44 
CARYOPHYLLACEAE 
white, twice as long as the deciduous sepals.—Cult, from Eur. in some 
places half-naturalized. 
13. CAPSELLA Medic. 
Slender annuals with pinnatifid leaves and small white flowers. Petals 
small, little exceeding the sepals. Pod inversely heart-shaped in ours, 
strongly flattened contrary to the partition. (Latin capsella, a little 
box.) 
1. C. bursa-pastoris Moench. Shepherd’s Purse. Stem simple or 
branching, 7 to 36 cm. high, sparsely hispid; basal leaves in a spreading 
rosette, all the lower petioled, the upper sessile by an auricled base; 
petals 2 mm. long or a little more; pods nearly or quite 6 mm. broad.— 
Nat. from Eur. in or about cult, places. 
14. LEPIDIUM L. Pepper-Grass 
Small annuals with toothed or pinnatifid leaves and small white or 
greenish flowers. Pod roundish, much flattened contrary to the narrow 
partition, notched or with two wings at apex. Greek lepidion, a little 
scale, in reference to the flattened pods.) 
1. L. nitidum Nutt. Tongue-grass. Simple or branching from the 
base, 2.4 to 24 cm. high; leaves 2.4 to 9.6 cm long, the lower pinnatifid, 
the upper entire; pedicels flattened; petals none.—Low hills and valleys 
in early spring. 
2. L. bipinnatifiduir Desv. Wayside Pepper-Grass. Plants often 
closely matting the ground, sometimes merely diffuse; leaves pinnatifid or 
bipinnatifid; racemes numerous, dense and narrow; pedicels very short; 
petals none.—Liard beaten soil of paths and roads. 
15. THYSANOCARPUS Hook. 
Slender erect annuals with mostly simple stems and minute white or 
purplish flowers. Sepals ovate, spreading. Petals spatulate. Ovary 
1-celled and 1-ovuled, becoming in fruit a pod with a broad circular wing, 
the wing with small holes or radiating nerves. (Greek thusanos, fringe, 
and karpos, fruit.) 
Leaves oblong-lanceolate, the basal forming a rosette, pinnatifid or toothed. 
1. T. curvipes. 
Leaves linear to oblong-linear, the basal entire or with divaricate salient seg¬ 
ments, not forming a rosette.2. T. laciniatus. 
1. T. curvipes Hook. Fringe-Pod. Stem 3 to 5 dm. high; leaves 
lanceolate or linear, all except the basal sessile; pods obovate or roundish, 
hairy or glabrous, 3 to 7 mm. long; wing narrow, rather crowded with 
broad nerves; pedicels recurved.—Open hills. Var. elegans Rob. Wing 
with large perforations between the rays.—Open hills*. 
2. T. laciniatus Nutt. Stems 1.9 to 3.6 dm. high; leaves linear, suben¬ 
tire or deeply pinnatifid; pods obovate, elliptic, or orbicular, reticulated, 
2 to 4 mm. long; pedicel spreading and deflexed.—Open hills, S. Cal. 
Cattlemen believe that the herbage gives a taint to the flesh of range 
cattle. 
CARYOPHYLLACEAE. PINK FAMILY 
Herbs with commonly swollen nodes and simple entire opposite leaves. 
Calyx 5-toothed or of 5 distinct sepals. Petals 5. Stamens 5 or 10, rarely 
