PITTOSPORDM FAMILY. 57 



1. CLEOME. Calyx 4-cleft. Petals 4. Stamens 6, on a short thickened recep- 



tacle. Ovary and many-seeded pod in ours raised above the receptacle on a 

 long stalk. Style very short or none. Usually an appendage on one side of 

 the receptacle. 



2. GYNANDROPSIS. Sepals 4. Stamens borne on the long stalk of the ovarj- 



far above the petals. Otherwise as in No. 1. 



3. POLANISIA. iiepals 4. Stamens 8-32. Ovary and pod sessile or short- 



stalked on the receptacle. Style present. Otherwise nearly as No. 1. 



1. CLEOME. (From a Greek word meaning closed, the application not 

 obvious.) ® 



C. pi^ingens. Tall (2° -4° high), clammy-pubescent, with little spines or 

 prickly points (whence the name) in place of stipules, about 7 broadly lanceolate 

 leaflets, out the bracts simple and ovate or heart-shaped, and a raceme of large 

 and handsome flowers, with long-clawed pink or purple petals and declined sta- 

 mens. Cult, from S. America, for ornament, and run wild S. 



C. integrif61ia, much smaller, very smooth, with 3 leaflets and the pink 

 petal* without claws, is wild in Nebraska, &c., and lately introduced to gardens. 



2. GYNANDROPSIS. (Greek-made nanje, meaning that the stamens 

 appear to be on the pistil.) (Lessons, p. 112, fig. 357.) 



G. pentaph^lla. Nat. from Carolina S. from West Indies, is a clammy- 

 pubescent weed, with 5 leaflets to the leaves and 3 to the bracts ; the white 

 petals on claws. 



3. Foil ANISIA. ( Greek-made name, meaning many-unequal, referring to 

 the stamens. ) 



P. gravtolens. A heavy-scented (as the name denotes), rather clammy, 

 *.jw herb, with 3 oblong leaflets, and small flowers with short white petals, about 

 1 1 scarcely longer puiplish stamens, and a short style ; fl. summer. Wild on 

 gravelly shores, fix)m Conn. W. 



12. RESEDACE-ffi, MIGNONETTE FAMILY. 

 Herbs, with inconspicuous flowers in spikes or racemes ; rep- 

 resented by the main genus, 



1. BES:^DA, MIGNONETTE, &c. (From a Latin word, to assuage, from 

 supposed medical properties.) Calyx 4-7-parted, never closed even in the 

 bud. Petals 4-7, unequal, cleft or notched, those of one side of the flower 

 appendaged within. Stamens 10-40, borne on a sort of disk dilated on one 

 sHe of tiie flower. Ovary and pod composed of 3 - 6 cai-pels united not 

 quite to the top in-to a 3 - 6-lobed or 3 - 6-homed 1-celled pistil which opens 

 at the top long before the seeds are ripe. The seeds are numerous, kidiiey- 

 shaped, on 3 - 6 parietal placentae. Leaves alternate. 



B. odor&ta. Common Mignonette. Cult, (from N. Africa) as an an- 

 nual, for the delicious scent of the greenish-white flowers ; the anthers orange ; 

 petsjs 6, the posterior ones cut into several fine lobes ; stems low ; some leaves 

 entire and oblong, others 3-lobed. 



R. Lutfeola, Dyer's M. or Weld. Nat. along roadsides, tall, with 

 lanceolate entire leaves, and a long spike of yellowish flowers ; petals 4. 



13. PITTOSPORACE^, PITTOSPORUM FAMILY. 

 A small family of shrubs and trees, belonging mostly to the south- 

 ern hemisphere, in common cultivation represented only by one 

 house-plant, a species of 



1, PITT6SP0RUM. (Name means ;)jte% seerf in Greek, the seeds being 

 'generally covered with a sticky exudation.) Flowers regular, of 5 sepals. 



