GENUS 4. 



CAPER FAMILY. 



199 



4. POLANISIA Raf. Journ. Phys. 89 : 98. 1819. 



Annual branching herbs, mainly glandular-pubescent and exhaling a strong disagreeable 

 odor, with whitish or yellowish flowers, and palmately compound or rarely simple leaves. 

 Sepals 4, lanceolate, deciduous. Petals slender or clawed. Receptacle depressed, bearing a 

 gland at the base of the ovary. Stamens 8-Q, somewhat unequal. Pod nearly or quite ses- 

 sile on its pedicel, elongated, cylindric or compressed, its valves dehiscent from the summit. 

 Seeds rugose or reticulated. [Greek, very unequal, referring to the stamens.] 



A genus of about 30 species, natives of temperate and tropical regions. In addition to the fol- 

 lowing, 2 other species are found in the southern and western parts of North America. Type 

 species : Polanisia graveolens Raf. 



Stamens equalling or slightly exceeding the petals ; flowers 2" -3" long. i. P. graveolens. 



Stamens much exceeding the petals ; flowers 4"- 6" long. 2. P. trachysperma. 



i. Polanisia graveolens Raf. Clammy- 

 weed. Fig. 2118. 



Cleome dodecandra Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 2 : 



32. 1803. Not. L. 1753. 

 Polanisia graveolens Raf. Am. Journ. Sci. i : 



3/8. 1819. 



Viscid and glandular-pubescent, branch- 

 ing, 6'-i8' high. Leaves 3-f oliolate, slender- 

 petioled; leaflets oblong, obtuse, entire, 

 6"-i2" long; sepals purplish, slightly un- 

 equal; petals cuneate, clawed, deeply emar- 

 ginate or obcordate, yellowish-white ; sta- 

 mens 9-12, purplish, equalling or slightly 

 exceeding the petals; style about i" long; 

 pod lanceolate-oblong, slightly compressed, 

 i'-ii' long, 3 "-4" wide, slightly stipitate, 

 rough, reticulated ; seeds rough. 



Sandy and gravelly shores, western Quebec 

 to Manitoba, Maryland, Tennessee, Kansas 

 and Colorado. Wormweed. False-mustard. 

 Summer. 



2. Polanisia trachysperma T. & G.. Large- 

 flowered Clammy-weed. Fig. 2119. 



Polanisia trachysperma T. & G. Fl. N. A. i : 669. 1840. 

 Jacksonia trachysperma Greene, Pittonia 2: 175. 1891. 



Similar to the last, but flowers twice the size (4"- 

 6" long) ; style slender, 2"-^" long; stamens much 

 exserted, often twice the length of the petals; fila- 

 ments purple, conspicuous ; pod slightly larger, nearly 

 or quite sessile. 



Prairies and plains, Iowa to Missouri, Texas, west to 

 British Columbia and California. Summer. 



Family 40. RESEDACEAE S. F. Gray, Nat. Arr. Brit. PL 2: 665. 1821. 



MIGNONETTE FAMILY. 



Annual or perennial herbs, rarely somewhat woody, with alternate or fascicled 

 leaves, gland-like stipules and racemose or spicate, bracted flowers. Flowers 

 unsymmetrical. Calyx '4-?-parted, more or less inequilateral. Petals generally 

 4-7", cleft or entire," hypogynous. Disk fleshy, hypogynous, i-sided. Stamens 

 3-40, inserted on the disk; filaments generally unequal. Ovary i, compound, of 



