SyntUipsis. CRUCIFER^. 121 



8. PHYSARIA, Gray. (Name from cjivcrdpLov, a diminutive of <^i;o-a, a 



pair of bellows, suggested by the didymous fruit and slender style. The name 



first applied by Nuttall in Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 102, as a sectional designation 



in the genus Vesicaria.) — A small genus with the whole aspect of Lesquerella, 



but to be distinguished by its strongly didymous fruit with a narrow partition. 



Perennials, many-stemmed and spreading. — Gen. 111. i. 162 ; Wats. Proc. Am. 



Acad. xvii. 363 ; Prantl in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenf. iii. Ab. 2, 187. — 



Species with excellent characters in the fruit, but otherwise very difficult to 



distinguish. [By B. L. Robinson.] 



* Fruit at maturity much inflated : upper sinus acute, usually narrow. 



P. didymocarpa, Gray, 1. c. Very cauescent and lepidote with close white stellate pubes- 

 cence : radical leaves petiolate, with roundish toothed angled or entire blade or oblanceolate 

 and more or less sinuately toothed below : cauliue leaves mostly entire, spatulate : racemes 

 dense ; pedicels becoming 6 or 7 lines long, ascending or spreading : flowers variable as to 

 size : sepals lanceolate, surpassed by the rather narrow pale yellow jjetals : fruit strongly 

 didymous, rather deeply notched above, entire or more or less cordate at base, becoming 

 6 or 8 lines in breadth ; lobes subglobose with no demarcation between the dorsal and 

 lateral surfaces ; walls papery. — Wats. Bot. King Exp. 20, & Proc. Am. Acad. xvii. 363. 

 Vesicaria didymocarpa. Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 49, t. 16 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 102. — The com- 

 monest species and rather variable ; Colorado to N. Nevada and Oregon, northward to Brit. 

 America, chiefly in mountainous regions. A noteworthy form from Middle Park, Colorado, 

 Parry, has a laxer inflorescence and fruit divided almost to the base. 



P. Newberryi, Gray. Very similar in habit and foliage : flowers mostly larger : petals 

 sometimes 8 lines in length, u.sually narrow : cells of the fruit provided with two angles or 

 keels rather sharply separating the convex dorsal portion from the flattish lateral portions ; 

 walls firmer in texture than in the preceding, and in drying tending to fold regularly along 

 the keels. — Bot. Ives Rep. 6, & Am. Jour. Sci. ser. 2, xxxiii. 243 ; Wats. Proc. Am. Acad, 

 xvii. 363. — Mountain valleys, New Mexico near Tegua, Neicberry, Ft. Wingate, Matthews ; 

 Arizona, on Cave Dwellers' Mountain, Lemmon ; S. Utah, Parry ; Nevada, Pahranao'at 

 Mts., Miss Searle, and Mountain Spring, Bailey. 



* '* Fruit strongly compressed laterally, only moderately or scarcely at all inflated : sinus 

 at the apex of the fruit shallow, rounded : species of Oregon and Washington. 

 P. Geyeri, Gray. Whitish with very dense stellate tomentum : radical leaves with short 

 broadly ovate entire obtusely-pointed blades narrowed below to long channelled petioles ; 

 cauliue leaves small, spatulate : racemes rather dense, an inch or two long ; pedicels spread- 

 ing or curved-ascending, 3 lines long : fruit small for the genus, broadly and shallowly 

 obcordate, narrowed toward the base ; cells but 2i to 3i lines long at dehiscence ; replum 

 ovate, much exceeded by the persistent style. — Gen. 111. i. 162; Torr. Bot. Wilkes Exped. 

 232 ; Wats. 1. c. Vesicaria Geyeri, Hook. Lond. Jour. Bot. vi. 70, t. 5. — Sandy soils and 

 volcanic ash ; Upper Spokane Valley, Geyer ; on prairies between the Spokane River and 

 Ft. Colville, Wilkes, and on Spokane River, Henderson. 



P. Oregona, Watson, 1. c. Leaves larger, canescent, not so white as in the preceding : 

 pedicels mostly curved-ascending, 6 lines or more in length : sepals ovate-lanceolate to lance- 

 oblong, 2| lines in length, considerably exceeded by the pale yellowish petals; capsule 

 becoming 6 to 8 lines broad, rounded or very shallowly cordate at base ; cells somewhat 

 inflated but dorsally narrowed to a more or less distinct keel; style scarcely a line in 

 length. — Oregon, gulches near mouth of Pine Creek and upon gravelly banks of Snake 

 River below Brownlee Ferry, Cusick; fl. April, fr. June. 



9. SYNTHLiIPSIS, Gray. (2w^A.tt//t?, compression, in reference to the 

 flattened fruit.) — A small genus of spreading grayisli-pubescent herbs of the 

 Southwest, nearly related on the one hand to Lyrocarpa and on the other to 

 Lesquerella. Stems leafy: leaves sinuate-toothed or pinnatifid. Racemes lax. 



