29 

 NOTES ON WEST INDIAN CRUCIFERAE 



By N. L. Britton 



Mr. O. E. Schultz has contributed an account of the crucifers 

 known to him to occur in the West Indies to Professor Urban' s 

 " Symbolae Antillanae " (3 : 493-523), in which he describes 23 

 species included in 1 1 genera. All but four of the species recog- 

 nized are natives of the Old World, introduced into the islands 

 as waifs or weeds. The indigenous species are : 



I. Cakile lanxeolata (Willd.) O. E. Schultz, loc. cit. 505. 

 1903. 



Raphaniis lanceolatiis Willd. Sp. PI. 3 : 562. 1801. 



Cakile dovdiigcnsis Tuss. Fl. Ant. I : 119. 1808. 



Cakile acqiialis L'Her.; DC. Syst. 2 : 430. 182 1. 



Cakile aibcnsis H.B.K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 5 : 58. 1821. 



Cakile lanceolata subsp. domingensis O. E. Schultz, loc. cit. 

 1903. Type locality: Antilles. 



This occurs on sandy beaches and is reported by Schultz from 

 Colombia and St. Vincent northward to the Bahamas and Florida. 

 It grows also on the Bermudas, as recorded long ago by Hemsley 

 in the Botany of the Challenger Expedition, but overlooked by 

 Schultz. That this plant is specifically distinct from the northern 

 Atlantic coast C edentida (Bigel.) Hook., which Schultz refers 

 to it as a subspecies, is evident at least to any one who has seen 

 both species living. The status of C genicidata (Robinson) 

 Millsp. in Publ. Field Columb. Mus. Bot. Ser. 2: 126, and of 

 C alacranensis Millsp. loc. cit. 130, both of which he refers to 

 C. lanceolata as proles or varieties, can be established only by 

 the examination of more specimens than are now available. 

 Indeed, the attempt of Mr. Schultz to classify the plants of this 

 genus into named forms and varieties of various ranks serves no 

 useful purpose whatever, and does not express their real rela- 

 tionships at all ; the only advance that he has made in their 

 study is to point out an older name for the species long known 

 as C. aequalis L'Her. 



