226 



CRUCIFERiE. 



or tomentose, the edge of the body divided into radiating spoke-like 

 nerves which disappear abruptly just within the margin of the white- 

 membranaceous wing; pedicels straight, abruptly recurved at the 

 very summit. 



Low hills or rolling plains, infrequent: Healdsburg; Sonoma; 

 Vacaville; Antioch; and Linden (San Joaquin Co.). Apr. -May. 

 Yar. montanus is a color form; branches several from the base, 

 ascending, 5 to 8 in. high; fruit 3 lines long, the wing bright purple! 

 — Plateau of the Napa Mountains, north "of Mt. George, Jepson 

 Apr. 28, 1893. & 1 



18. ALYSSUM L. 



Low-branching herbs with undivided leaves. Flowers white or 

 yellowish, in ours 2 lines long or less. Filaments of the stamens 

 winged near the base or toothed. Pod orbicular, with convex reinless 

 valves and broad partition; seeds 1 or 2 in each cell. (A-, without, 

 and lussa, madness, the plant valued by the ancient Greeks as an 

 antidote for hydrophobia.) 



Petals yellowish white, scarcely exceeding the sepals; these persistent ahout 



the base of the fruit ' 1. A. calycinum. 



Petals white, twice as long as the deciduous sepals 2. A. ?naritimum. 



1. A. calycinum L. Small Alyssum. Annual; stems branch- 

 ing from the base, decumbent, 4 to 7 in. high; leaves linear-oblong 

 or spatulate; petals yellowish white, little exceeding the persistent 

 sepals; filaments of the shorter stamens toothed at the base; pod 

 notched at the apex, 1J lines broad; seeds 2 in each cell. 



An escape from gardens; not common. 



2. A. maritimum (L.) Lam. Sweet Alyssum, Perennial, 

 ostensibly glabrous, the stems procumbent or ascending, 4 to 12 in. 

 long; leaves narrowly lanceolate or linear; petals broad, white, twice 

 the length of the sepals; sepals falling off after flowering; filaments 

 without appendages; seeds 1 in each cell. 



European species of the gardens, more or less naturalized in 

 California. . 



19. LEPIDIUM L. Pepper-grass. 



Ours low annuals (commonly less than seldom 2 ft. high) with 

 toothed pinnatifid leaves and very small flowers (1 line long or less). 

 Petals white or none. Stamens 6, 4 or 2. Pod a round, ovate, or 

 broadly oblong silicle, strongly obcompressed, and in ours notched or 

 lobed at the more or less winged apex; valves acutely carinate, the 

 cells 1-seeded. Style not persistent in fruit. Cotyledons incumbent. 

 (Greek lepidion, a little scale, in reference to the flattened pods.) 



L. Draba L., Hoary Cress, is occasionally found as an escape 

 from the gardens; leaves, large, elliptic-obovate or -lanceolate; pod 

 somewhat cordate, neither notched nor winged, tipped with a stout 

 style. — Napa Valley. 



Silicle notched at apex; not reticulated or only faintly. 

 Petals present; erect plants. 



Leaves toothed; pedicels terete 1. L. medium. 



Lower leaves pinnatifid; pedicels flattened 2. L. nitiduni. 



