156 



CAPPARIDACEAE. 



Family 4. CAPPARIDACEAE Lindl. 

 CAPER FAMILY. 



Herbs, shrubs, some tropical species trees, with alternate or very rarely 

 opposite leaves, and regular or irregular, mostly perfect flowers. Sepals 

 4-8. Petals 4 (rarely none). Receptacle elongated or short. Stamens 

 6-, not tetradynamous, inserted on the receptacle; anthers oblong. Style 

 generally short, ovules , on parietal placentae. Fruit a capsule or berry. 

 Seeds mainly reniform in our species; endosperm none; embryo generally 

 coiled. About 35 genera and 450 species, mostly of warm regions. 



1. CLEOME L. 



Herbs or low shrubs. Leaves digitately 3-5-foliolate, or simple. Flowers 

 mostly racemose. Calyx 4-divided or of 4 sepals, often persistent. Petals 4, 

 cruciate, nearly equal, entire, more or less clawed. Receptacle short, slightly 

 prolonged above the petal-bases. Stamens 6 (rarely 4), or numerous, inserted 

 on the receptacle. Ovary stalked, with a gland at its base. Capsule elongated, 

 many-seeded. [Derivation uncertain.] About 75 species, mainly natives of 

 tropical regions, especially American and African. Type species: Cleome 

 gynandra L. 



Stamens 6, borne on the gynophore : petals white to pink. 

 Stamens about 20, borne below the gynophore ; petals yellow. 



1. C. gynandra. 



2. C. uiscosa. 



1. Cleome gynandra L. SMALL 

 SPIDER-FLOWER. (Fig. 182.) Annual, 

 bright green, clammy-pubescent. Stem 

 li-3 tall, branching; leaf -blades 

 palmately 3-5-foliolate; petioles 

 longer than the leaflets; leaflets *'- 

 2i' long, oval to obovate, acute or 

 short-acuminate, serrulate ; racemes 

 4'-16' long; bracts suborbicular, oval 

 or broadly obovate; sepals lanceolate, 

 acuminate ; petals white or pink, 2J"- 

 5" long, their blades oval, longer 

 than the claws ; stamens 6 ; capsules 

 linear, lJ'-2' long, surpassing the 

 glandular pedicel in length; seeds 

 coarsely rugose and muricate. [Cleome 

 pentaphylla L. ; Gynandropsis penta- 

 phylla DC.] 



Abundant as a weed in cultivated 

 grounds. Naturalized from the Old 

 World tropics. Widely naturalized in 

 the southern United States and West 

 Indies. Flowers from spring to autumn. 



