Part 20

Barberry Family

Shrubs or herbs with alternate or basal leaves, with or without stipules, and solitary or racemed, mostly terminal flowers; sepals and petals generally overlapping in several series; stamens as many as the petals and opposite them; flowers perfect.

A smooth, trailing shrub. Leaves petioled, pinnate, leaflets 3—7, ovate or oval, oblique, obtuse, truncate or slightly cordate at the base, sessile thick, persistent, finely veiny, 1—2 inches long, with spine-bearing teeth. Flowers yellow, in several erect, dense, terminal racemes; berry globose, blue or purple.

A straggling shrub with spiny glossy dark green leaves, which change to beautiful tints of scarlets and yellows during midsummer and autumn. Frequent in the Rockies in woods; flowering in June.

PAPAVERACEÆ

Poppy Family

Herbs with milky or coloured sap and alternate leaves or the upper rarely opposite, flowers perfect, regular or irregular; sepals 2, rarely 3 or 4, soon falling off; petals 4—6 or rarely more, folded together, often wrinkled; stamens numerous.

b Lithophragma parviflora (Hook.) Nutt. Lithophragma.

(¾ Nat.)]

Smooth, 4—12 inches long, diffusely branching. Leaves all but the uppermost petioled, finely cut into oblong-obovate or wedge-shaped segments. Flowers numerous in an oblong head, bright golden yellow, nearly half an inch long; spur ½ the length of the body of the corolla, outer petals keeled, not crested; pods spreading or pendulose, torulose; seeds obtuse, margined, shining, obscurely ridged.

Frequent throughout the Rockies in open ground at the lower altitudes where it has been recently burned or cleared; flowering during most of the summer.

BRASSICACEÆ

Mustard Family

Herbs, rarely somewhat woody, with watery acrid juice, alternate leaves and racemose or corymbose white, yellow, or pink flowers; sepals and petals 4; stamens 6, rarely fewer; pistil 1, consisting of 2 united carpels.

Pods short; silicles. Pod compressed parallel to the partition. =Draba.= Pod compressed contrary to the partition, ovate; flowers white. =Thlaspi.= Pod inflated, obcordate; flowers yellow. =Physaria.= Pods elongated; siliques. Pod compressed parallel to the partition. Valves nerveless; flowers white. =Cardamine.= Valves 1-nerved; flowers white or pink. =Arabis.= Pods terete, not at all compressed. Pods 1½ inches long or more. Flowers yellow, stigma 2-lobed. =Erysimum.= Pods less than 1½ inches long. Leaves grey with fine hairs; flowers white. =Smelowskia.= Leaves not grey-hairy; flowers yellow or white. Pubescence of simple hairs. =Sisymbrium.= Pubescence of forked hairs. Leaves pinnate or pinnatifid; flowers yellow. =Sophia.= Leaves entire or nearly so; flowers white. =Braya.= Smooth throughout. Leaves pinnate or pinnatifid; flowers white. =Roripa.=

Caudex much branched, branches short and slender. Leaves strongly keeled, ¼—¾ of an inch long, more or less loosely stellate-pubescent, sometimes ciliate at the base. Scapes slender, ¼—6 inches high, hairy or nearly smooth; racemes few-flowered; sepals with a few long hairs or smooth petals ⅛ of an inch long, pale yellow, darker at the base; pod ¼ of an inch or more long, narrowly oblong, acute at both ends, on pedicels ¼ of an inch or more long; style distinct.

In dry, exposed stony places throughout the Rockies, flowering in early spring.

Stems much branched from the root, densely tufted at the base. Leaves erect, linear, obtuse, tapering to the base, stiff, ciliate, with stellate hairs on both sides, especially toward the apex. Scapes naked; flowers racemose; calyx smooth or with scattered hairs, petals white or pale yellow, obovate, ⅛ of an inch or more long, pods short, nearly orbicular, acute at the apex, more or less rounded at the base, sparingly short-hairy, ⅛ of an inch long; style ⅓ its length. Alpine summits and dry ridges throughout the Rockies; flowering in May and June.

Densely cæspitose. Leaves linear-oblong, obtuse, ⅛ of an inch long or less, stiff and rigid, densely imbricated, forming numerous small rosettes: stellate-pubescent on both sides. Scapes slender, 1—2 inches high, few-flowered, petals pale yellow or white, ⅛ of an inch long; twice as long as the hairy calyx; pods ⅛ of an inch or less long with short stiff hairs.

On exposed rocks and alpine summits throughout the Rockies, frequent in the vicinity of Banff, flowering in May and June.

Caudex with numerous slender matted branches. Leaves in dense tufts, oblanceolate, acutish with a rather stout mid-nerve, entire, white-hairy, with dense stellate pubescence, not at all ciliate or slightly so near the base, ¼ of an inch long or less. Scapes slender, hairy, 1—3 inches high, calyx hairy; flowers ⅛ of an inch high, the white petals slightly exceeding the calyx; pods few, usually smooth, oblong, acute at each end, ½ of an inch or less long on short pedicels and with a short stout style and 2-lobed stigma.

On alpine summits and exposed ledges throughout the Rockies; flowering in June.

Similar to the preceding species but with the leaves obtuse; pods ⅓—⅔ of an inch long, smooth, very narrow and usually more or less twisted, on slender pedicels ¼—½ an inch long.

In moist or shaded ground, on alpine summits or on ledges, throughout the Rockies; flowering in June.

Pubescent throughout with short stellate hairs; stems rather stout, erect, frequently several from the same root; leafy, 2—15 inches high. Leaves entire or few-toothed, oblanceolate or lanceolate, stem leaves usually narrowed and frequently ciliate at the base, ½—2 inches long. Flowers bright yellow in an elongated leafy raceme; calyx smooth or somewhat hairy; petals elliptic, less than ⅛ of an inch long; pods lanceolate to linear, acute, hairy, often twisted, ¼—½ an inch long on peduncles half their length.

Frequent in dry open ground at the lower altitudes throughout the Rockies; flowering in June.

Erect, simple, or somewhat branched, leafy, stellate-pubescent throughout, 6—12 inches high. Leaves lanceolate, oblanceolate or ovate, ¼—1 inch long, acute or obtuse, dentate or nearly entire; flowers white, ⅛ of an inch or less broad; petals notched, twice as long as the sepals; pod oblong or lanceolate, acute ⅓—½ an inch long on nearly erect pedicels about ½ their length.

Throughout the region in moist ravines; flowering during June.