Low mostly diffuse herbs, more or less pubescent with forked hairs, our species annual, with entire or pinnately lobed leaves, and very small white flowers in terminal racemes, the axis of the racemes much elongating in fruit. Stamens 6. Style wanting or very short. Silkies oval, obcompressed (i. e., at right angles to the partition), the valves with a strong midvein. Seeds numerous in each cell; cotyledons incumbent or accumbent. [Name in honor of Miss Hutchins, of Bantry, Ireland, an eminent botanist.]

About 8 species, natives of the northern hemisphere, only the following known in North America. Type species: Hutchinsia petraea (Willd.) R. Br.

1. Hutchinsia Procúmbens (L.) Desv. Prostrate Hutchinsia

Fig. 2023

Lepidium procumbens L. Spec. Pl. 643. 1753.

Hutchinsia procumbens Desv. Journ. Bot. 3: 168. 1814.

Hymenolobus divaricatus Nutt.; T. & G. Fl. N. A. 1: 117. 1838.

Capsella elliptica C. A. Meyer; Ledeb. Fl. Alt. 3: 199. 1831.

Tufted, somewhat pubescent, or glabrous, branching near the base, the branches ascending or procumbent, slender, 2'-6' long. Lower leaves short-petioled, pinnatifid, lobed, dentate or sometimes entire, 1/2'-1' long; upper leaves sessile or very nearly so, entire or lobed; flowers about 1/2" broad; pedicels very slender, ascending or spreading, 3"-6" long in fruit; pods elliptic or oval, mostly obtuse or emarginate, 1 1/2"-2" long; seeds several in each cell.

In moist ground, often in saline situations, Labrador to British Columbia, and widely distributed in the Pacific States. Also in Europe, Asia and Australia. June-Aug.

10. NÉSLIA Desv. Journ. Bot. 3: 162. 1814.

[Sphaerocarpus Heist.; Fabr. Enum. Pl. Hort. Helmst. 1763. Not. Adans. 1763.] An annual or biennial erect branching herb, hispid with branched hairs, with entire leaves, and small yellow racemose flowers. Silicles small, globose, wingless, reticulated, indehiscent, 1-celled, 1-seeded or rarely 2-seeded. Style filiform. Seed horizontal; cotyledons incumbent. [Dedicated to J. A. N. De Nesle, a French botanist.] A monotypic genus of Europe and eastern Asia.

1. Neslia Paniculàta (L.) Desv. Ball Mustard

Fig. 2024

Myagrum paniculatum L. Sp. Pl. 641. 1753. Neslia paniculata Desv. Journ. Bot. 3: 162. 1814.

Slender, branched above, rather densely rough-hispid, 1°-2° high. Leaves lanceolate, or the upper linear-lanceolate, acute or obtusish at the apex, sagittate-clasping at the base, 1'-21/2' long, 2"-8" wide; racemes elongated; flowers yellow, nearly 1" broad; pedicels filiform, ascending, 3"-s" long in fruit; silicles globose, or slightly depressed, about 1" in diameter, finely reticulated.

In waste places, Quebec to Manitoba, North Dakota, British Columbia and Pennsylvania, and in ballast about the eastern seaports. Adventive or fugitive from Europe. May-Sept.

Rapistrum rugòsum (L.) All., a plant with 2-jointed indehiscent pods, erect on appressed pedicels, in long racemes, has been found as a waif at Easton, Penn., and plentifully in ballast about the seaports. It is related to Raphanus.