I 



YI. 



PLANT^ "VVRIGHTIANJE. 



15 





the Limpio and the Rio Grande; June. "(1323.) — These are younger specimcns 

 than those gathered in 1849, and show the lower leaves, which are much likc the 

 upper, only more sinuate-toothcd aud inclining to spatuLate. The pctals arc white, 

 and scarcely longer than the calyx. 



Lepidium alyssoides, Gray, Pl. Fendl. p. 10, Sf Pl Wright }}, 10. Valley of 

 Live Oak Creek, Western Texas ; May. Also on stony hilJs at tlie copper mincs, 

 New Mexico; Aug. (853.) Also on Rainwater Creek, June; a dwarf varicty 

 (1324); and on the Rio Grande below El Paso ; a large form with the lowcr 

 cauline leaves divided. (1325.) 



L. MONTANUM, Nutt. in Torr. Sf Gray, Fl. l. p. 116 ^ 669, Valley of Copper- 

 mine Creek, New Mexico, in sandy soil; Aug. ; and west of thc Chiricahui Moun- ' 

 tains, Sonora; Sept. (854.) — This has orbicular-ovate (not elliptical) silicles, and 

 is better described by Hooker and Arnott, in Bot. Bcechei/^ p. 323, under the name 

 of L. corymbosum, except that the older fruiting racemes are elongated. The petals 

 are white and conspicuous ; the stamens 6. Some specimens are nearly glabrous, 

 others granulose and minutely hirsute-pubescent. I suspect that L. sordidum, Gray, 

 Pl. Wright. p. 10, is only a late and depauperate state of thp same species, pro- 

 ducing diminished flowers. 



L. AVrightii (sp. nov.) ; annuuni, humile, hirsutulum ; caulibus difFusis ; ramis 

 brevibus ; foliis caulinis spathulatis dentatis vel incisis, imis et radicalibus sa^pius 

 pinnatifidis ; floribus apetalis diandris ; siliculis orbiculatis hispidulis apice bifido 

 (sinu angustissmo) subalatis pedicello complanato plerumque longioribus; cotyle- 

 donibus incumbentibus. — Valley of the Pecos, in alluvial soil ; May. Also sandy 

 hills on the Rio Grande, near El Paso ; March. (855.) — Plant 3 to 6 inches high, 

 flowering when only an inch high, from an annual root. Fruiting racemes an inch 

 long or more, dense. Silicles 2 lines long, twice as large as those of L. ruderale, 

 beset with short and acute hispid spreading hairs ; tlie short pedicel as broad and 

 flat in proportion as in L. latipes, HooTc. The low and spreading stems, the larger 

 pods, which are decidedly wing-margined at the apex, and especially the short and 

 flattened pedicels, distinguish this from L. ruderale var. lasiocarpum, Fngelm, in 

 litt. (coll. Lindh. 1850, No. 459, 460), which is perhaps L. lasiocarpum, Nutt. 



L. iNTERMEDiuM (sp. uov.) : simiUs L. Virginico formse gracili, sed cotyledonibus 



incumbentibus ! (foliis superioribus rameisque linearibus integerrimis). 



"Mnes 



of the Organ Mountains, northeast 



of El Paso; April. 



(1320). 



lla- 

 (Also 



near Austin, Texas, 1848; and New Braunfels, Lindheimer?) — This plant is ex- 

 actly like a small and slender form of L. Virginicum; except that the upperleaves 

 are nearly all linear and entire, and the cotyledons are incumbent. It is glabrous 

 or nearly so ; the white petals are perhaps rather larger and more conspicuous than 



in L. Virginicum ; the stamens are only two ; and the silicles are orbicular. 



On the 



other hand, it accords so perfectly with all the indigenous North American L. 



ruderale I possess (such, for instance, as Fendler's No. 45, exccpt in having petals, 

 that I cannot believe them to be specifically distinct, All these, howevcr, diff^er 

 from my specimens of L. ruderale from Europe in their orbicular (not oval) pods, 

 of about twice the size. 



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