92 ELEMENTS OF BOTANY. 



spreading, much longer than the erect sepals ; silique slender, nodu- 

 lose, 2-4 in. long ; seeds 1 row in each cell. March-July. Escaped 

 from cultivation. 



47. CAPPARIDACEiE. CAPER FAMILY. 



Herbs, shrubs or trees, with an acrid, watery juice ; leaves 

 usually alternate, simple or palmately compound ; stipules 

 spiny or wanting ; flowers often irregular, usually perfect ; 

 sepals 4-8 ; petals 4 or wanting; stamens 6 or more; style 

 usually short, receptacle often elongated ; fruit a pod or 

 berry. 



CLEOME. 



Mostly annual herbs ; stems branched ; leaves petioled, 

 simple or 3-7-foliate, leaflets entire or serrate ; flowers in 

 bracted racemes ; sepals 4, often persistent ; petals 4, long- 

 clawed, nearly equal, entire ; stamens 6, filaments filiform, 

 usually much exserted but sometimes 1-3 much shorter than 

 the others, inserted on the short receptacle ; ovary on a short 

 stipe with a small gland at its base ; fruit a slender capsule 

 on an elongated, stipe. 



C. spiNOSA L. Spider Flower. Annual ; stem erect, branched 

 above ; leaves alternate, large, the lower long-petioled, the upper 

 short-petioled or sessile, 5-7-foliate, leaflets lanceolate, acute, serru- 

 late ; stipules spiny ; flowers numerous, showy, white or purplish, in 

 long, bracted racemes, lower bracts trifoliate, the upper simple, 

 cordate-ovate ; pedicels long ; petals obovate, long-clawed ; capsule 

 smooth, linear, shorter than the stipe which is often 4-6 in. in 

 length. May-August. Common in waste places. 



48. RESEDACEJE. MKxNONETTE FAMILY. 



Annual ; stem diffuse, widely branched ; leaves sessile, 

 entire or lobed, smooth ; flowers in spikes or racemes, bracted, 

 irregular, fragrant ; calyx 4-7-parted, inequilateral ; petals 

 4-7, entire or cleft ; stamens 8-30, inserted on the hypogy- 

 nous, one-sided disk ; ovary sessile, 3-6-lobed, stigmas 3-6, 

 ovules many. 



