PoLANisiA. CAPPARIDACE.E. 67 



Order XIII. CAPPARIDACEiE. Juss. The Caper Tribe. 



Sepals 4 (very rarely 2 or 8), deciduous or marcescent, distinct or more or less 

 united and imbricated in a?stivation. rarely valvate. Petals 4 (very rarely 8), 

 cruciate or irregular, usually unguiculate and more or less unequal, sometimes 

 wanting. Stamens, v^^hen the flowers are tetramerous, most commonly 6, often 

 8 - 20 or more, rarely as few as 4, inserted oh the short or sometimes elon- 

 gated torus : filaments equal or imequal ; anthers innate or introrse, mostly 

 revolute when dry. Ovary often stipitate, composed of 2 (rarely more) united 

 carpels, with two parietal placentae : style filiform, sometimes short or almost 

 wanting; stigma entire, often discoid or somewhat capitate. Fruit one-celled, 

 either a pod-shaped 2-valved capsule, with the valves often separating from 

 the persistent filiform placentas (rarely coriaceous, and nearly or quite inde- 

 hiscent), or baccate, very rarely 1 - 2-, usually many-seeded. Seeds campuli- 

 tropous, reniform, with no albumen, but the lining of the testa often thickened. 

 Embryo curved : cotyledons foliaceous, somewhat incumbent. — Herbs (mostly 

 annuals in N. America), shrubs, or rarely small trees, with a watery acrid juice. 

 Leaves alternate, petioled, simple or palmately compound : leaflets mostly 

 entire. Stipules none, or with spines in their place. 



Tride I. CLEOMEjE. DC. 



Capsule membranaceous, dehiscent {rarely somewhat coriaceous and indehiscrnt). Leaves 

 mostly compound. 



1. POLANISIA. Raf. injour.phys. (1819), p. 98 ; Endl. gen. 4988. 



[From the Greek, pohj, much, and anisos, unequal ; in allusion to the inequality of the stamens.] 



Sepals distinct, spreading. Petals 4. Stamens 8 - 32 : filaments filiform, or dilated at thr 

 summit. Torus minute (often nectariferous). Pod linear, sessile or nearly so. — Annual 

 herbs, mostly glandular, with a heavy terebinthine odor. 



\j. PoLANisiA proper. Torus bearing a short fleshy nectary or gland next the upper sepal : filaments 

 filiform, often unequal and more or less declined (6-80/ them arising between the nectary and 

 the ovary) : petals on slender claws, unequal, emarginate or entire : sepals tardily deciduous. 



1. PoLANisiA GRAVE0LEN8, JRof. HecEoy-scentcd Polanisia. 



Viscidly pubescent and glandular ; leaves trifoliolate ; leaflets and bracts oblong, shorter 



