PITTOSPORUM FAMILY. 57 



1. CLEOME. Calyx 4-cleft. Petals 4. Stamens 6, on a short thickened recep- 

 tacle. Ovary and many-seeded pod in ours raised above the receptacle on a 

 long stalk. 'Style very short or none. Usually an appendage on one side of 

 the receptacle. 



2: GYNANDKOPSIS. Sepals 4. Stamens borne on the long stalk of the ovary 

 far above the petals. Otherwise as in No. 1. 



3. POLANISIA. Sepals 4. Stamens 8-32. Ovary and pod sessile or short- 

 stalked on the receptacle. Style present. Otherwise nearly as No. 1. 



1. CLEOME. (From a Greek word meaning cloned, the application not 



obvious.) (I) 



C. piingens. Tall (2 -4 high), clammy-pubescent, with little spines or 

 prickly points (whence the name) in place of stipules, about 7 broadly lanceolate 

 leaflets, but the bracts simple and ovute or heart-shaped, and a raceme of large 

 and handsome flowers, with long-clawed pink or purple petals and declined sta- 

 mens. Cult, from S. America, for ornament, and run wild S. 



C. integrifblia, much smaller, very smooth, with 3 leaflets and the pink 

 petals without claws, is wild in Nebraska, c., and lately introduced to gardens. 



2. GYNANDROPSIS. (Greek-made name, meaning that the stamens 

 appear to be on the pistil.) (Lessons, p. 125, fig. 276.) 



G. pentaph^lla. Nat. from Carolina S. from West Indies, is a clammy- 

 pubescent weed, with 5 leaflets to the leaves and 3 to the bracts ; the white 

 petals on claws. 



3. POLANfSIA. (Greek-made name, meaning many-unequal, referring to 

 the stamens.) 



P. grav^olens. A heavy-scented (as the name denotes), rather clammy, 

 low herb, with 3 oblong leaflets, and small flowers with short white petals, about 

 11 scarcely longer purplish stamens, and a short style; fl. summer. Wild on 

 gravelly shores, from Conn. W. 



12. RESEDACE^l, MIGNONETTE FAMILY. 



Herbs, with inconspicuous flowers in spikes or racemes ; rep- 

 resented by the main genus, 



1. RESEDA, MIGNONETTE, &c. (From a Latin word, to assuage, from 

 supposed medical properties.) Calyx 4-7-parted, never closed even in the 

 bud. Petals 4-7, unequal, cleft or notched, those of one side of the flower 

 appendagcd within. Stamens 10-40, borne on a sort of disk dilated on one 

 side of the flower. Ovary and pod composed of 3 - 6 carpels united not 

 quite to the top into a 3 - 6-lobed or 3 - 6-horncd 1 -celled pistil which opens 

 at the top long before the seeds are ripe. The seeds are numerous, kidney- 

 shaped, on 3 - 6 parietal placentae. Leaves alternate. 

 R. Odorata, COMMON MIGNONETTE. Cult, (from N. Africa) as an an^ 



nual, for the delicious scent of the greenish-white flowers ; the anthers orange ; 



petals 6, the posterior ones cut into several fine lobes ; stems low ; some leaves 



entire and oblong, others 3-lobed. 



R. Lut&ola, DYER'S M. or WELD. Nat. along roadsides, tall, with 



lanceolate entire leaves, and a long spike of yellowish flowers ; petals 4. 



13. PITTOSPORACE^E, PITTOSPORUM FAMILY. 



A small family of shrubs and tree?, belonging mostly to the south- 

 ern hemisphere, in common cultivation represented only by one 

 house-plant, a species of 



1. PITTOSPORUM. (Name means pitchy seed in Greek, the seeds being 

 generally covered with a sticky exudation.)' Flowers regular, of 5 sepals, 



