Erysimum, CRUCIFEROUS. 14o 



L. Gen. no. 537 ; DC. Syst. ii. 178 ; Reichenb. 1. c. t. 45 ; Bentli. & Hook, 

 1. c. 68; Prantl, 1. c. 194. [By B. L. Robinson.] 



* Flowers small : petals 2 to 2.^ lines long, yellow : siliques subterete, short, 5 to 10 lines in 

 length : cotyledons incumbent or nearly so. 



E. cheiranthoides, L. (Worm-seed Mustard.) Stem slender, erect, nearly terete, 

 quite simple or more frequently copiously branched above : leaves lanceolate, acute at each 

 end, entire or remotely and inconspicuously denticulate, U to 3 inches long, thin, green 

 upon both sides, very finely pubescent; hairs mostly trifid : fruiting pedicels straight, fili- 

 form, widely spreading, about 4 lines long : capsule erect or spreading, glabrous, tipped with 

 a .slender but very short beak ; dissepiment only half line broad. — Spec. ii. 661 ; DC. Syst. 

 ii. 498 ; Wats. Bibl. Index, 63. E. parvijiorum, Fers.Syn.ii. 199 ; Nutt. Gen. ii. 68. Sisym- 

 brium cheiranthoides, Eat. & Wright, N. A. Bot. 429. — Preferring rich moist soil of river 

 bottoms, but also found in dry situations, common and with wide range, Newfoundland, 

 Robinson & Schrenk, to N. Carolina, Curtiss, acc. to Chapman, and across the continent to 

 Oregon, Howell, and Alaska, Meehan. 



* * Flowers larger; petals 3 to 12 lines long, yellow or orange (in E. asperum sometimes 

 purple) : pods terete or 4-angled, not strongly flattened, elongated (except in the first spe- 

 cies), 1 to 4 inches long ; cotyledons incumbent (rarely very oblique or even subaccurabent). 



•i— Petals 3 to 5 lines long. 

 E. parviflorum, Nutt. Erect perennial, 10 to 18 inches high, cinereous and scabrous 

 with appressed 2-pointed hairs : leaves narrow, lance-linear or oblong-linear, mostly quite 

 entire ; the radical crowded, sometimes repand-dentate : sepals linear-oblong, acute, 3 lines 

 in length, little exceeded by the rather narrow sulphur-yellow petals : pedicels 2 to 3 lines 

 in length, spreading in fruit : siliques slender, erect or nearly so, at maturity usually 1 to 2 

 inches long, scarcely contracted above but tipped with a short stout style and distinctly 

 2-lobed stigma. — Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 95, not Pers. (which is E. cheiranthoides). 

 E. lanceolatum, Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 64, not R. Br. % E. hieracifolium, Hook. f. Arct. PI. 

 286, 319, so far as American specimens are concerned. E. asperum, var. inconspicuum, 

 Wats. Bot. King Exp. 24. E. inconspicuum, MacMillau, Metasp. Minn. Val. 268. — Minne- 

 sota, Schnette, to Colorado, Vasey, N. Nevada, Watson, Washington, Greene, and northward, 

 to Alaska. E. syrticolum (erroneous form for syrticola), Sheldon, BiiU. Torr. Club, xx. 285, 

 is probably from character a form of this species. 



E. REPi-NDUM, L., a gerontogeous annual with somewhat similar flowers, but repand-denticu- 

 late leaves, and widely spreading usually curved pods, has been rather frequently foiind about 

 New York City and Philadelphia, but upon made laud, &c , and deserves mention only. 



-)— -1— Petals longer, half inch or more in length. 

 B. asperum, D.C (Western Wall-flower.) Erect biennial or perennial, somewhat 

 scabrous and usually more or less canescent with minute mostly 2-3-pointed hairs : stem 

 commonly simple, 2 inches to 3 feet in height, angled, in favorable situations becoming thick 

 and pithy : leaves very variable, lanceolate to linear, entire or repand-dentate or the lowest 

 pinnatifid, thickish and very canescent or thin and green : sepals oblong to linear, green, 

 pale yellow, or whiti.sh : petals yellow or more usually orange, rarely purple, 8 to 12 lines in 

 length ; blade broadly obovate or suborbicular ; claw very slender, consideraldy exceeding 

 the sepals : fruiting pedicels 2 to 6 lines long, spreading : capsule usually rather sharply 

 tetragonal, erect or more commonly widely spreading, 2 to 5 inches in length, a line or less 

 in breadth; style I to If lines long; stigma commonly broad, somewhat 2-lol)ed; seeds 

 oblong, brown, often slightly wing-appendaged at the end ; cotyledons incumbent or oblique. 

 — Syst. ii. 505 ; Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 64, t. 22. E. lanceolatum, Pursh, Fl. ii. 436. E. as- 

 perum., var. Purshii, Durand, Fl. Utah, 159. E. elatum, Nutt. 1. c. E. asperum, var. elatum, 

 Torr. Pacif. R. Rep. vii. 7. E. asperum, var. perenne, Wats, in Coville, Proc. Biol. Soc. 

 Washington, vii. 70, & Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. iv. 64. Cheiravthus asper, Nutt. Gen. ii. 

 69, not Cham. & Schlecht. ? Hesperis Pidlasii, Porter & Coulter, 1. c. 9. —Rare, local, 

 and perhaps introduced in the East, but abundant and widely distributed westward ; Mingan 

 Islands, Gulf of St. Lawrence, Linden; Columbus, Ohio, Sullivant ; common from Illinois 

 to Texas, California, and northward to the Saskatchewan. A handsome and exceedingly 



