4 MR. G. BENTHAM’S SYNOPSIS OF DALBERGIES, 
judged of by a comparison of specific affinities. Erythrina, Butea, 
and some other Phaseolee are arborescent, and in Butea the pod 
is not always dehiscent, but the foliage is so characteristic of Phase- 
olee, that it is impossible to separate the genus from that tribe. 
So also Apios tuberosa, the Clitorias of the section Ternatea, Galac- 
tia Elliottii, and a few other Phaseolee have pinnate leaves, but 
their herbaceous twining stems, dehiscent pods, and specific affi- 
nities clearly point to their place in that tribe, and not among 
Dalbergiee. In Dalbergiee, again, there are one or two species 
in each of the genera Lonchocarpus, Derris, and Platymisciwm, with 
only one pair of opposite leaflets at some distance below the ter- 
minal one, as in Phaseolee, but the pod is indehiscent and the 
specific affinities in each case, certainly those of Dalbergiee. The 
small genus Abrus is an exceptional one which, besides its pinnate 
leaves, shows in some other respects an approach to the Dalbergice, 
but, upon the whole, it seems more nearly allied to Phaseolea, 
where its two-valved pod would technically place it. Between the 
arborescent Galegee and Dalbergiec the line of demarcation is still 
more vague. From Tephrosia, Coursetia, and Robinia on the one 
side, to Pongamia and Müllera on the other, the genera Gliricidia, 
Mundulia, Millettia, Derris, and Lonchocarpus (with some smaller 
allied ones) form a gradual passage, the three first, with a more or 
less dehiscent pod, being perhaps best placed in the Galegee ; the 
two last, in which it scarcely ever shows any tendency to split into 
the two valves, remaining in Dalbergiee. 
Several Dalbergieous genera are closely allied to corresponding 
ones among Sophoree, from which they are distinguished by the 
union of the stamens. The union, however, is not always so close 
as in the other tribes of synstemonous Papilionacee ; the lower or 
carinal stamen is occasionally free, as well as the upper or vexillary 
ones, and in several genera the keel-petals only overlap each other 
on the outer edge without being united. In these respects, there- 
fore, as well as in habit, and in the shorter and occasionally almost 
straight radicle, the Dalbergiee constitute the passage from the 
preceding Papilionacee to the Sophogec, and, through them, an 
approach to the suborder Casalpiniee. 
The Dalbergiee are all woody, and very few species remain low 
stunted shrubs ; in a few, chiefly from the dry, hot regions of Africa 
and Southern India, some of the lateral or axillary branches, in 
conformity with a prevailing feature in the scrubby vegetation of 
those countries, are reduced to stout spines; but the great majo- 
rity of species are hard-wooded trees, often of considerable size 
