CiSTALES.] 



CAPPARIDACE.E. 



357 



Order CXXV. CAPPARlDACEiE.— Capparids. 



Capparideae, Jkss. Gen. 242. (1789) ; Ann. Mits. 18. 474 ; DC. Prodr. 1. 237 ; Endl. Gen.clxxxii. ; 

 Meisner, Gen. p. \7 ; Wight. Illustr. 1. 33. 



Diagnosis. — Cistal Exogens^with stamens not tetrachjnamous, tetramerous flowers, exalhu- 

 minoits seeds, and a closed up fruit. 

 Herbaceous plants, shrubs, or even trees, without tnie stipules, but sometimes with 

 spines in their place. Leaves alternate, stalked, undivided, or pahnate. Flowers soli- 



tary or racemose. Sepals 4, 

 either nearly distinct, imbri- 

 cated, or valvate, equal, or 

 unequal, or cohering in a 

 tube, the hmb of which is 

 variable in form. Petals 4, 

 or even 8, imbricated, or 0, 

 cruciate, usually unguiculate 

 and unequal. Stamens almost 

 perigjTious, very seldom te- 

 tradynamous,most frequently 

 arranged in some high mul- 

 tiple of a quaternary number, 

 definite or 00, placed upon a 

 large hemispherical disk, or 

 at the apex of a stalk-hke 

 h Wi Fv- -^^^ I W torus ; anthers tm-ned in- 

 // M ^^^^^ ^^ wards, opening longitudinally. 

 -./:^ lia ^ ^^^^ s/ Disk greatly developed, some- 



Fig. CCXLVIII. times as a fleshy, hemispheri- 



cal, roundish, or stalk-hke body, sometimes as a nectariferous glandular 

 plate of various forms, sterile on one side and anther-bearing on the other. 

 Ovary stalked, or sessile, 1 -celled, with 2 or more parietal placentae ; 

 ovules amphitropal or campylotropal ; style 0, or filiform ; stigma gene- Fig- CCXLIX. 

 rally romid. Fruit either podshaped and deliiscent, or baccate, 1 -celled, very rarely 1- 

 seeded, most frequently with polyspermous placentae. Seeds generally reniform, without al- 

 bumen, but with the fining of the testa tumid, attached to the margin of the valves ; embryo 

 cmwed ; cotyledons foUaceous, flattish ; radicle taper, short or long, tm-ned to the hilum. 

 Distinguished from Crucifers by their stamens being often indefinite, if definite never 

 tetradynamous, or scarcely ever, and by then- reniform seeds. They are related to 

 Passionworts in their stipitate ovary, and fleshy indehiscent fi-uit with pai-ietal polysper- 

 mous placentte ; and to Bixads m the stnictm-e of their fmit, parietal placenta?, and 

 indefinite stamens ; from these last they are known by then- nan'ow placenta?, exal- 

 bummous seeds, and peculiar habit ; and from the foraier by a number of obvious cha- 

 i-acters. Bro\vn remarks {Denham, 15,) that some species of Capparis, of which C. 

 spinosa is an example, have as many as 8 placentce. Aug. de St. Hilaire and Moqum 

 Tandon state that Capparids are referable to a tetrandi'ous type, which is very pos- 

 sible. But the explanation they give, or the proofs they offer of this, are less clear than 

 could be desired. (See Ann. des Sc. 20. 321). 



Capparids are chiefly found in the tropics and in the countries bordering upon them, 

 where they abound in almost every direction. Of the capsular species, a single one, 

 Cleome violacea, is found m Portugal ; another, Polanisia gi'aveolens, occm-s as far to 

 the north as Canada ; and one or Iwo others are met with in the southern provinces of 

 the United States. Of the fleshy-fruited kinds, the common Caper, Capparis spmosa, 

 a native of the most southern parts of Europe, is that which approaches the nearest to 

 the north. Africa abounds m them. 



Fig. CCXLVIII.— Moerua angolensis 

 Fig. CCXLIX.— Capparis Sinclairii. 



—Deksscrt. 1. a ripe fi-uit ; 2. a seed ; .1. a section of it. 

 1. a transverse ; 2. a longitudinal section of its ovary. 



