricate, 3 lines in length : flowers white, fragrant : 

 petals fully twice as long as sepals ; blades suborbicular, entire, patulous : filaments enlarged 

 below but not toothed : capsule orbicular, a line in diameter; cells 1 -seeded. — Clijpeola 

 maritima, L. Spec. ii. 652. Ali/ssuiu maritimum, Lam. Diet. i. 98; DC. Syst. ii. 318. 

 Koniija maritima, R. Br. I.e.; Britton, Mem. Torr. Club, v. 175. — Cultivated and occa- 

 sionally spontaneous or somewhat established by roadsides. (Adv. from Eu.) 



6. ALiYSSUM, Tourn. (Etymology, d privative, and Xva-aa, madness, 

 the plants having been regarded in ancient times as an antidote for hydrophobia, 

 see Pliny, N. H. xi. 57, 95.) — Herbaceous or suffrutescent plants, natives of the 

 Old World north of the tropics. One species is indigenous in Alaska and another 

 of different section is more or less established in the United States. — Tourn. 

 ace. to L. Gen. no. 533; DC. Prodr. i. 160; Reichenb. Ic. Fl. Germ. ii. 18-21; 

 Benth. & Hook. Gen. i. 73. [By B. L. Robinson.] 



§ 1. EuALYSSUM, Boiss. Filaments laterally toothed: cells of the fruit 

 2-seeded. — Fl. Orient, i. 264. — Alaskan perennial (and many Old World 

 species). 



A. Americanum, Greene. Low, spreading, densely stellate-pubescent, perennial : stems 

 decumbent, 3 to 5 inches in height, leafy up to the subcorymbose inflorescence : leaves spatu- 

 late, pale above, wliite beneath, entire, 3 to 6 lines long, a tliird as broad, rounded at the 

 apex : racemes even in fruit but an inch in length ; pedicels divaricate, becoming 3 lines 

 long : sepals ovate-oblong, obtuse : petals with suborbicular narrowly notched blade and 

 very slender claw : filaments appendaged : capsule broadly obovate, nearly 2 lines long, 

 with a slender persistent style less than half its length. — Pittonia, ii. 224. — This plant 

 appears to stand close to A. montanum, L., and better fruiting specimens are necessary to 

 prove with much certainty its distiuctness from this and other closely related species of the 

 Old World. 



§ 2. PsiLONEMA, C A. Meyer (as genus). Filaments unappendaged : petals 

 cuneate : cells of the fruit 2-seeded. — Meyer in Ledeb. Fl. Alt. iii. 50. 



A. CALYcfNUM, L. Low Spreading annual, stellate-pubescent, branching from near the base : 

 leaves numerous, small, spatulate, entire, ascending : racemes becoming 2 to 8 inclies long ; 

 fiedicels 1 to 2 lines in length : calyx wholly or partially persisting until the maturity of the 

 fi-uit : petals small, white or nearly so, scarcely surpassing the sepals : fruit orbicular, 

 double convex but with thin margin. — Spec. ed. 2, ii. 908 ; Wate. & Coulter in Gray, Man. 

 ed. 6, 68. A. alijssoides, L. Sj'st. ed. 10, ii. 1130. Cli/peola alijssoides, L. Spec. 652. — 

 Roadsides, etc., across the continent, not infrequent ; fl. May, June. . (Adv. from Eu.) 



