PoLANisiA. CAPPARIDACE^. 67 



Order XIII. CAPPARIDACE^E. Juss. The Caper Tribe. 



Sepals 4 (very rarely 2 or 8), deciduous or marcescent, distinct or more or less 

 united and imbricated in aestivation, rarely valvate. Petals 4 (very rarely 8), 

 cruciate or irregular, usually unguiculate and more or less unequal, sometimes 

 vv^anting. Stamens, vi^hen the flowers are tetramerous, most commonly 6, often 

 8 - 20 or more, rarely as few as 4, inserted on the short or sometimes elon- 

 gated torus : filaments equal or unequal ; anthers innate or introrse, mostly 

 revolute when dry. Ovary often stipitate, composed of 2 (rarely more) united 

 carpels, with two parietal placentae : style fiUform, sometimes short or almost 

 wanting; stigma entire, often discoid or somewhat capitate. Fruit one-celled, 

 either a pod-shaped 2-valved capsule, with the valves often separating from 

 the persistent filiform placentae (rarely coriaceous, and nearly or quite inde- 

 hiscent), or baccate, very rarely 1 - 2-, usually many-seeded. Seeds campuli- 

 tropous, reniform, with no albumen, but the lining of the testa often thickened. 

 Embryo curved : cotyledons foliaceous, somewhat incumbent. — Herbs (mostly 

 annuals in N. America), shrubs, or rarely small trees, wdth a watery acrid juice. 

 Leaves alternate, petioled, simple or palmately compound : leaflets mostly 

 entire. Stipules none, or with spines in their place. 



Tribe I. CLEOMEJE. DC. 



Capsule membranaceous, dehiscent {rarely somewhat coriaceous and indehiscent). Leaves 

 mostly compound. 



1. POLANISIA. Raf. injour.phys. (1819), p. 98 ; Endl. gen. 4988. 



[From the Greek, poly, much, and anisos, unequal ; in allusion to the inequality of the stamens.] 



Sepals distinct, spreading. Petals 4. Stamens 8 - 32 : filaments filiform, or dilated at the 

 summit. Torus minute (often nectariferous). Pod linear, sessile or nearly so. — Annual 

 herbs, mostly glandular, with a heavy terebinthine odor. 



§. PoLANisiA proper. Torus bearing a short fleshy nectary or gland next the upper sepal : filaments 

 filiform, often unequal and more or less declined (6 — 80/ them arising between the nectary and 

 the ovary) : petals on slender claws, unequal, emarginate or entire : sepals tardily deciduous. 



1. PoLANisiA GRAVEOLENS, JRof. Heavy-sceuted Polanisia. 



Viscidly pubescent and glandular ; leaves trifoliolate ; leaflets and bracts oblong, shorter 



9« 



