CAPPARIDACE^. 



Nat.syst.ed. 2. p. 61. 



CAPPARIS. 



Calyx 4-parted. Petals 4. Torus small. Stipes of the ovary 

 slender. Stamens numerous. Fruit siliquose, somewhat bac- 

 cate, stipitate. 



197. C. spinosa Linn. sp. pi. 720. Blackw. herb. t. 417. 

 Rocks walls and cliffs in the most southern parts of Europe ; 

 and in the Levant. (Caper.) 



Stem half shrubby, trailing, purple, smooth. Leaves ovate, often 

 emarginate, flat, quite smooth, with a short stalk. Stipules straight, 

 spiny. Flowers solitary, axillary, with slender peduncles much longer 

 than the petioles. Sepals 4, spreading, oblong, obtuse, concave, imbri- 

 cated. Petals 4, large, white, emarginate, downy at the base, 2 adher- 

 ing to each other more than the others. Stamens numerous, hypogy- 

 nous, with long filiform filaments. Ovary oblong, deep rich crimson, on 

 the apex of a slender stipe as long as the stamens, having a white ovate 

 gland at its base ; 1-celled, with 7-8 projecting placentae, almost touch- 

 ing in the middle, and covered by numerous ovules. Stigma round, 

 sessile, concave, entire. Fruit oblong, knotty, filled with firm pulp in 

 which the seeds lie in as many rows as there were previously placentae. 

 Seeds reniform, smooth ; embryo reniform, white, destitute of albumen, 

 with two obovate plano-convex cotyledons. The young flower buds 

 are the capers of the shops ; they are esteemed antiscorbutic, stimulant, 

 and aperient ; the bark of the root passes for a diuretic. 



198. C. pulcherrima Jacq. amer. t. 106. DC. prodr. 

 i. 250. C. arborescens Mill. diet. No. 3. Carthagena. 



Leaves smooth, oblong, obtuse, with very short stalks, destitute of 

 glands in the axils. Raceme terminal, simple. Sepals somewhat 

 linear, acute, reflexed, distant at the base. Petals cream coloured, 

 downy, oblong. Fruit roundish, somewhat pointed by the style. 

 A poisonous fruit, called Fruta de Burro near Carthagena, is supposed 

 to belong to this or an allied species. 



199. C. cynophallophora Linn. sp. 721. An infusion of the 

 acrid root has been recommended as a specific in dropsy. 



POLAN1SIA. 



Sepals 4, spreading. Petals 4. Stamens 8-32. Torus small. 

 Silique sessile within the calyx, or hardly stipitate, terminated 

 by a distinct style. 



200. P. icosandra Wight and Am. prodr. fl. ind. or. i. 22. 

 P. viscosa /3. DC. prodr. i. 242. Cleome icosandra and dode- 

 candra Linn. sp. pi 939. C. viscosa Linn. sp. 938. Burm. 



94 



