194 CAPPARIDACEAE. 



ly hairy or almost glabrous; stems numerous, freely branching, diffuse or pros- 

 trate, 1 to 2 ft. long; leaves 1 in. long or less, pinnately parted into entire or 

 sharply toothed segments; flowers minute, greenish white; pods small, about 

 1 line broad, notched both above and below, thus appearing transversely 2-lobed 

 01 didymoiis, each lobe turgid and finely wrinkled. — (Senebiera didyma Pers.) 



Naturalized South American weed, near dwellings: Montezuma Hills; San 

 Francisco; Berkeley, 1900; Sonoma Co., 1897; Bolinas Bay, 1896; Amador Co., 

 1892. 



2. C. ruellii All. Swine-cress. Stems stouter; leaves pinnately parted 

 (the segments mostly % in. long and deeply 2 or 3-toothed), long-petioled, 2 

 to 2% in. long; pods flattened, iy 2 to 1% lines broad, not notched at summit 

 nor scarcely 2-lobed but strongly roughened, both muricate and cristate. — 

 (Senebiera coronopus Poir.) 



Naturalized European weed: San Francisco. 



CAPPARIDACEAE. Caper Family. 



Our herbs with palmately compound alternate leaves and fugacious or de- 

 ciduous stipules. Flowers complete, in bracted racemes. Sepals 4, sometimes 

 united at base. Petals 4. Stamens in ours 6 (in other genera often many), 

 more or less unequal, commonly inserted on the very base of the calyx, or 

 hypogynous. Ovary raised on a stipe, 1 or 2-celled, composed of 2 carpels. 

 Valves in fruit separating from the placentae and releasing the many seeds, or 

 the valves 1-seeded and separating from the axis as nutlets. 



Cleomella obtusifolia Torr. Branching annual with 3 leaflets and tufts 

 of deciduous bristles for stipules; flowers yellow; pods 1-celled, small, few- 

 seeded, with the valves produced laterally into acute horns. — Mohave Desert. 



1. WISLIZENIA Engelm. 



Erect branching rank-scented annuals. Leaves with 3 leaflets and with mi- 

 nute deciduous bristles for stipules. Flowers yellow. Stamens with long fili- 

 form filaments, much exserted. Stipe in fruit refracted upon the pedicel. Pod 2- 

 seeded and didymous; each valve closely contracted upon its seed and falling 

 away with it, therefore like a nutlet. (Dr. A. Wislizenius, who collected in 

 early days in California.) 



1. W. refracta Engelm. Stink-weed. One to 2 (or 6) ft, high; leaflets 

 obovate to oblong, 4 to 9 lines long, rather longer than the petiole; raceme 

 dense, in age usually much elongated; petals 1% lines long; stamens and ovary 

 exserted; pods 1% to 2 lines broad, the lobes strongly divergent and crested or 

 toothed at apex, the cells separated by a partition with a single rather large 

 perforation; stipe in fruit 2 to 4 lines long; style persistent and bristle-like. 



Sacramento to Lathrop and southward in the San Joaquin Valley. A bee 

 plant, called by some bee-keepers, "Jackass Clover." Said to bloom heavily 

 only every other year. 



CRASSULACEAE. Stone-crop Family. 



Succulent herbs witli entire e.xst i pulat 6 leaves. Flowers in cymes, small, 

 perfeel and regular. Sepals, petals and pistils of the same number (in ours l 

 ,,,• :,i. and the stamens as many or twice as many. Petals generally slightly 

 perigynous, distinct or united at base. Fruit consisting of dry many-seeded 

 follicles. Receptacle usually with nectar-bearing scales on the receptacle, one 

 behind each pistil 



