56 IX. CAPP ABIDED. [Gunandropsh. 



a subulate style, and the capsule sessile or stalked and many-seeded, as in Gleom.e. 

 —Herbs, with the habit of GUome, from which the genus only differs in the long 

 stalk-like torus bearing the stamens. Flowers in terminal racemes. 



Gynandropsis, like the last two genera, is dispersed over the tropical regions both of the New 

 and the Old World. — Benth. n mr 77 s 



Flowers yellow. Capsule not striate ... 1- ^- ZlZliZ',77n 



Flowers white or purplish. Capsule striate 2. G. pentaphylla. 



1. G. Muelleri (after Baron v. Mueller), Benth. Fl. Austr. i. 91. An erect 

 annual, covered with a glandular viscid pubescence. Leaflets 3 or 5, lanceolate 

 or oblong-linear, those of the upper leaves f to lin. long on a long petiole. 

 Flowers yellow, on short pedicels in the upper axils, forming a terminal leafy 

 raceme. Sepals i to near lin. long, narrow, acuminate, unequal. Petals fully 

 Sin. long, oblong, narrowed into a long claw. Stamens 5 to 7, the stipes or 

 elongated torusoften IJin. long. Capsule linear, 2 to 2^in. long, not striate, but 

 rough with short, glandular hairs, terminated by a slender style of nearly lin. — 

 limperia cleomoiflen, F. v. M. in Hook. Kew Journ. ix. 15. 



Hab.: Gulf country. 



2. Cr. pentaphylla (leaf of five parts), DC. An erect herb of 1 to 3ft., 

 or sometimes shrubby below and taller, or reduced to 8 or 4in.; the extremities 

 and young leaves usually thinly pilose or pubescent. Leaves 5-foliolate, the 

 upper 8-foliolate ; leaflets obovate or oblanceolate, acute-acuminate or obtuse, 

 denticulate-serrulate or entire. Racemes glutinous, with simple or 3-foliolate 

 bracts. Flowers white or purplish. Capsule narrow-linear, tapering into the 

 style, usually puberulous or minutely setulose, 8 to 4in. long, gynophore f to 2in.,, 

 with the scar of the stamens near the middle style, variable in length or stigma 

 sub-sessile. 



Hab.: This Indian plant is now met with in most warm countries. 



4. CAPPARIS, Linn. 



(Name used by ancients for common caper plant, one of the genus.) 



(Busbeokia, Endl.) 



Sepals usually 4, rarely 5, free or the outer ones united in the bud into an 



entire calyx, which splits irregularly as the flower expands. Petals usually 4, 



imbricate. Stamens indefinite, inserted on the short torus, the filaments free, 



filiform. Ovary borne on a long stalk, 1 to 4-celled, with 2 to 6 placentas and 



several or manv ovules ; stigma sessile. Berry stalked, globose or elongated, 



very rarely dehiscent. Seeds several, immersed in pulp, with a hard or coriaceous 



testa and convolute embryo.— ^Trees or shrubs, sometimes climbing, unarmed or 



prickly. Leaves simple, membranous or coriaceous ; stipules prickly or 



setaceous, often only on the young or barren shoots. 



A large genus, distributed over the tropical and warm regions both of the New and the Old 

 World ; and divisible, chiefly from remarkable difierences in the calyx, into several sections, of 

 which two only are Australian — one (Eucapparis) comprises the greater number of the Asiatic 

 and African species, but is not American ; the other (Butbeckia) is confined to Australia and 

 Norfolk Island. The Australian species of both sections are all endemic, and many of them 

 are remarkable for producing slender barrep shoots, with very prickly stipules, and small leaves 

 so very differently shaped from those of the flowering-branches that where we have specimens 

 of these barren branches only it is impossible to identify them. — Benth. 



Sect. I. ZSucapparlB. — Sepals 4, rather large, imbricate in 2 series. Berry globular or 

 ovoid. 



Flowers on slender pedicels in terminal umbels. Outer sepals equal . . . 1. C. uvibellata. 

 Flowers lateral or axillary, pedicels solitary or one above the other. One of 

 the outer sepals larger and saccate or concave at the base. 

 Stamens 12 or under. Flowers small. 

 Pedicels usually 2, one over the other. Flowers very tomentose . . . 2. C. lasiantha. 

 Pedicels 4 or 5, one above the other. Flowers slightly pubescent . . . 3. C. quiniflora. 



