CAPER FAMILY. Capparidaceae. 
bad 
There are many kinds of Cleome; ours are branching 
~~ herbs, with palmately-divided leaves; the flowers with four 
sepals, four petals, and six stamens. The ovary has a 
stalk with a gland at its base and becomes a long pod, with 
a long stalk and many seeds. 
In Arizona this exceedingly handsome 
ea <a 2 plant often covers the dry beds of rivers 
Pinkish-lilac, with acres of beautiful color. The 
white smooth, branching stem is sometimes as 
gig much as eight feet high. The upper 
Southwest, etc. 
; ; leaves are long and narrow and the lower 
are larger and usually have three leaflets, but all are bluish- 
green and peculiarly soft and smooth to the touch. The 
buds are purple and the delicate flowers, with threadlike 
flower-stalks, grow in a handsome, feathery cluster, some- 
times a foot long, with numerous bracts. They have four, 
pinkish-lilac or white petals and six exceedingly long, 
threadlike stamens with minute, curling, green anthers. 
The lilac pistil is also very long and before the flower drops 
off begins to develop into a small, flat, green pod. These 
gradually lengthen, until the stem is ornamented with 
many hooklike pods, with slender stalks, hanging all along 
it. Many of the flowers do not produce fruit. The 
foliage when it is crushed gives off a rank, unpleasant smell, 
: which is responsible for the local name of Skunk-weed. 
This is widely distributed and is found in the central and 
northern part of the United States, as well as in the South- 
west. 

188 

