Gteom:] IX. CAPPARIDEiE, 155 



2. C. tetrandra (stamens often four), Bankn in DC, Prod., i. 240; Benth. Fl. 

 Atistr. i. 90. An annual, either glabrous or sprinkled with a few short glandular 

 hairs, the stems often several together, slender, ascending from a few inches to 

 l^ft. Leaves chiefly at the base of the stems on long petioles, with 3 or 5 linear- 

 lanceolate or narrow- oblong leaflets sometimes above an inch long, the upper 

 leaves few, small, with only 8 leaflets or simple. Eaceme loose and slender, with 

 filiform pedicels. Sepals ^ to 1 line long. Petals narrow, 8 to 6 lines long, 

 nearly equal. Stamens 4 to 6. Capsule sessile, slender, 1 to Ifin. long, with a 

 short subulate style, the valves thin .and minutely striate. Seeds transversely 

 wrinkled. 



Hab.: Gulf of Carpentaria, R. Brown. 



3. C. *punsens (pungent), Willi,. Spider-flower. A robust annual clothed 

 with a glandular pubescence, having a heavy scent, 2 to 5ft. high. Stipules 

 spiny. Leaves petiolate, of from 5 to 7 lanceolate leaflets ; petioles and midribs 

 prickly. Stamens 6, long exserted from the corolla. Ovary much shorter than 

 the gynophore. Ripe capsule about 4in. long. 



Hab.: A South American plant now naturalised. Near towns, a stray from garden culture : 

 considered a good bee plant 



2. POLANISIA, Rafin. 

 (Stamens unequal.) 



Sepals and petals 4 each, as in Cleome. Stamens usually 8 or more, inserted 

 on the short torus. Ovary and capsule sessile or stalked, with many ovules and 

 seeds, as in Cleome. — Herbs, with the habit of Cleome, from which the genus only 

 differs in the increased number of stamens. Flowers in terminal racemes. 



The genus is distributed over the warmer and tropical regions of both the New and the Old 

 World. The only Australian species is a common tropical weed. 



1. P. viscosa (viscid), DC. Prod. i. 242 ; Benth. Fl. Atistr. i. 90. An erect 

 branching annual or biennial, usually about 1ft. high, more or less covered with 

 short, glandular, viscid hairs. Leaflets 3 or 5, very rarely 7, from obovate or 

 oblong-cuneate to linear-lanceolate, the largest usually 1 to IJin. long, but mostly 

 much smaller. Flowers yellow, in terminal racemes. Sepals about 2 lines, 

 petals twice or thrice as long, from narrow-oblong to almost ovate. Stamens 

 from 8 to 16. Capsule from oblong-linear about lin. long to narrow-linear and 

 Sin. long strongly striate, the nerves very oblique and anastomosing in the short 

 pods, nearly parallel in the long ones, and always glandular-pubescent. Seeds 

 wrinkled. — Cleome ilava, Banks, in DC. Prod. i. 241. 



Hab.: Common In most parts of Queensland. 



Var. grandiflora. Slightly pubescent. Leaflets narrow. Sepals about 4 lines, petals nearly 

 lin. long. Capsule above 4 in. long, N.W. coast, Bynoe ; Sweers Island, Henne. 



Some specimens from the gravelly bed of the Victoria River, F. v. Mueller, have shot out from 

 the flowering racemes numerous branches crowded with small leaves, and very small axillary 

 flowers almost without stamens, but producing smaU slender capsules, the whole plant assuming 

 the appearance of the P. micrantha, Boj., from Madagascar. Other specimens from the same 

 locality have all the leaves entire or 3-lobed, but these have no flowers to determine the species 

 with certainty. 



The species is a common weed throughout India, extending into tropical Africa. — Benth. 



3. GYNANDROPSIS, DC. 



(Stamens appearing to be on the style.) 



(Eoeperia, F. v. M.) 



Sepals and petals 4 each, as in Cleome. Torus produced into a long slender 



gynophore, bearing at its summit about 6 stamens with filiform filaments. Ovary 



sessile or stalked within the stamens, with many ovules, the stigma sessile or on 



