68 CAPPARIDACE^. Polamsia. 



than the petiole ; sepals (purplish) somewhat unequal, longer than the claws of the cuneate 

 emarginate petals ; stamens mostly 10 or 1 1, usually longer than the petals ; style longer than 

 the ovary ; pods broadly lanceolate, turgid, attenuate at the base, reticulated, rough with a 

 glandular pubescence ; seeds somewhat flattish, nearly smooth or minutely verrucose. — Raf. 

 I. c; DC.prodr. I. p. 242; Hook.fl. Bor.-Am. \.p. 71 ; Darlingt. fl. Cest.p. 600 ; Torr. 

 4- Gr. fl. N. Am. 1. p. 123. Cleome dodecandra, Michx. fl. 2. p. 32 ; Pursh,fl. 2. p. 441 ; 

 Bigel. fl. Bost. p. 254:. C. dodecandra, var. Canadensis, Linn.; Cornut. Can. t. 181. C. 

 viscosa, Spreng. syst. 2. p. 125, ex Am. 



Stem branching, 6-15 inches high, often tinged with purple. Leaflets about an inch long. 

 Flowers numerous in a corymbose raceme. Sepals glandularly pubescent on the back. Petals 

 yellowish-white, attenuated below into a filiform claw. Filaments purple. Nectary concave, 

 truncate, very short. Style at length deciduous. Pod I3 - 2^ inches long and 3-4 lines 

 broad, dry and membranaceous. Seeds brown when mature, reniform-orbicular and mode- 

 rately compressed, more or less roughened with muiute rugose warts, or nearly smooth. 



Gravelly banks of rivers and lakes ; not found below the Highlands. June - August. 



Order XIV. VIOLACEtE. DC The Violet Tribe 



Calyx of persistent sepals, which are often auricled at the base, imbricated in 

 aestivation. Corolla of 5 mostly unequal petals, the superior one (which, by 

 the inversion of the flower, becomes inferior) usually spurred or saccate at the 

 base ; the aestivation convolute. Stamens 5, inserted on the hypogynous disk : 

 filaments short and broad, extending beyond the anthers ; two of them furnished 

 with a gland, or a slender appendage which is concealed in the spur of the 

 corolla : anthers connivent, or somewhat cohering into a ring or tube. Style 

 usually declined, with a thickened or hooded stigma. Capsule one-celled, 

 opening by 3 valves, each valve bearing a parietal placenta in its middle. 

 Seeds usually numerous (by abortion sometimes few, very rarely solitary), 

 anatropous, with a crustaceous testa and a distinctly marked chalaza. Embryo 

 straight, nearly as long as the fleshy albumen. — Herbs (in tropical countries 

 sometimes shrubby plants). Leaves simple, petioled, mostly alternate, furnished 

 with stipules. 



