ng tender buds called "nonpareil," after which, gradually increasing
in size and lessening in value, come "superfine," "fine," "capucin" and
"capot." Other species of _Capparis_ are similarly employed in various
localities, and in some cases the fruit is pickled.

CAPET, the name of a family to which, for nearly nine centuries, the
kings of France, and many of the rulers of the most powerful fiefs in
that country, belonged, and which mingled with several of the other
royal races of Europe. The original significance of the name remains in
dispute, but the first of the family to whom it was applied was Hugh,
who was elected king of the Franks in 987. The real founder of the
house, however, was Robert the Strong (q.v.), who received from Charles
the Bald, king of the Franks, the countships of Anjou and Blois, and who
is sometimes called duke, as he exercised some military authority in the
district between the Seine and the Loire. According to Aimoin of
Saint-Germain-des-Pres, and the chronicler, Richer, he was a Saxon, but
historians question this statement. Robert's two sons, Odo or Eudes, and
Robert II., succeeded their father successively as dukes, and, in 887,
some of the Franks chose Odo as their king. A similar step was taken, in
922, in the case of Robert II., this too marking the increasing
irritation felt at the weakness of the Carolingian kings. When Robert
died in 923, he was succeeded by his brother-in-law, Rudolph, duke of
Burgundy, and not by his son Hugh, who is known in history as Hugh the
Great, duke of France and Burgundy, and whose domain extended from the
Loire to the frontiers of Picardy. When Louis V., king of the Franks,
died in 987, the Franks, setting aside the Carolingians, passed over his
brother Charles, and elected Hugh Capet, son of Hugh the Great, as their
king, and crowned him at Reims. Avoiding the pretensions which had been
made by the Carolingian kings, the Capetian kings were content, for a
time, with a more modest position, and the story of the growth of their
power belongs to the history of France. They had to combat the feudal
nobility, and later, the younger branches of the royal house established
in the great duchies, and the main reason for the permanence of their
power was, perhaps, the fact that there were few minorities among them.
The direct line ruled in France from 987 to 1328, when, at the death of
King Charles IV., it was succeeded by the younger, or Valois, branch of