]^]^Q CRUCIFER.E. Lesquerella. 



7. LESQUERl^LLA, Watson. (Dedicated to Leo Lesquerexix, distin- 

 truished palseontologist aud bryologist, born near Neufchatel, 1805, died 1889.) — 

 A lart^e and natural genus of North America, distinguished from Alyssum by 

 haviuw usually turgid pods (lenticular in a few species) aud unappendaged fila- 

 ments, from the gerontogeous genus Vesicaria by having smaller flowers, shorter 

 spatulate rather than unguiculate petals, smaller pods with more or less nerved 

 septum and generally immarginate seeds. The genus occupies the greater part 

 of the continent from the western borders of the Great Basin, Arizona, and 

 Lower California to Texas, Kentucky, the Saskatchewan, Labrador, and Green- 

 land. A single species is S. "American. — Proc. Am. Acad, xxiii. 249 ; Wats. 

 &, Coulter in Gray, Man. ed. 6, 68. Vesicaria of authors, not Lam., as to 

 American species (excl. Physaria), thus Gray, Gen. 111. i. 161, t. 70; Benth. &. 

 Hook. Gen. i. 73 ; Wats. Bibl. Index, 74. [By S. Watson.] 



§ 1. ALfsMUS, Watson. Pubescence loosely or somewhat hispidly stellate: 

 wmter annuals, with several often simple leafy ascending or subdecunibent stems, 

 not canescent or scarcely so : pods round or round-ovate, mostly sessile ; the cells 

 4-8-ovuled. — Proc. Am. Acad, xxiii. 250. 



* Seeds margined : filaments dilated at base : style shorter than the pod. 

 H- Pods flattened, round-ovate, strigose-hairy ; septum not hyaline. 

 L. Lescurii, Watson, 1. c. Stems slender, usually branching, a span high or less: leaves 

 oblong-ovate' or oblong, toothed ; the caulinc sessile and auriculate : petals broadly spatulate, 

 2 to 3°liiies long : filaments inflated at the base : pods 2 or 3 lines long, ascending, the style 

 not half so long ; cells 4-ovuled ; the funiculus free.— Vesicaria Lescurii, Gray, Man. od. 2, 

 38. Ahjssum Lescurii, Gray, Man. ed. 5, 72. — Hills near Nashville, Tenn. 

 -1— H— Pods globose, glabrous. 

 L. grandiflora, Watson, I.e. Finely pubescent, rarely somewhat hispid: stems a foot 

 high or more: radical leaves oblanceolate, more or less deeply sinuate or sinuate-pinuatitid ; 

 the cauline oblanceolate to oblong or oblong-lanceolate, narrowed at l)ase or somewhat auricu- 

 late-clasping : petals obovate, 2 to 5 lines long : filaments gradually dilated below : pods 

 suberect on ascending or divaricate pedicels, 2 or 3 lines in diameter, abrupt at base : the 

 stvle rarely a line long ; cells usually 8-ovulcd. — Vesicaria >jrandi_/iora, Hook. Bot. Mag. 

 t 3464 ■ Don in Sweet, Brit. Fl. Card. ser. 2, t. 404; Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 101, excl. var. ; 

 Gray, PI. Lindh. pt. 2, 148. V. hrevistulu, Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 102. — Middle counties of 

 Texa^s, from the Gulf to the Red River. 

 L auriculata, Watson, 1. c. More hirsute with spreading hairs : cauline leaves more or 

 less auricled : petals narrower ; filaments abruptly and broadly dilated at base : pods slightly 

 narrowed at base; the style half its \Qngfh. — Vesicaria auriculata, Engelra. & Gray, PI. 

 Lindh. pt. 1, 32. — Dry prairies near San Felipe, Texas, Lindheimer. 



* * Seeds immarginate : filaments slightly dilated : pods subdepressed-globose. 

 ^— Pods hirsute. 

 L. lasioc^rpa, Watson. Low, and slightly hispid : leaves coarsely toothed or pinnatifid ; 

 "the lower oblanceolate; the cauline oblong, sessile, not auriculate : petals obovate, 3 lines 

 long : filaments subdilated for half their length : pod twice longer than the stout style ; 

 cells 6-ovuled. — Wats. 1. c. 2.51.- Vesicaria lasiocarpa, Hook. Bot. Mag. under t. 3464, the 

 name onlv ; Gray, PI. Wright, ii. 13, in part. — Near Kingold Barracks on the Lower Rio 

 Grande, Texas, Capt. E. K. Smith. (Tamaulipas, Mex., Bertandier, no. 3101.) 

 -i— 4^ Pods glabrous, substipitate. 

 L. densiflora, Watson, 1. c. Finely pubescent aud the stems somewhat canescent, a foot 

 high or le.'^s : 'leaves entire or sparingly repand-denticulate, o])lauceolatc, attenuate to the 



