KESEDACE^I. 27 



21. TR0P1D0CARPUM, Hook. Annuals, with light green pubescent 

 herbage, pinnatifid leaves, and loose leafy-bracted racemes of middle- 

 sized yellow flowers. Sepals concave, spreading, equal at base. Petals 

 spatulate-obovate. Stamens tetradynamous; anthers rounded. Silique 

 sessile, elongated, more or less obcompressed, flat or inflated, without 

 partition, indehiscent or the valves (2 — 4 !) opening from above. 



1. T. gracile, Hook. Erect, very slender, usually only a few inches 

 high, nearly glabrous : leaves linear, with opposite pairs of linear seg- 

 ments, the floral similar but reduced: stamens very unequal, all exceed- 

 ing the short pistil: silique linear, 2 in. long, glabrous, flat, indehiscent: 

 seeds in 2 rows. Var. scabriuscnlum, Greene. Much larger, with 

 many decumbent branches, and roughish-pubescent throughout, even to 

 the pods. — Foothills of Mt. Diablo Range and on the plains. 



2. T. capparidenm, Greene. Usually erect, less than a foot high, 

 simple, or with few ascending branches, the stem stoutish but hollow : 

 pods % — % in. long, linear-oblong, inflated, 2 lines wide, slightly obcom- 

 pressed(the cross section transversely elliptical), conspicuously 6-nerved; 

 valves 4, 2 deciduous and 2 persistent, the dehiscence beginning at the 

 apex: seeds in 4 rows, i. «., 1 row along either margin of each of the 2 

 persistent valves. — Abundant in alkaline soil about Byron Springs. 



Order viii. RESEDACE£. 



Herbs with alternate exstipulate leaves, and terminal racemes or spikes 

 of small flowers. Sepals 4 — 6, often somewhat united at base, unequal, 

 herbaceous, persistent, open in the bud. Torus bearing a rounded and 

 glandular hypogynous disk which is produced posteriorly between the 

 petals and the stamens. Petals 4 — 6, open in the bud, the lamina often 

 lacerate or palmately parted. Stamens 3 — 20, inserted on the disk; 

 anthers oval, fixed by the middle, introrse. Ovary 1-celled, 3 — 4-lobed, 

 of 3 — 4 carpels at apex distinct and divergent; stigmas sessile, minute- 

 Fruit membranous, 1-celled, open before maturity. Seeds reniform. 



1. RESEDA, Pliny (Mignonette. Dyer's Weed). Characters of 

 the genus almost those of the order. Three Old World species, fugitives 

 from the flower gardens, are here and there spontaneous with us. 



1. R. alba, L. A tall stout sparingly branching perennial, with long . 

 spikes of whitish flowers: leaves deeply pinnate: sepals 5 or 6: petals as 

 many, all equal, 3-cleft. 



2. R. odorata, L. Annual; leaves oblanceolate or spatulate, often 

 undulate: spike or raceme short in fl., elongated in fr. : fl. greenish, the 

 .arge anthers dull red: petals parted into about 6 spatulate-linear 

 segments. 



