128 CRUCIFER^. Lepidium. 



Proc. A.m. Acad. xvii. 322, in small part. L. Virginicum, Macoun, Cat. Canad. PI. 57, as to 

 eastern plant ; MacMillau, Metasp. Min. Val. 257. — Common and v/idely distributed, 

 extending from New England across the continent and south to Texas, where, as in the 

 northwest, probably indigenous ; in the Eastern States a wayside weed appearing as though 

 introduced. (N. & Centr. Asia, adv. in Eu.) 

 L. ruderAle, L. Nearly or quite glabrous, 8 to 12 inches high, exhaling a strong disagree- 

 able odor (like that of Senebieru didyma): lowest leaves bipiuuatifid, seldom persisting; 

 tlie upper narrow, linear, entire or few-toothed : racemes more slender and loosely flowered 

 than in the preceding : flowers small, apetalous, diandrous : capsule smooth, marginless, 

 broadly ovate rather than orbicular, commonly less than a line in diameter : pedicels slender, 

 1^ lines long, more scattered and less regularly spreading than in the preceding. — Spec. ii. 

 645 ; Gray, Gen. 111. i. 168, t. 73, f. 8-10 ; Wats. & Coulter in Gray, Man. ed. 6, 73. — Waste 

 places and roadsides. Nova Scotia, Macoim, to Texas, Reverchon, becoming frequent about 

 tlie larger cities of the Atlantic seaboard ; fl. a little earlier than the two preceding. May to 

 July. (Nat. from Eu.) Leafy and paniculately branched specimens not differing from 

 tliis species in their essential characters have been collected in the Winnipeg Valley, at 

 Fort Ellis, and in the Saskatchewan region, Bourcjeau, and at Maple Creek, Macoun. 

 ++ ++ Lower and more spreading, pubescent or hirsute. 

 L. lasiocarpum, Ndtt. Branching from or near the base, decumbent (rarely if ever with 

 a single erect stem), hirsute with spreading hairs or tomentulose: lower leaves pinnately 

 parted ; segments usually rather broad, obtuse or rounded, sparingly toothed or entire : 

 racemes several ; pedicels distinctly flattened, horizontally spreading, 1+ lines long; sepals 

 broadly oblong, usually purple, with thin white margins : petals minute or none : capsule 

 suborbicular, thin-margined near the apex, hispid-pubescent upon both faces or at least upon 

 the edge (very rarely quite smooth). — Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 115; Wats. Proc. Am. 

 Acad. xi. 113, & xvii. 322; Brew. & Wats. Bot. Calif, i. 46. L. Wrightii, Gray, PL Wright. 

 ii. 15. L. ruderale, var. lasiocarpum, Engelm. in Gray, 1. c. — S. W. Colorado, Brandegee, 

 and Texas to S. California. (Adj. Mex.) Also introduced upon railway ballast in Oregon, 

 Henderson. A species of definite geographic distribution, distinguished from the following 

 by its almost invariably hispid pods and less deeply divided leaves. 

 L. BipiNNAxfFiDUM, Desv. Low, branching from or near the base: leaves all pinnatifid, the 

 lowest bipinnatifid; segments roundish to oblong or linear: flowers apetalous: fruiting 

 pedicels divaricate, seldom exceeding the orbicular glabrous silicels. — Journ. Bot. iii. 165 

 (1814) ; K. Brandegee, Zoe, iii. 49, & iv. 300. L. Menziesii, Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 68, as to 

 <lescr. ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 115, in part; Brew. & Wats. Bot. Calif, i. 46, and authors as to 

 pi. Calif., not DC. — A common weed by beaten paths, &c., Centr. and S. California, eastward 

 to Arkansas, Pringle, Letterman. (Probably introduced from Mex. and S. Amer.) 

 ++++++ Stem conspicuously granular : southwestern annual or biennial. 

 L. SOrdidum, Gray. Spreading from tlie base or forming an erect flexuous much 

 branched stem, a foot in height : leaves all deeply pinnatifid, 6 to 9 lines long ; segments 

 more or less cleft : racemes many, 8 to 16 lines in length : flowers very numerous, minute, 

 apetalous or nearly so : stamens 4 : capsules orbicular, smooth, wingless, three fourths line 

 in diameter, on slender ascending pedicels of about the same length. — PI. Wright, i. 10, 

 ■ & ii. 15; Coulter, Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. ii. 21. — Mountain vaUeys and rocky hills, 

 W. Texas, Wright, Girnrd, Havard ; fl. in summer. (Chihuahua, Pringle.) 

 H- ^- -1- Cotyledons incumbent : fruit larger, 2 to 2^ lines long at maturity; the thin 

 margin slightly involute toward the upper or dorsal surface : Pacific species. 

 L. nitidum, Nutt. Erect or branched from the base and spreading, 4 inches to a foot or 

 more in lieight : pubescent or nearly smooth : lower leaves deeply pinnatifid witli narrow 

 rhachis and atteniiate segments ; the upper leaves often entire : racemes one to several, rather 

 loosely flowered : petals white, considerably exceeding the sepals : capsule smooth and 

 shining, convex below and nearly flat or even concave above, 1| to 2 lines broad, often 

 purple: pedicels strongly flattened. — Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 116; Benth. PI. Hartw. 

 298 ; Torr. Pacif. R. Rep. iv. 66, vii. 8, & Bot. Mex. Bound. 34 ; Brew. & Wats. Bot. Calif, 

 i. 46. L. leiocarpum. Hook. & Arn. Bot. Beech. 324, not DC. — Washington, Rockland, 

 Sid-sdorf, Klikitat, Howell, to San Diego, California, Thurber, Orcutt ; common on dry 

 hillsides; fl. through spring. 



