7t TETKADTNAMIA. SILiatOSA. 



thick, resembling' those of many species of Brassicaf uii- 

 dulated, smooth, g-laucous, interruptedly and almost ly- 

 rately pinnatifid. Flowers very numerous, raceme 12 to 18 

 or more incfies long-. Calix 4-leavc(l decussate, nearly 

 an inch in diameter, of a deep and bright yellow border* 

 ing- on crang^e, leaves ligulate, obtuse; siibovate at the 

 base, a little concave, incurvalely spreading-. Petals 4, 

 erect, the claws connivent in t'-.e form of a long- 4-sided 

 tube, internally pubescent; limb short and oblong, sulphur 

 yellow. Glands 4. Stamina 6, nearly equal in length, 

 ex&erted and almost double tlie length of the calix, 4 of 

 them disposed by opposite pairs, (as in all other genuine 

 Crucifero'iS plants;) filaments flat and subulate, anthers 

 linear, at len.gih recurved. Style and stigma scarcelv ap- 

 parent. Siliqiie slender and conspicuously .-tipitate, 15 lines 

 long, torulose, 2-ctlled, and '2-va'ved, dissepiment mem- 

 branaceous and paral el. Seeds rathersmall, brig-ht brown, 

 linear-oblong, the base some-vvhat acute, partly plano- 

 conv. X; marked with a central g-roove. Embryou flat 

 anderect, not. incurved. fiAB. Commencing-, (.is v^e obser- 

 ved,) near the confl»ience of Paint creek and the Miss u- 

 ri, growing- on the talus of broken calcareous clifi^s; f'^m 

 hence it occurs locally for 2 or 300 roiies further ur. the 

 river, so that it appears only to occupy a limited belt 

 which, traverses tlie Mi-souri. Il flowers in then->.on«h <^)f 

 May, and is by far the most splendid ]>lant in the Natural 

 Order of Crt c3FER..t, from whch i» is inse) .liable in 

 point of affinii\, not>vit]'Standuig its very singular calix, 

 corolla, auf stipitate silique, which lay claim to the or 

 der Catparibes in commci. w:tli tiie i;enus Stephaniaf 

 to which the present appears nearly allied, and holds that 

 kind of inieresting and intermediate rank which tv"nce« 

 the existence of a general and natural alliance throughout 

 the vegetable kingdom. The ambiguous character of 

 Stanleyay and its near aflinity \r> the sus])icious Cappa- 

 RiDEs, v»*e had occasion to p-ovc; 'ts iaige, and glauo^us 

 leavt-s, so much like some of the cultivated vari.'^ties of 

 jBrassicao/erf/ce.'i, luid induced i.s to coilecf tnem as an ar- 

 ticle of die\, but to more than half of those who had par- 

 taken of this deleterious vegetable, after being boiled, it 

 proved a violent emetic; which I suspect to be the case 

 with most of the species of Cleotne- 



The Brassica llashitanu, of Mtihlenberg's Catalogue., 

 will, when better known, probably prove a second species 

 of this genus with red or scarlet flowers, as I have been 

 informed by hunters wiio have traversed those regions. — 

 Of this plant ihcre is no specimen ia Muhlenberg's her- 

 barium. 



