188 CRUCIPERAE. 



2. N. curvisiliqua Nutt. Western Yellow-cress. Stems branching, 

 erect or decumbent, */> to 1% ft. long; herbage sparsely pubescent; leaves 

 pinnnt ifi<l or pinnately parted (the segments varying from linear and commonly 

 entire to oblong or ovate and either entire, toothed or pinnatifid), mostly % to 

 2 in. long, or the lowest or radical much longer; pods linear, terete, more or less 

 curved, 4 to 7 lines long, the pedicels % to \]/ 2 lines long. 



Frequent in stream beds, margins of pools and marshy places, from San 

 Mateo Co. and the Oakland Hills northward through the Coast Ranges and the 

 Sacramento Valley. Exceedingly variable in foliage. 



3. N. palustris DC. Marsh Yellow-cress. Biennial, erect, branching, 

 2 to 5 ft. high, usually glabrous; leaves oblong-lanceolate in outline, coarsely 

 toothed or deeply pinnatifid with the oblong lobes dentate; pods oblong, turgid, 

 2 to 3 lines long, obtuse, the pedicels nearly as long. 



Lowlands of the Sacramento River. 



11. DENTARIA L. Toothwort. 



Glabrous perennials. Stems and one or two long-petioled radical leaves 

 from tuberous rootstocks, the stems rarely branched and sparingly leafy. Flow- 

 ers large, white or rose-tinted. Petals with slender claws and ovate spreading 

 limb, much longer than the sepals; these equal at base, erect or nearly so. Pod 

 linear, flattened, parallel to the partition, stout, attenuate above into the 

 slender style, the valves and partitions not nerved; seeds wingless. (Latin, 

 dens, a tooth, the rootstocks toothed in some species.) 



Leaves (at least the cauline) trifoliate 1. D. integrifolia. 



Leaves all undivided 2. D. cardiophylla. 



1. D. integrifolia Nutt. Milk-maids. Stems mostly one from the root- 

 stock, erect, 1 ft. high, the herbage rather fleshy ; radical leaves simple or 

 trifoliolate, the leaves or leaflets mostly orbicular, minutely dentate, and % to 1 

 in. long; cauline trifoliolate, the leaflets ovate to lanceolate; raceme mostly 

 single; corolla white, 6 lines broad; sepals green or dull red; siliques with 

 dull red valves. 



Abundant in the valleys and on the plains, often whitening the fields in 

 Feb. and Mar. Variable. 



2. D. cardiophylla (Greene) Robinson. Erect, stoutish, 8 to 13 in. high; 

 radical leaves undivided, broadly cordate, slightly and somewhat angulately 

 lobed and mucronately denticulate, 1 to 2 1 / 2 in. wide; cauline similar, tapering 

 from within the bro£,d sinus to a petiole % to 1 in. long; flowers white; 

 Biliques slender-beaked. 



Vaca Mts. at low altitudes, Jepson (1885), Piatt (1898). 



12. CARDAMINE L. Bitter-cress. 

 Ours annual with fibrous roots and leafy stems; leaves pinnate, the radical 

 in a rosette. Very near Dent aria and scarcely separable 1 , bnt the flowers 

 smaller (in ours 1 to l 1 /^ lines long) and pods narrower. (Ancient Greek name 

 of soin.' species of Cress.) 



1. C. oligosperma Nutt. Erect, Blender, unbranched or branching, 3 to 

 11 in. high, hispidulous or glabrous; radical Leaves in a rosette, these and the 

 cauline Leaves pinnate, 1'1> in. long or less; leaflets 5 to n. little unequal, with 

 a noted i in each side toward the apex, 1 to 1 lines loan-, pet iolulate; petals white, 

 much surpassing the sepals; silique ti to 9 or 12 lines long; valves separating 



