170 CAPPARIDACE^E. 



each placenta, pendulous on short funiculi, campylotropous, 



reniform or conduplicate-incurved, exalbuminous. Embryo 

 conformed to the seed ; the cotyledons incumbently incurv- 

 ed upon the ascending radicle. 



Herbs, rarely suffruticose, with alternate palmately 3 — 7- 

 foliolate or rarely simple leaves, without stipules ; and yel- 

 low, purple, or white flowers in terminal leafy racemes ; the 

 upper bracts simple. 



Etymology. An early name, said to come from /cXa'u, to dose. 



Geographical Distribution, &c. A somewhat polymorphous genus 

 of numerous species, belonging to the warmer parts of the world. One spe- 

 cies is found in Portugal, and two or three extend northward to about the 

 same latitude in North America west of the Mississippi. 



Note. In C. integrifolia, a species scarcely distinct from C. serrulata 

 (the type of Atalanta, Null., or Peritoma, DC), of which I have no speci- 

 mens, the somewhat dilated summit of the torus is produced posteriorly into 

 a lanceolate and flat entire or 3-toothed appendage, which is longer than the 

 calyx ! Whether this, taken in connection with the separation of the mar- 

 cescent calyx from the base, will serve to characterize a section or subgenus, 

 I am unable to pronounce. In the place of this appendage, C. lutea, Hook., 

 bears a short gland, like some other species. 



PLATE 76. Cleome (Peritoma) integrifolia, Torr. <% Gray; — sum- 

 mit of flowering and fruiting plant ; from Upper Missouri. 



1. A flower-bud, enlarged. 



2. Diagram of the flower ; the posterior side (marked by the appendage 



of the torus) turned to the right. 



3. Calyx laid open and enlarged. 



4. Vertical section of a flower, enlarged, passing through the appendage 



of the torus. 



5. This appendage, as seen from the inside, enlarged. 



6. Placenta; and seeds, of the natural size. 



7. A magnified seed. 



8. Section of the same, displaying the embryo. 



