50 CAPPARIDACE^E. 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 palniately compound. Pedicels commonly bracteate. 



An order of 24 genera and about 300 species, -of warni-ternperate and tropical regions, here 

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

 the tribe Cleome^;. But the larger part of the order in warm regions, of the tribe Cappake^: 

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

 with several placentae 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 emarginata, Miers, a shrub, with a fleshy 1 - 2-seeded fruit, native of Chili or 

 Buenos Ayres, 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 rhoniboidal, 2-horned, or globular, few-seeded. 



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



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



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



1. ISOMERIS, Nutt. 



Calyx persistent, 4-cleft, the lobes 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, and large yellow flowers, axillary or in bracteate racemes. 



1. I. arborea, Xutt. Stout, much branched, 3 to 5 feet high : leaves glandular- 

 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 lines long, twice longer than the 

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

 nearly as long. —Torr. & Gray, PI. 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 glandular ; 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. 



