PITTOSPORUM FAMILY. 57 



1. CLEOME. Cftlyx 4-cleft. Petal? 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 ovary 



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

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

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



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



obvious.) (i) 



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

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

 leaflets, but 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. integrifbliar much smaller, very smooth, with 3 leaflets and the pink 

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



2. GYNANDBOPSIS. (Greek-made name, meaning that the stamens 

 appear to be on the pistil.) (Lessons, p. 125, fig. 276.) 



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 wliite 

 petals on claws. 



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

 the stamens.) 



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

 low herb, with 3 oblong leaflets, and small flowers with short white petals, ahout 

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

 gravelly shores, from Conn. W. 



12. RESEDACE^, MIGNONETTE FAMILY. 

 Hecbs, with inconspicuous flowers iu spikes or racemes ; rep- 

 resented by the main genus, 



1. BESEDA, MIGNONETTE, &c. (Erom 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 

 side of the flower. Ovary and pod composed of 3 - 6 carpels united not 

 quite to the top into 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, kidney- 

 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 ; 

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

 entire and oblong, others 3-lobed. 



B. IiUtdola, Dyer's M. or Weld. Nat. along roadsides, tall, with 

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



13. PITTOSPORACE-ffi!, PITTOSPOEUM FAMILY. 



A small family of shrubs and tree.<!, belonging mostly to the south- 

 ern hemisphere, in common cultivation represented only by one 

 house-plant, a species of 



1. PITTOSPOEUM. (Name means pitchi/ seed in Greek, the seeds bcin;^ 

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



