CANTUA 



CAPSICUM 



241 



CANTUA (from Cantu, Peruvian name). Polemnniti- 

 cece. Ten species of South American flowering shrubs 

 with very variable foliage and showy, tubular fls. of va- 

 rious colors. C. buxifolla is cult, out of doors in S. Calif., 

 and is recommended in Europe as a coolhouse shrub. 

 Probably no tenderer than Fuchsias. Prop, by cuttings. 



buxifblia, Lam. (C. de}n'>t(J< us. Pers.). Much branched 

 shrub, about 4 ft. high ; branches more or less downy: 

 Ivs. very variable, generally obloug-obovate, acute, taper- 

 ing at the base, entire or serrate, downy or glabrous : 

 fls. 5-8, drooping vertically, in a kind of leafy, termi- 

 nal corymb ; calyx pale, membranous, green-streaked, 

 5-toothed, a fourth shorter than the corolla tube; corolla 

 long-funnel-shaped, the tube 2%in. long, red, usually 

 streaked ; limb of fringed, obcordate, crimson lobes : 

 stamens included. Peru. B.M. 4582. F.S. 7:650. R.H. 

 1858, p. 294. One of the choicest of European green- 

 house plants. Very liable to red spider in our climate. 



C. bicolor, Lem. Distinguished from the above by the entire 

 Ivs., which are shorter, about 1 in. long, and the solitary fls. , with 

 a short, yellow tube, the limb not fringed. The fls. droop, but 

 not vertically. Peru. B.M. 4729. F.S. 4:343. Probably less de- 

 sirable than the above. C. pyrifolia, Pers. Lvs. generally 

 broader and more toothed than in C. bicolor: fls. as many as 17, 

 in an erect, terminal, compound corymb ; calyx red-tipped, 

 nearly half as long as the yellow corolla tube ; corolla about 



n. long, with a white limb : stamens long, exserted. Peru. 

 B.M. 4386. F.S. 4:383. W. M. 



CAPE BULBS. 



Treated under 

 Bulbs. 



CAPE CHEST- 



NUT is Caloden- 

 drtim Capensis. 



CAPE GOOSEBEEEY is a 



Phy sails. 



CAPE JESSAMINE. See 

 Gardenia. 



CAPE PONDWEED. See 



Aponogeton. 



CAPEK. See Capparis. 

 For Caper-spurge, see Euphor- 

 bia Lafhyrus. 



CAPPAEIS (Greek, caper). 

 CAPER-BUSH, or CAPER TREE. 

 Capparidacece. Capers are 

 pickles made by preserving 

 the flower buds of C. splnosa, 

 straggling shrub which 

 grows out of old walls, rocks, 

 and rubbish in Mediterranean 

 regions and India. Also rarely 

 cult, as a greenhouse flowering 

 shrub. The genus is large and 

 polymorphic, and none of its 

 relatives are familiar north. 

 Prop, by cuttings in green- 

 houses, and by seeds south. 

 spinosa, Linn. Spiny shrub, 

 ft. high : Ivs. roundish or 

 ovate, deciduous : fls. borne 

 singly, alternately, and fading 

 before noon ; sepals 4 ; petals 

 4, oblong, clawed, wavy, white, 

 long : stamens 40-50: 

 filaments purple above, per- 

 haps the chief beauty of the 

 plant. B.M. 291. What seems 

 to be the long style 

 with a short, un- 

 opened stigma, is 

 really the elon- 

 gated peduncle or 

 torus topped by 

 the pistil, which has no style and a minute stigma. 



W. M. 

 CAPEIFOLIUM. See Lonicera. 



CAPElOLA (the wild goat, which feeds upon this 

 grass). Graminew. Low, creeping perennials, with 

 short, flat leaves and slender spikes, which spread out at 

 the apex into finger-like branches. Spikelets 1-fld., 

 awnless, sessile, in two rows along one side of a slender, 

 continuous axis. Glumes 3, the first 2 narrow, keeled, 

 usually acute, empty; the third or floral glume broader 

 and usually a little longer than the empty ones. Species 

 4. One distributed throughout the tropical and warmer 

 temperate regions of the world. 



