Gynandropsis .] 
CAPPARIDACEjE. 
9 
gynophore, then spreading; ovary stalked ; ovules many, on 2 placentas. 
Pod cylindrical, narrowed to both ends, the two valves separating from 
the central framework. — Annual herbs, with digitate leaves and ample 
bracteated lax terminal racemes. Distrib. Everywhere in tropics. 
Species 10. 
1. G. pentaphylla, DC. Prod. i. 238. A tall branched, almost 
shrubby, shortly pilose annual. Lower leaves long-petioled ; leaflets 
5, oblong-cuneate, sessile. Fruiting racemes 6-9 in. long and broad ; 
pedicels spreading; bracts minute, tripartite. Gynophore finally 1-li in. 
long. Petals purple or white, with a claw equalling or exceeding the 
blade. Pod terete, 2-3 in. long, narrowed to both ends. G. denticulata, 
DC. loc. cit. 
Mauritius, frequent in waste ground. Rodriguez, a few plants near Mathurin, 
Balfour. A cosmopolitan weed. Brede Cay a. Mosambe. 
2. POLANISIA, Rafin. 
Sepals 4, free, lanceolate or oblong. Petals 4, obscurely clawed. 
Stamens 6-8, or more numerous, hypogynous ; filaments free, often 
some without anthers. Ovary sessile, without a gynophore ; style 
short ; stigma capitate. Capsule long, cylindrical or compressed ; 
placentas 2 ; seeds many. — Annual herbs, mostly hispid-glandulose ; 
leaves simple or digitate; flowers in ample bracteated racemes. Dis- 
trib. Cosmopolitan in tropics. Species 14. Scarcely distinct from 
Cleome. 
1. P. viscosa, DC. Prod , i. 242. A robust branched viscose-hispid 
annual. Leaves petioled, digitate ; leaflets 3-5, oblong-cuneate, sessile. 
Raceme \-l ft. long, with large leaves bracteating the ascending pedi- 
cels. Stamens 8-20. Corolla whitish, in. deep. Pod 2-4 in. long, 
narrowed to a short style, hispid and marked with parallel vertical 
grooves. Cleome viscosa, and icosandra, Linn. 
Mauritius and Seychelles, a common weed, especially near the sea. Cosmo- 
politan in tropics. Brede Caya. 
Order YII. *MORINGACE.®. 
* Moringa pterygosperma, Gaertn., a native of Tropical Asia, is 
found sometimes about abandoned plantations in Mauritius, and was 
gathered by Dr. Balfour in Rodriguez, near Port Mathurin, and on 
Frigate Island. It is a much-branched shrub, 10-15 feet high, with 
ample alternate 2-3-pinnate petioled glabrous or puberulent leaves ; 
small oblong membranous entire obtuse leaflets; flowers in small 
deltoid panicles ; 5 oblong imbricated spreading sepals ; 5 unequal 
oblong obtuse petals | inch long ; 10 decimate included hypogynous 
stamens, 5 alternate without anthers; anthers 1-celled ; a trigonous 
pod more than a foot long, with three grooved valves ; parietal pla- 
centas and abundant seeds with three winged angles. Brede Morongue. 
Horse-radish tree. 
