CLEOME PUNGENS. 



PRICKLY CLEOME, OR SPIDERFLOVVER. 



NATURAL ORDER, CAPPARIDACE^. 



Cleome PUNGENS, WiUclenow. — Clammy-pubescent; leaves five to seven foliate, long-petioled ; 

 leaflets lanceolate, acute, serrulate ; lower bracts trifoliolate, the upper ones simple, cor- 

 date, ovate; stipules spiny; capsule smooth, shorter than the elongated stipe; seeds 

 rugose ; stem two to four feet high ; petioles more or less spiny ; flowers showy, purple, 

 changing to white. (Chapman's Flora of the Southern United States. See also Wood's 

 Class- Book of Botany.) 



HE Prickly Cleome, a beautiful wild flower from the 

 southern shores of the United States, is an object of 

 curiosity, even to the ordinary observer, from the resemblance 

 which the flowers bear to an insect with erect wings and long 

 legs and tentacles. The resemblance, indeed, is not so striking 

 as in the flowers of some orchids, but sufficiently so to pro- 

 duce an odd effect. To more scientific observers, however, and 

 especially to those who like to examine structure closely, by 

 comparing allied plants with one another, this species offers 

 other points of peculiar interest. If the four petals and four 

 sepals were not all turned in one direction, and if it were not 

 for the general appearance of the seed-vessel, one would sup- 

 pose at first sight that the plant belonged to the Crucifercs, or 

 cabbage tribe ; but in that family four of the six stamens are 

 invariably long, and the remaining two invariably short, while 

 in Cleome pungens the whole six are of equal length. The 

 most striking difference, however, will be found in the ovarium, 

 ultimately the seed-vessel, which in Cleome pungens is borne on 

 the end of a very long stalk. These, then, together with some 



