90 



IX. CAPPARIDEyE. 



[Cleome 



or in some species not Australian simple. Elowers solitary or in tenninal 



racemes. 



A large genus cliietly abundant in the warm parts of America, and in the hot sandy 

 districts of N.E. Africa aud S.W. Asia. 



Stemless, with radical leaves and 1 -flowered scapes • 

 Erect and leafy, with racemose flowers . - . . 



1, C. oxalidea. 



2. C. ietrandra. 



iT* 



1. C. oxalidea, F. MuelL Fragm. i. 69, A little, glabrous, glaucous, 

 almost stemlcss annual. Leaves radical, consisting of 3 obovate or orbicular 

 leaflets, 2 to 4 lines long, on a slender petiole longer than themselves. Scapes 

 filiform, l-flo\Yered, 1^ to 2 in. long. Sepals about 1 line long. Petals of a 

 pale pink, ovate, about 2 lines long. Stamens 6 to 8, with linear-oblong 

 anthers attached near the base. Capsule sessile, linear-oblong or narrow- 

 linear, 1^ to 1 in. long. 



N. Anstralia. Gravelly plains on the Upper Victoria river, and table land at the head 

 of Stm-t's Creek, F. Mueller. 



2. C» tetrandra, Bauls, in DC, Prod. i. 240. An annual, either 

 glabrous or sprinkled with a few short glandidar hairs, the stems often several 

 together, slender, ascending from a few inches to 1^ ft. Leaves chiefly at 

 the base of the stems on long petioles, with 3 or 5 linear-lanceolate or nar- 

 row-oblong leaflets sometimes above an inch long, the upper leaves few, small, 

 with only 3 leaflets or simple, Kaceme loose and slender, wath filiform pedi- 

 cels. Sepals i to 1 line long. Petals narrow, 3 to 6 lines long, nearly ecpiah 

 Stamens 4 to 6. Capsule sessile, slender, 1 to l-J in. long, witli a short 

 subulate style, the valves thin and minutely striate. Seeds transversely 

 wrinkled. 



fik Australia. N.W. coast, Bynoe ; Victoria river, F. Mueller; Port Essington, 

 Armstrong ; Gulf of Carpentaria, U, Brown. 



2. POLANISIA, Eafin. 



Sepals and petals 4 each, as in Oleoma, Stamens usually 8 or more, 

 inserted on the short torus. Ovary and capsule sessile or stalked, with many 

 ovules and seeds, as in Cleome. — Herbs, with the habit of Cleome, from which 

 the genus only differs in the increased number of stamens. Flowers in ter- 

 minal racemes. 



Tlie genus is distrihntcd ov^r thn wnrmpr nnd trnnir-nl rAo-inna r.f \\(\\\\ flip Np.w and tae 

 Old AVorld. 



The only Australian species is a common tropical weed. 



1. P. viscosa, T)C. Trod, i. 242. An erect branching annual or bien- 

 nial, usually about 1 ft. high, more or less covered with short, glandular, 

 viscid hairs. Leaflets 3 or 5, very rarely 7, from obovate or oblong-cuneate 

 to Ihiear-lunccolate, the largest usually 1 to \\ in. lon^^ but mostly much 

 smaller. Tlowcrs yellow, in terminal racemes. Sepals about 2 lines, petals 

 twice or thrice as long, from naiTow-oblong to almost ovate. Stamens from 

 8 to 16. Capsule from oblong-linear about 1 in. long to harrow-linear aud 

 3 in. long, strongly striate,^ the nerves very oblique and anastomosing in the 

 short pods, nearly parallel in the long ones, and always glandular-pubescent. 

 Seeds wrinkled. — Cleome fiava^ Banks, in DC. Prod. i. 241. 



