PLANTS INDIGENOUS TO 
52 
[Capparidecs. 
provided with, an elongate stipes.— Gand. Prodr. i. 237; Torr. 8p Gray, Flor. of North 
Amer. i. 120; Wight 8p Arnott, Flor. Pceninsul. Ind. Orient, i. 21; Endl. Gen. Plant 
889; Lindt. Veg. Kingdom , 357. 
Capparidete extend in a species of Capparis (C. nummularia, Gand.) and in the 
genus Emblingia as far south as 28° south latitude in Western Australia, and to 35° 
south latitude in Australia helix, here represented only in a single species (Busbeckea 
Mitchellii). They become more numerous in the subtropical and intratropical regions 
of Eastern Australia, and are scattered in a few species over North and North- 
Western Australia. The genus lloepera (F. M. in Hook. Kew Misc. ix. 15) differs 
from Gynandropsis, which is not yet found in Australia, in solitary flowers, in un¬ 
equally connate stamens, in a manifest style and perhaps also in strophiolate seeds; 
The genus Cleome counts three Australian species, one, C. flava, belonging to the 
subgenus Polanisia, of wide distribution. Apophyllum (F. M. in Hook. Kew Misc. ix. 
306), referred to this order by Mr. AH. Black, of Kew, is remarkable for polygamous- 
dioecious flowers and Hakea-like appearance, and differs from the rest of the Austra¬ 
lian Capparidese, Emblingia excepted, in 1-2-seeded berries. Capparis and Busbeckea 
comprise several species, some of them stately trees. The supposed Capparideous 
tree mentioned by Allan Cunningham, in the appendix to King’s Intratropical Survey 
of Australia, proved to be a genuine new species of Adansonia, and an antarctic 
supposed capparideous plant, mentioned in Endlicher’s genera, is evidently identical 
■with the cruciferous Pringlea antiscorbutica. 
BUSBECKEA. 
Endl. Prodr. Flor. Norfolk . 64. 
Flowers hermaphrodite. Calyx before expansion monophyllous, calyptrate, globose or ovate, 
acuminate, gradually bursting irregularly into two valves, deciduous from the base. Petals 6-7, very 
unequal, imbricate m activation, the outer ones sepaloid. Staminodia generally wanting. Stamens 
numerous, free, inserted to the small hemispherical or depressed receptacle, all fertile. Anthers 
affixed at then- base to the filiform filaments. Ovary long-stalked. Ovules parietal, ainphitropal. 
Stigma sessile, depressed. Berry globose, many-seeded, filled with juiceless pulp. 
. Erect shrubs or wood J climbers or trees of Australia and Norfolk Island, sometimes prickly 
with stipular thorns. Leaves alternate, • broad, flat, entire. Flowers large, showy. Petals white or 
pale yellowish. Stamens elongate. 
Assuming that the outer petals of Busbeckea are true sepals and that the outer part of the calyx 
is formed by the intimate coalescence of the two exterior sepals, although no suture indicative of regular 
division is, at least in the Australian species, perceptible, nothing of note will remain to separate this 
genus from Capparis but the calyptra-like outer part of the calyx. The characteristic offered by 
Endhcher m regard to the regular valvation of the calyx is slightly at variance with our plant, and 
would render the transit from Busbeckea to Capparis still clearer. Morisonia agrees seemingly in the 
singular structure of the calyx with Busbeckea, differs however in a tetrapetalous corolla, therefore 
absence of sepaloid petals and more essentially still in connate stamens. 
