FLATYSPKRMUM. CRUCIFERvE. 6i 



LESQUERELLA. 



lobed, petiolate: petals 1-1 }4 lines long, twice longer than the sepals: pods 

 few, somewhat corymbed at the end of the branches, 5-9 lines long by half 

 a line erect: style very short. In upland forests central California to Van- 

 couver Island west of the Cascade Mountains. 



Tribe II. Alyssinex, DC. Fruit short, orbicular elliptical or 

 short-oblong, rarely more elongated lanceolate or linear, always 

 more or less compressed parallel to the partition, 1-2-celled and, 

 1-many -seeded. Valves flat or moderately convex. Cotyledons 

 accumbent or very rarely incumbent. 



* Pods strongly compressed parallel to the broad partition. 



2 PLATYSPERMUM Hook. Fl. i, 68 t. 18 fig. B. 



Small winter annuals with simple or pinnatifid leaves and 

 small white solitary flow T ers on simple scapes. Sepals broad, 

 equal, erect. Petals obovate, entire or refuse. Pods sessile orbic- 

 ular strongly compressed, with flat nerveless and hyaline parti- 

 tion. Stigma sessile, simple. Seeds 4-6 in each cell, in 2 rows 

 reticulated orbicular and broadly winged. Cotyledons accum- 

 bent. 



P. scapigerum Hook 1. c. Leaves lyrately pinnatifid with few 

 lobes or reduced to a single rhombic or ovate toothed, or entire blade upon a 

 slender petiole : scapes at length 3-6 inches long ascending : flowers about 

 a line long; petals narrowly obovate to iinear-spatulate, short unguiculate, 

 not exceeding the erect sepals: pods orbicular to oblong or obovate 3-4 lines 

 long. Common in moist places Brit . Columbia to California, chiefly east of 

 the Cascade Mountains. 



* * Pods very turgid : partition broad, nerved from the top to the 

 middle. 



12 LESQUERELLA Watson Proc. Am. Acad, xxiii, 249. 

 VESICARIA of authors as to the American /plants. 



Low caulescent annual or perennial herbs with stellate, often 

 dense or white-lepidote pubescence, entire or repand -dentate 

 leaves and mostly yellow flowers. Petals spatulate to oblong- 

 obovate entire. Filaments filiform or rarely dilated : anthers 

 sagittate. Stigma flat, capitate entire or lobed. Pods more or 

 less turgid, rounded or ovate or short-oblong with nerveless 

 valves; and a hyaline partition nerved from the apex to the mid- 

 dle, several to many-seeded, sessile or stipitate. Seeds rounded, 

 flat, wingless or rarely narrowly margined. Cotyledons accum- 

 bent. 



L. occidentalis Watson 1. c. 251. Canescent with a dense, appressed, 

 scurffy, obscurely stellate, silvery pubescence: stems many from a fleshy 

 branching caudex, decumbent, 4-12 inches long or more : lower leaves ob- 

 lanceolate, attenute at base, 1-4 inches long including the petiole, mostly 

 coarsely sinuate-dentate; cauline leaves spatulate-oblanceolate, mostly en- 

 tire : petals spatulate, 3-5 lines long ; style very slender about 2 lines long : 

 pods compressed-globose, acutish, 2-4 lines long sessile upon a more or 

 less flexuous pedicel 4-8 lines long. Sandy or stony hillsides, Washington 

 to northern California east of the Cascade Mountains. 



