THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



55 



appears between the two upper stamens, being produced by a 

 glandular tissue there. At first the petals stand nearly erect, 

 as in our figure, but as the flower grows older they gradually 

 sink downward until they take a position nearly in a semi- 

 circle on the upper side of the flower. By this time the stamens 

 have spread stiffly outward, three on each side, and thus give 

 the blossom a not very distant resemblance to a gigantic spider 

 or to that creature familiar to children as ''daddy-long-legs," 

 though it is likely that neither of these animals would consider 

 themselves in style with only six legs. 



The arrangement of the parts oi the flower indicates that 

 in its native land it is pollinated by large insects and the further 

 fact that the flowers open at sunset seems tO' imply that these 

 visitors are night-flying moths. In our northern gardens, 

 however, it is largely visited by butterflies and bees and the 

 seedsmen often recommend it as an excellent honey plant. 

 Whatever its visitors, it seldom fails to be pollinated. The 

 flowers are odorless but the bruised foliage has a rank and 

 heavy scent. In the West, an allied species is called skunk- 

 weed because of its odor, and for a similar reason the little 

 Polamsia, a member of the same family, from northeastern 

 America, has the specific name graveolens. 



The family to which the spider flowers belong's is known 

 as the Capparidaceae. Its best known representative is prob- 

 ably the caper tree from which comes a condiment much prized 

 by the dicf. The family is closely related to the great cress 

 family. In both, the flowers have four sepals, four petals, six 

 stamens and a single ovary composed of two carpels, but the 

 fact that the stamens are all of the same length in the caper- 

 worts together with other minor differences is considered suf- 

 ficient to ever keep the families apart. 



