CAPER FAMILY. Capparidaceae. 



An odd-looking plant, with very pretty, 

 Yellow Cleome 



Clcdme platyc&rpa feathery flower-clusters. The hairy stern 

 Yellow is over a foot tall and the leaves are bright 



Spring yellowish-green and mostly smooth on the 



Nevada upper side, with hairy margins and hairy 



on the under side. The flowers are a warm shade of 

 bright golden-yellow and form a handsome, rather flat- 

 topped cluster, with long stamens, and the oblong pods are 

 an inch long or less, flat and much broader than those of 

 the last. The flowers are slightly sweet-scented and the 

 whole plant exudes a faint unpleasant odor. This is 

 conspicuous on the dreary mesas around Reno, often 

 growing with Cleomella longipes, which it very much 

 resembles in general appearance, except for the pods, 

 which are quite different. 



There is only one kind of Isomeris. 



This is a shrub about three feet high, 

 Bladderpod 



Isomeris arbdrea whlch 1S attractive except for its un- 

 Yellow . pleasant smell. The leaves are smooth, 



Spring toothless, stiffish and thickish, and bluish- 



California green, with a small bristle at the tip, and 



mostly with three leaflets. The pretty flowers are nearly! 

 an inch across and warm yellow in color, not very bright 

 but pretty in tone, with six very long, yellow stamens, and 

 form a short, oblong cluster. The ovary has such a long 

 stalk, even in the flower, that it gives an odd appearance 

 and it develops into a very curious and conspicuous, 

 drooping pod, an inch and a half long, much inflated and 

 resembling a very fat pea-pod, on a long stalk, with two 

 rows of seeds like little peas inside it, which taste very; 

 bitter. This is quite common on southern mesas. The 

 name Bladderpod is also used for Lesquerella, which belongs 

 to the Mustard Family. 



iqo 



