IIQ CRUCIFER^. Lesquerella. 



7. LiESQUEII£IIjLA, Watsoii. - (Dedicated to Leo Lesquereux, distin- 

 o-uished palfeontologist and bryologist, bora near Neufchatel, 1805, died 1889.) — 

 A laro-e and natural genus of North America, distinguished from Alyssum by 

 having usually turgid jjods (lenticular in a few species) and unappendaged fila- 

 ments, from the gerontogeous genus Vesicaria by having smaller flowers, shorter 

 spatulate rather than unguiculate petals, smaller pods with more or less nerved 

 septum and generally immarginate seeds. The genus occupies the greater part 

 of the continent from the western borders of the Great Basin, Arizona, and 

 Lower California to Texas, Kentucky, the Saskatchewan, Labrador, and Green- 

 land. A single species is S. American. — Proc. Am. Acad, xxiii. 249 ; Wats. 

 & Coulter in Gray, Man. ed. 6, 68. Vesicaria of authors, not Lam., as to 

 American species (excl. Physaria), thus Gray, Gen. 111. i. 161, t. 70; Benth. & 

 Hook. Gen. i. 73 ; Wats. Bibl. Index, 74. [By S. Watson.] 



§ 1. Alysmus, Watson. Pubescence loosely or somewhat hispidly stellate : 

 winter annuals, with several often simple leafy ascending or subdecunibent stems, 

 not canescent or scarcely so : pods round or round-ovate, mostly sessile ; the cells 

 4-8-ovuled. — Proc. Am. Acad, xxiii. 250. 



* Seeds margined : filaments dilated at base : style shorter than the pod. 

 •1— Pods flattened, round-ovate, strigose-hairy ; septum not hyaline. 

 L. Lescurii, Watson, I. c. Stems slender, usually branching, a span high or less : leaves 

 oblong-ovate or oblong, toothed ; the cauline sessile and aiu-iculate : petals broadly spatulate, 

 2 to 3 lines long : filaments inflated at tlie base : pods 2 or 3 lines long, ascending, the style 

 not half so long ; cells 4-ovuled ; the funiculus free. — Vesicaria Lescurii, Gray, Man. ed. 2, 

 38. Alijssum Lescurii, Gray, Man. ed. 5, 72. — Hills near Nasliville, Tenn. 

 -(— -1— Pods globose, glabrous. 

 L. grandiflora, Watson, I.e. Finely pubescent, rarely somewhat hispid: stems a foot 

 high or more : radical leaves oblauceolate, more or less deeply sinuate or siuuate-pinnatifid ; 

 the cauline oblauceolate to oblong or oblong-lanceolate, narrowed at base or somewhat auricu- 

 late-clasping : petals obovate, 2 to 5 lines long : filaments gradually dilated below : pods 

 suberect on ascending or divaricate pedicels, 2 or 3 lines in diameter, abrupt at base : the 

 style rarely a line long ; cells usually 8-ovuled. — Vesicaria grandiflora, Hook. Bot. Mag. 

 t. 3464; Don in Sweet, Brit. Fl. Card. ser. 2, t. 404; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 101, excl. var. ; 

 Gray, PI. Lindh. pt. 2, 148. V. brevisti/Ia, Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 102. — Middle counties of 

 Texas, from the Gulf to the Red River. 

 L. auriculata Watson, 1. c. More hirsute with spreading hairs : cauline leaA'es more or 

 less auricled : petals narrower : filaments abruptly and In-oadly dilated at base : pods slightly 

 narrowed at base ; the style half its length. — Vesicaria auriculata, Engelm. & Gray, PI. 

 Lindh. pt. 1, 32. — Dry prairies near San Felipe, Texas, Lindheimer. 



* * Seeds immarginate : filaments slightly dilated : pods subdepressed-globose. 



H— Pods hirsute. 

 L. lasiocarpa, Watson. Low, and slightly hispid : leaves coarsely toothed or pinnatifid ; 

 the lower oblauceolate ; the cauline oblong, sessile, not auriculate : petals obovate, 3 lines 

 long : filaments sulKlilated for half their length : pod twice longer than the stout style ; 

 cells 6-ovuled. — Wats. 1. c. 251. Vesicaria lasiocarpa, Hook. Bot. Mag. under t. 3464, the 

 name onlv; Gray, PI. Wright, ii. 13, in part. — Near Ringold Barracks on the Lower Rio 

 Grande, Texas, Capt. E. K. Smith. (Tamaulipas, Mex., Berlandier, no. 3101.) 

 H— .)— Pods glabrous, substipitate. 

 L. densiflora Watson, 1. c. Finely pubescent and the stems somewhat canescent, a foot 

 hif'-h or less : leave.? entire or sparingly repand-denticulate, oblauceolate, attenuate to the 



