222 



CRUCIFERJE. 



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. Propagating vegetatively by the production 

 of roots at the summit of the petiole of the radical compound leaf. 

 Exceedingly variable. The most marked variety is the following: 



Var. Caiifornica (Dentaria Californica Nutt.) — Taller and more 

 slender, leaves larger, comparatively thin, the radical often dull 

 reddish beneath and sometimes 5-foliolate; corolla white or pale 

 rose-color. — Shady woods. Mar.— May. Exceedingly variable in its 

 leaves, the cauline sometimes pinnately parted and the radical as 

 frequently simple, as in the species. 



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 j in. 

 wide; cauline similar, tapering from within the broad sinus to a 

 petiole J to 1 in. long; flowers white; siliques slender-beaked. — 

 (Cardamine cardiophylla Greene.) 



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



12. CARDAMINE L. Bittbr-cekss. 



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

 radical in a rosette. Very near Dentaria and scarcely separable, but 

 the flowers smaller (in ours 1 to 1£ lines long) and pods narrower. 

 (Ancient Greek name of some species of Cress.) 



1. C. oligosperma Nutt. Erect, slender, unbranched or with 

 several very slender branches 3 to 14 in. high, hispidulous or nearly 

 glabrous; stems slender, commonly branching, 3 to 9 in. high; radi- 

 cal leaves in a rosette, these and the cauline leaves pinnate, 1£ in. 

 long or less; leaflets 5 to 11, little unequal, with a notch in each side 

 toward the apex, 1 to 4 lines long, petiolulate; petal.- white, much 

 surpassing the sepals; silique 6 to 9 or 12 lines long; valves separating 

 and falling in a close coil while still green-herbaceous; pedicel- 2 

 lines long, little accrescent in fruit. 



Under Oaks and other trees in openly wooded country. Oakland 

 Hills and Marin Co. northward to Napa Valley and Mendocino Co. 



13. TROPIDOCARPUM Hook. 

 Erect or diffusely spreading annuals with pubescent herbage, pin- 

 natifid leaves and leafy racemes of rather small yellow flowers. 

 Sepal- concave, ovate-oblong, spreading. Petals cuneate-obovate. 

 Stamens tetradynamous; anthers roundish. Style slender, sometimes 

 short. Pod completely or partially 2-celled, or 1-celled, strongly 

 flattened contrary to the narrow partition, or only the upper part 

 flattened, or somewhat inflated; valves 2 to 4, opening from above; 

 seeds in 2 to 4 rows. (Greek tropis, keel, . and karpos, fruit, 

 in reference to the carinate valves of the capsule. For an interesting 

 study of the fruit of Tropidocarpum see Robinson in Erythea, iv. 109.) 



