124 CRUCIFERJ^. Thlaspl 



obovate, obtuse, truncate, or shallowly retuse at tlie apex, cuueate at the base, becomiug 4 

 lines long and 2^ lines broad, tipped with a slender persistent style. — Spec. ed. 2, ii. 903 ; 

 DC. Syst. ii. 380 ; Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 58 ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. 114. T. montunum. Hook. 

 1. c. ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. 113; not L. T. cochleurifonne, DC. «yst. ii. 381 ; Torr. & Gray, 

 1. c. T. Fendlen, Gray, PI. Wright, ii. 14; Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. 34. — Conimcin 

 tliroughuut the West, especially in hilly and mountainous regions, Montana to New Mexico 

 and westward to the Pacific. (Mex., Pringle.) Somewhat variable but neither divisible 

 into good species nor satisfactorily separable from tlie Old World form of the species. 

 T. Calif ornicum, Watson. Similar in stature and habit to the preceding : radical leaves 

 oblauceolate, toothed : racemes more elongated, less densely flowered : petals white : fruit- 

 ing pedicels ascending : capsules oblauceolate, acute or acutish at the apex, 5 lines long, 

 2 liues broad : sides strongly carinate ; slender style persistent. — Proc. Am. Acad. xvii. 

 365. — Kneeland Prairie, Humboldt Co., Calif., 2,500 feet alt.. Rattan. 



13. LEPIDIUM, Tourn. Peppergrass. (AcTrtStov, a little scale, in refer- 

 ence to the small flat pods from the scale-like appearance of wliich, it is said, 

 some species have been used, according to the doctrine of signatures, as a folk- 

 remedy for cutaneous diseases.) — A genus of considerable size, widely dis- 

 tributed in temperate and warmer regions of the world, seldom if ever truly 

 alpine or arctic. Flowers small, often considerably reduced by abortion. Plants 

 of little or no beauty, possessing, however, a characteristic habit from their 

 copious erect or ascending regular and usually rather dense ebracteate fruiting 

 racemes, with equal slender generally divaricate pedicels. Foliage, pubescence, 

 and duration very variable. Most species are slender annuals or subsucculent 

 biennials, several being used as salad plants ; a few are perennials or even suf- 

 fruticose. The fruit, sometimes collected as food for birds, has given the com- 

 moner species the name " Canary -grass " in some regions. — Inst. 215, t. JOS; 

 L. Gen. no. 527; DC. Syst. ii. 527, & Prodr, i. 203: Reichenb. Ic. Fl. Germ, 

 ii. t. y, 10; Gray, Gen. III. i. 167, t. 73. [By B. L. Robinson.] 



§ 1. Style slender, sometimes rather short but distinctly developed and 

 persistent. 



* Capsule ovate, cordate, more or less pointed at the apex, neither winged nor retuse ; 

 valves strongly convex. — Cardaria, Desv. Journ. Bot. iii. 163 (1814). Lepiditun § Car- 

 daria, DC. Syst. ii. 528. — A coarse introduced perennial. 



Li. Draba, L. Pubescent or somewhat tomentulose: stems decumbent, 10 to 15 inches 

 high, corymbosely brancliod : leaves large, elliptic-obovate or elliptic-lanceolate, 2 to 3 

 inches long, obtuse, denticulate and narrowed below to an auriculate base: flowers white: 

 pods broader tliau long, shallowly cordate with rounded more or less inflated lobes ; valves 

 1 -nerved but furrowed not keeled in the middle. — Spec. ii. 645; Gray, Man. ed. 5, 74; 

 Greene, Fl. Francis. 275 ; Eastwood, Zoe, ii. 228. — Sparingly adventive in waste places 

 and cultivated grounds in the Eastern and Middle States ; Grand Junction, Colorado, ace. to 

 Miss Eastwood ; Yreka and Berkeley, Calif., Greene. (Nat. from Eu.) 



* * Capsule ovate, rounded at the base, more or less pointed at tlie ajiex, neither winged 

 nor retuse; valves not convex but somew^iat keeled : native species of the West. 



L. Jaredi, Brandegee. A slender glaucous pubescent annual, 4 to 8 inches high, with 

 narrow lanceolate entire or somewhat toothed leaves and branched rather loose inflores- 

 cence; pedicels filiform, 5 lines in length: flowers yellow, a little over a line in lengtli : 

 capsule glabrous, not retu.»*e until by. incipient dehiscence. — Zoe, iv. 398. — California, near 

 Goodwin, San Luis Obispo County, Jared ; near Hiverdale, Fresno County, A. Eaton. 



Li. nanum, Watsox. A compact cespitose perennial: leaves A^ery small, .spatulate, 3-lobe<I 

 at tlie apex, ciliate, densely clustered upon a multicipital caudex : stems a third to half 

 inch high, l-5-flowered : capsule glabrous, about a line in lengtli. — Bot. King Exp. 30, t. 4, 