Dactylon, Kuntze (Cynodon Dactylon, Pers.). BER- 

 MUDA GRASS. Fig. 352. A widely dispersed grass, with 

 a creeping habit of growth, extending rapidly over the 

 surface of the ground and rooting at the joints. Used 

 extensively in the south for lawn-making, where Ken- 

 tucky blue grass and the bent grasses cannot be success- 

 fully grown. Except in the far south, however, it is not 

 a desirable lawn grass, as it quickly turns brown upon 

 the approach of cold weather, and is rather late in be- 

 coming green in the spring. A variety known as St. Lucie 

 Grass is regarded as a more desirable form for lawns 

 than the species. Experiments made in central Michi- 

 gan by Beal seem to show that Bermuda Grass is val- 

 uable to mix with June grass for a lawn where the 

 soil is rather thin, the June grass occupying the soil 

 from early spring until hot, dry weather, when the Ber- 

 muda covers the ground. In the cool autumn, June grass 



appears again at the surface. 



P. B. KENNEDY. 



352. Capriola Dactylon. Nat. size. 



CAPSICUM (name of uncertain origin, perhaps from 

 kapto, to bite, on account of the pungency of the seed or 

 pericarp; or from capsa, a chest, having reference to the 

 form of fruit). Solanacece. RED PEPPER. CAYENNE 

 PEPPER. Herbs or shrubs, originally from trop. Amer., 

 but escaped from cultivation in Old World tropics, where 

 it was once supposed to be indigenous. Stem branchy, 

 1-6 ft. high, glabrous or nearly so : Ivs. ovate or subel- 

 liptical, entire, actuninate fls. white or greenish white, 

 rarely violaceous, solitary or 

 sometimes in 2's or 3's ; 

 corolla rotate, usually 5- 

 lobed ; stamens 5, rarely 6 

 or 7, with bluish anthers de- 

 hiscinglongitudinally ;ovary 

 originally 2-3-loculed : fr. 

 a juiceless berry or pod, 

 extremely variable in form 

 and size, many-seeded, and 

 with more or less pungency 

 about the seeds and peri- 

 carp. Fig. 353. The fruit be- 

 comes many-loculed and 

 monstrous in cultivation. 353. Normal 2-loculed fruit of 

 About 90 species have been Capsicum, in cross section, 

 named, most of which are 



now considered forms of one or two species. Monogr. by 

 Irish, 9th Ann. Kept. Mo. Bot. Gard. For culture, see 

 Pepper. 



A. Annual or biennial. 



annuum, Linn. Herbaceous or suffrutescent, grown as 

 annuals in temperate climates, but in warmer latitudes 

 often treated as biennials. All of the leading commer- 

 cial varieties in the United States readily find classifica- 

 tion within the types or botanical varieties. The species 

 has never been found wild. 



B. Fruit oblong -linear. 



c. Calyx usually embracing base of fruit. 



Var. conoides, Irish (C. conoldes, Miller). Suffrutes- 

 cent: Ivs. numerous, rather small, 2-3 in. long, %-2 in. 

 wide: peduncles slender, straight, erect: fls. small; calyx 

 obconical or cup-shaped, usually embracing base of fruit ; 

 corolla greenish white, spreading, %-%in. : fr. erect, sub- 

 conical or oblong cylindrical, about l%m. long or less, 

 usually shorter than the peduncles and mostly borne 

 above the Ivs., very acrid. Coral Gem, Tabasco. 



Var. fasciculatum, Irish (C. fasciculdtum, Sturt.). 

 Stem herbaceous, round or nearly so: branches few: Ivs. 

 clustered or crowded in bunches about the summit, ellip- 

 tical-lanceolate, pointed at both ends : fr. also clustered, 

 erect, slender, about 3 in. long by 24 in. in diam., very 

 acrid. This is the Red Cluster Pepper. 



16 



