146 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Cleome spinosa. 



Cleome gigantea. 



rows. The fruit (fig. 170) is a capsule, short, or" more frequently 

 elongated and narrow, siliquiform, opening when ripe by two mem- 

 branous valves. These separate from the linear placentas which bear 

 numerous reniform seeds, 1 enclosing within their coats 

 a fleshy embryo, sometimes enveloped in fleshy 

 albumen (fig. 172). Cleome consists of herbs or under- 

 shrubs, glabrous or glandular, 2 with alternate simple 

 or compound leaves and digitate entire or dentate 

 leaflets. The flowers are solitary or more frequently 

 collected into terminal racemes. 



In some species the androceum contains only four, 



in others from six to ten 

 stamens, or even more, 

 and sometimes certain 

 of them are antherless. 

 This is the case with Po- 

 lanisia? comprising some 

 fifteen herbs from hot 

 countries, and formerly 

 held a distinct genus. 

 In Dtanf/iera,* also inseparable from Cleome, there are from four to 

 twelve stamens ; but only two of these are large, and possess anthers ; 

 their filaments are swollen at the apex. This last condition is that 

 of the largest stamens of those American Cleomes which have been 

 named Physostemon ; 5 but their fruit is subsessile instead of stipitate. 

 Siliquarid has a sessile fruit, only from four to six stamens, and free 

 sepals ; in Peritomd' the sepals cohere into a tube at the base and 



Fig. 170. 

 Fruit. 



Fig. 171. 

 Seed (f). 



Fig. 172. 

 Long. sect, of seed. 



1 Often with a rugose or reticulate surface, 

 sometimes covered with hairs. 



2 The glands are sometimes stipitate, and 

 secrete a strong-smelling viscid fluid. 



3 Rafin., in Joum. Phys., lxxxix., 98. — 

 DC, Prodr., i. 242.— Spach, Suit, a Buffon, vi. 

 304*. — Endl., Gen., n. 4988. — Payee, Organog., 

 207, t. 43.— B. H., Gen., 106, n. 6. — Jacksonia 

 Raftn., in N.-York Med. Repos., ii. hex. v. 

 350. — Corynandra Schrad., in Cat. Sem. Sort. 

 Gwtt. (1846), ex Reichb., Ic. Ex., t. 147.— 

 Ranmanissa Endl., Gen., n. 4988 b. — Tetra- 

 teleia Sond., Fl. Cap., i. 58. — Chilocalyx Kl., 

 in Pet. Moss., Pot., 154, t. 28.— Becastemon 



Kl., loc. cit., 157. — Symphostemon Kl., loc. cit., 

 159. 



4 KL.,in Pet. Moss., Bot., 160, t. 27.— Harv. 

 & Sond., Fl. Cap., i. 57. — Schweini., Ic. Lith. 

 Abyss, (species natives of Eastern and Southern 

 Africa). — ? Anomalostemon Kl., loc. cit., 162. 



5 Mart. & Zucc, Nov. Gen. et Sp., i. 73, t. 

 45.— Endl., Gen., n. 4987. 



6 Forsk., Fl. Mgypt.-Arab., 78. — Roridula 

 Foksk., loc. cit., 35. — Rorida Rcem. & Sch., 

 Syst., iii. 13.— Del., Fl. Mgypt., t. 36, fig. 2. 



7 DC, Prodr., i. 237.— Atalant a NuiT., 

 Gen. Amer., ii. 73. 



