PLATYSPEBMUM. CRTJCIFERJ3. 61 



LE8QUERELLA. 



lobed, petiolate: petals 1-1 }^> lines long, twice longer than the sepals: pods 

 few, somewhat corymbed at the end of the branches, 5-9 lines locg by half 

 a line erect: style Very short. In upland forests central California to Van- 

 couver Island west of the Cascade Mountains. 



Tribe II. Alyssinese, DC. Fruit short, orbicular elliptical or 

 short-oblong, rarely more elongated lanceolate or linear, always 

 more or less compressed parallel to the partition, 1-%-celled and 

 1 many-seeded . Valves flat or moderately convex. Cotyledons 

 accumbent or very rarely incumbent. 



* Pods strongly compressed parallel to the broad partition. 

 2 PLATYSPERMUM Hook. Fl. i, 68 t. 18 fig. B. 



Small winter annuals with simple or pinnatifid leaves and 

 small white solitary flowers on simple scapes. Sepals broad, 

 equal, erect. Petals obovate, entire or retuse. Pods sessile orbic- 

 ular strongly, compressed, with flat nerveless and hyaline parti- 

 tion. Stigma sessile, simple. Seeds 4-6 in each cell, in 2 rows 

 reticulated orbicular and broadly winged. Cotyledons accum- 

 bent. 



P. scapigemm Hook 1. c. Leaves lyrately pinnatifid with few 

 lobes or reduced to a single rliombic or ovate toothed, or entire blade upon a 

 slender petiole : scapes at length 3-6 inches long ascending : flowers about 

 a line long; petals narrowly obovate to iinear-spatulate, short unguiculate, 

 not exceeding the erect sepals: pods orbicular to oblong or obovate 3-4 lines 

 long. Common in moist places Brit . Columbia to California, chiefly east of 

 the Cascade Mountains. 



* * Pods very turgid : partition bwad, nerved from the top to the 

 middle. 



12 LESQUERELLA Watson Proc. Am. Acad. xxiii, 249. 

 VESICARIA of authors as to the American plants. 



Low caulescent annual or perennial herbs with stellate, often 

 dense or white-lepidote pubescence, entire or repand -dentate 

 leaves and mostly yellow flowers. Petals spatulate to oblong- 

 obovate entire. Filaments filiform or rarely dilated : anthers 

 sagittate. Stigma flat, capitate entire or lobed. Pods more or 

 less turgid, rounded or ovate or short-oblong with nerveless 

 valves; and a hyaline partition nerved from the apex to the mid- 

 dle, several to many-seeded, sessile or stipitate. Seeds rounded, 

 flat, wingless or rarely narrowly margined. Cotyledons accum- 

 bent. 



L. occidentalis Watson 1. c. 251. Canescent with a dense, appressed, 

 scurffy, obscurely stellate, silvery pubescence: stems many from a fleshy 

 branching caudex, decumbent, 4-12 inches long or more : lower leaves ob- 

 lanceolate, attenute at base, 1-4 inches long including the petiole, mostly 

 coarsely sinuate-dentate; cauline leaves spatulate-oblanceolate, mostly en- 

 tire : petals spatulate, 3-5 lines long ; style very slender about 2 lines long : 

 pods compressed-globose, acutish, 2-4 lines long sessile upon a more or 

 less flexuous pedicel 4-8 lines long. Sandy or stony hillsides, Washington 

 to northern California east of the Cascade Mountains. 



