CHORIPETALAE (concluded) 



CAPPARIDACEAE. Caper Family 



Herbs (ours annuals) or shrubs, with heavy-scented herbage. Leaves alternate, 

 ours palmately compound with 3 (rarely 5) leaflets, or sometimes simple. Flowers 

 perfect in bracted racemes, or solitary and axillary. Bracts usually petioled, con- 

 spicuous or minute, even in one species. Calyx-lobes or sepals 4, minute or small, 

 much smaller than the petals, usually persistent. Petals 4, not clawed or scarcely 

 so. Stamens 6 (in Polanisia and other genera often many ) , nearly equal. Ovary 1 

 (or rarely 2) -celled, borne on a stipe and often exserted. Receptacle often thick- 

 ened or lengthened as a torus between the stamens and petals. Fruit a few to many- 

 seeded 2-valved capsule, the valves separating from the filiform placentae, or the 

 valves separating from the axis as closed 1-seeded nutlets. — Species about 550, all 

 continents, but mostly warm regions. 



Bibliog. — Torrey, J., Notes on Cleomella (Hook. Jour. Bot. 2:254-255, — 1850). Greene, 

 E. L., Peritoma (Pitt. 4:208-210, — 1900); Eevision of the genus Wislizenia (Proc. Biol. Soc. 

 "Wash. 19:127-132, — 1906). Pavson, E. B., A svnoptieal revision of the genus Cleomella (Univ. 

 Wyo. Publ. Sci. Bot. 1:29-46,-1922). Parish, S. B., Cleomella obtusifolia Torr. & Frem. (Bull. 

 S. Cal. Acad. 22:12-14, — 1923). Crum, Ethel K., Geographic distribution and relationships of 

 Isomeris, Cleomella and Wislizenia (ms). 



Shrub; ovary 1-eelled, many-ovuled; capsule inflated; torus enlarged at summit into a disk 



„ , 1. ISOMEIUS. 



Herbs. 



Ovary 1-celled; capsule few to many-seeded, its valves separating from the placentae; torus 

 more or less thickened and sometimes lengthened. 



Flowers in ours white; stamens 8 or more 2. Polanisia. 



Flowers yellow; stamens 6. 



Capsule linear to oval (longer than broad) 3. Cleome, 



Capsule short, nearly as broad as long or broader, more or less flattened contrary 



to the replum; valves boat-like or conical 4. Cleomella. 



Ovary 2-eelled, didymous, the cells with 2 ovules; fruit 2-seeded, each valve closely investing 

 its seed and falling away with it; torus short. 



Stamens elongated; stipe long; stipules present 5. Wislizenia. 



Stamens little surpassing petals; stipe very short; stipules none 6. Oxystylis. 



1. ISOMERIS Nutt. 



Glaucous shrubs. Leaflets 3. Flowers large, yellow, in bracted racemes. Calyx 

 4-cleft, persistent. Stamens long-exserted. Torus produced posteriorly into a 

 2-lobed thickening. Capsule large, inflated, coriaceous, long-stipitate, tardily de- 

 hiscent. Seeds few, large. — Species 1. (Greek isos, equal, and meris, part.) 



1 The plan for a Flora of California was conceived and outlined in the year 1894 and work was 

 begun at that time. The duties of the author as an officer of instruction in the University of Cali- 

 fornia were such, however, that his days were closely occupied with scheduled engagements. In 

 addition he had for many years responsibility for the University Herbarium and also assumed 

 many functions having to do with the public welfare. So it was that no free days were available 

 for carrying on the Flora as an investigation project and time for the work was only had by the 

 use of broken hours or even the seizure of flying moments. It was a fixed principle, nevertheless, 

 that no day must pass without thought, however brief, for the opus magnum. During the latter 

 years of these decades of investigation the author has had at irregular periods the help of grad- 

 uate students as research assistants and this footnote is for the purpose of paying tribute to the 

 aid they rendered. In the years 1917, 1918 and 1925 Alma Union Ames (Mrs. Phillip Weigart) 

 was employed as a research assistant. Endowed with an understanding of unusual breadth and 

 clarity, she apprehended swiftly and soundly the real essence of species problems with a sagacity 

 that has rarely been equalled. From 1919 to 1922 Lulu M. Newlon (Mrs. George B. Upton) gave a 

 service marked by its sobriety, painstaking care and wise appraisements. Dr. Newlon also sensed 

 well the vast extent of the field and the need for finishing tasks in the time allotted. A supple- 

 mentary service during 1919 and 1920 was rendered by Elizabeth Van Everen Ferguson (Mrs. 

 Walter Steilberg) and by Conrad Vernon Morton (an undergraduate), in 1927. During the period 



(Footnote continued on page 10.) 

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