CAPITATE. Growing in a head.
CAPITULATE. Growing in small heads.
CAPITULUM. A close head of flowers; the inflorescence of Composites.
CAPPARIDEÆ. An order of herbs or shrubs, rarely trees. Flowers clustered, or solitary; sepals four to eight, imbricate or valvate; petals four, arranged crosswise, sometimes, but rarely, five, or eight, rarely absent. Leaves alternate, very rarely opposite, stipulate or exstipulate. The order is distributed throughout the tropical and warm temperate regions of both hemispheres, the frutescent species being largely represented in America. There are about twenty-three genera—the best-known being Capparis, Cleome, and Cratæva—and about 300 species.
CAPPARIS (kapparis, old Greek name used by Dioscorides, from Persian kabar, Capers). Caper-tree. ORD. Capparideæ. Greenhouse or stove evergreen shrubs, of considerable beauty. Calyx four-parted; petals four; stamens numerous; succeeded by a berry. They thrive best in a compost of well-drained sandy loam. Cuttings of ripe shoots will root in sand, under a hand glass, in moist heat. This genus contains about 120 species, but it is very doubtful if more than six are to be found under cultivation in this country.
C. amygdalina (Almond-like).* fl. white; peduncles axillary, compressed, corymbiferous. l. elliptical-oblong, narrowed towards both ends, with a callous point; upper surface smooth; under surface, as well as the branches, covered with silvery scaly dots. h. 6ft. West Indies, 1818. Stove.
C. cynophallophora (Dog-phallus bearing). fl. white, large, fragrant; peduncles few-flowered, shorter than the leaves. l. smooth, leathery, oblong, on short petiole. h. 8ft. to 25ft. West Indies, 1752. Stove. (R. G. 1862, 351.)
C. odoratissima (sweetest-scented).* fl. violet, sweet-scented, about the size of Myrtle, with yellow anthers; peduncles racemiferous at the top. l. oblong, acuminate, on long footstalks; upper surface smooth; under surface covered with little hard scales. h. 6ft. Caraccas, 1814. Stove.
FIG. 363. FLOWER AND BUD OF CAPPARIS SPINOSA.
C. spinosa (spiny).* Common Caper. fl. white, tinged with red on the outside; pedicels solitary, one-flowered. June. l. ovate, roundish, deciduous. h. 3ft. South Europe, 1596. This is an excellent greenhouse shrub, and one which we have found perfectly hardy in the southern counties of England. See Fig. 363. (B. M. 291.)