764 REPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



vary greatly, the leaves especially showing modifications. It be- 

 gins flowering early in May, or in favorable seasons in April, and 

 continues through September. Its fruit furnishes food for many 

 of the smaller birds. Its distribution is so general that a citation 

 of counties in which it is reported to occur is unnecessary. 



L. APETALUM Willd. 



(L. intermedium Gray.) 



Very closely allied to the preceding from which it is probably 

 not generally distinguished. While the general range of the 

 species includes Indiana, the mass distribution is decidedly east- 

 ern. It is doubtful if it occurs in any abundance in the State. 



Flowers, May to September. 



Clark (Baird and Taylor); Decatur (Ballard); Vigo (Blatchley). 



SISYMBRIUM L. 



S. officinale (L.) Scop. Hedge Mustard. 



Common throughout the State in waste places. The flowering 

 season begins in April, and in some of the southern counties con- 

 tinues until in December. It affects dry soils, and is especially 

 abundant about dwellings or in abandoned fields. 



Jefferson (Barnes); Tippecanoe (Coulter); Monroe and Vigo 

 (Blatchley); Putnam (MacDougal); Fayette (Hessler); Gibson and 

 Posey (Schneck); Daviess (Clement); Clark (Baird and Taylor); 

 Jay, Delaware, Eandolph, and Wayne (Phinney); Noble (Van 

 Gorder); Franklin (Meyncke); Hamilton and Marion (Wilson). 



CAKILE Gaertn. 



C. edentula (Bigel.) Hook. American Sea- rocket. 



(C. Americana Nutt.) 

 The character plant of the middle beach, extending also to the 

 upper beach, of Lake Michigan in Lake and Porter counties. The 

 plant is a sand plant, confined to the seashore and the shores of 

 the Great Lakes. When extending farther inland Cakile is usu- 

 ally found on windward slopes of active dunes. The succulent- 

 character of the form adapts it admirably for the extreme xerophi- 

 lous conditions to which beach plants are subjected. It has a 

 habit somewhat resembling the "tumble weeds," the distribution 

 of the seeds being thus secured. 



