90 BIOTIONAEY OF POPXJLAE NAMES CAPE 



quantities as to greatly lessen our dependence npon the supply 

 from America. 



Cape Cotton Slirub, A name in New South Wales for 

 Gomphocarpics fridicosus, a milky stemmed small shrub of the 

 Swallowwoit family (Asclepiadacese); a native of Southern Africa, 

 extending northward to Egypt, also found in Western Asia. 

 It early became naturalised in l^ew South Wales, and about 

 fifty years ago a speculator expected to turn it to good account 

 as a new cotton plant ; its fruit is a follicle completely filled 

 with fine silky hairs, which do not adhere in weaving lilvc 

 that of true cotton ; he, however, made white hats of it, which 

 were spoilt by the first rainfall. Consequently its use was 

 abandoned. 



Cape Weed, a name given to Boocella tinctoria. (Soe 

 Orchil.) 



Caper Bush. (Capparis spinosa), the type of the Caper family 

 (Capparidace^), a stiff prickly-branched shrub 3 or 4 feet high, 

 with simple deciduous leaves. It is a plant of the desert 

 throughout Western Asia, Egypt, North Africa, and South 

 Europe, growing in rocky places and very common on old walls 

 and ruins. It is extensively cultivated in France and other 

 parts of Southern Europe for the sake of its flower-buds, which 

 are collected before expansion, and preserved in vinegar, form- 

 ing the well-known culinary adjunct Capers. 



An allied species is Cwpparis sodada, a remarkable bush, 

 occupying large tracts of country in Central Africa, marking the 

 transition from the desert to the more fertile regions of the 

 south, and prevailing especially about Timbuctoo. The currant- 

 like fruit is eaten fresh as well as dried. The root is used by the 

 Mohammedans as a preservative for the teeth, and when burnt 

 salt is obtained. 



Caper, False {E%plioTbia lathyrus), a strong growing, milky 

 perennial plant of the Spurgewort family (EuphorbiacccXi), from 

 2 to 3 feet high, having wiUow-like glaucous leaves, native of 

 Erance and Italy and grown in gardens in this country under 

 the name of Caper Bush. The fruit is a three-celled oreen- 



