50 CAPPARIDACE^. Isomeris. 



tetradynamous. Style and stigma one. Ovary and fruit commonly raised on a 

 stipe, 1-celled, sometimes 2-celled, few - many-seeded. Seeds globose-reniform. 

 Leaves either simple or palmately compound. Pedicels commonly bracteate. 



An order of 24 gcuera and about 300 species, of warm-temperate and tropical regions, liere 

 characterized from that portion of it which has capsular fruit, only 2 placentte, and few stamens, 

 the tribe Cleome*. But the larger part of the order in warm regions, of the tribe Cappare^ 

 (of which the Caper-plant is the type), consists of shrubs or trees, with fleshy fruit, sometimes 

 with several placentiu and numerous stamens. Of the six genera here admitted, one is peculiar 

 to the coast-district of California ; the others belong to the dry interior region and barely reach 

 the eastern borders of the State. 



Atamisquea emap.gikata, Miers, a shrub, with a fleshy 1-2-seeded fruit, native of Chili or 

 Buenos A}Tes, is said to be in Coulter's Californian collection ; but we find no trace of it in the 

 State nor in Arizona. 



* Shrubby, with racemose flowers and an inflated capsular fruit. 



1. Isomeris. Calyx 4-cleft, persistent. Corolla yellow. Stamens 6. Ovaiy long-stipitate. 



* * Herbs, with racemose flowers. 

 +- Fruit pod-like, 1-celled, several - many-seeded. 



2. Polanisia. Stamens 8 to 32. Flowers whitish or purple. Pod elongated. 



3. Cleome. Stamens 6. Flowers yellow or pink-purple. Pod oblong or linear. 



4. Cleomella. Stamens 6. Flowers yellow. Pod rhomboidal, 2-horned, or globular, few-seeded. 



-}- -i- Fruit didymous, 2-celled ; the cells separating as small 1-seeded nutlets ! 



5. Wislizenia. Stameiis 6. Style filiform. Nutlets open at the scar. 



6. Oxystylis. Style becoming subulate and spinesceut. Nutlets closed. 



1. ISOMERIS, Nutt. 



Calyx persistent, 4-cleft, the lohes ovate, acuminate. Petals sessile, oblong, 

 equal. Torus fleshy, dilated above, somewhat produced on the upper side. Sta- 

 mens 6, on the torus, at length long-exserted. Pod large, inflated, coriaceous, 

 long-stipitate, 1-celled, many-seeded : style very short : stigma minute. Seeds 

 large, smooth. — A low ill-scented shrub ; with puberulent branches, trifoliolate 

 petioled leaves, aiid large yellow flowers, axillary or in bracteate racemes. 



1. I. arborea, ISTutt. Stout, much branched, 3 to 5 feet high : leaves gland ular- 

 puberulent or nearly smooth, the uppermost and the floral bracts 1-foliolate ; leaflets 

 thickish, narrowly oblong or elliptical, | to 1 inch long, entire, mucronate, nearly 

 sessile : pedicels equalling the leaves : petals 5 to 8 Hues long, twice longer than the 

 calyx : pod 1 to U inches long, abruptly acute above, attenuate at base into a stipe 

 nearly as long. — Torr. & Gray, PL i. 124; Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 3842; Torr. Bot. 

 Mex. Bound, t. 4. 



Common in dry soils from Santa Barbara to San Diego. The wood is hard, brittle, and yellow. 



2. POLANISIA, Eaf. 



Sepals 4, deciduous, lanceolate, sometimes connate at base. Petals unguiculate 

 or sessile, equal or unequal. Torus small, depressed. Stamens 8 or more, inserted 

 below the torus. Pod membranaceous, very shortly stipitate, elongated, compressed 

 or cylindrical, many-seeded. Seeds rounded-reniform, rugose or reticulated. — 

 Annual herbs, ill-scented and mostly glandiilar ; with simple or 3 - 9-foliolate peti- 

 oled leaves, and yellowish, rose-colored or white flowers in leafy-bracted racemes ; 

 pods erect on spreading pedicels. 



A genus of about a dozen species of tropical and warm regions, of which the following reaches 

 the eastern borders of the State. 



