I 



36 



MB. BENTHAM'S synopsis 



accompanied by any other differences, is one of the sources whence 

 botanical science is daily inundated by torrents of new genera, 

 which threaten ere long completely to drown all system. Where 

 the presence or absence of these appendages or glands, or any pe- 

 culiarity in their arrangement, appears to be consequent upon a 

 general difference in the plan of the fruit or in the habit of the 

 plant, or is accompanied by corresponding characters in other 

 organs, it should be carefully attended to. But where one or more 

 species of a natural genus differ from the rest by some such ex- 

 ternal peculiarity in the development of the fruit alone, it seems 

 against all principles laid down for a natural method, to take that 

 peculiarity as a generic character, merely becaiise it is a carpolo- 

 gical one. 



Neglecting, therefore, entirely the longitudinal wing of the pod 

 (the development of lateral nerves in the carpellary leaf), we 

 have a genus at once known by its calyx and corolla, and se- 

 parable into two, or rather into three, types by habit and foliage, 

 and probably also by the seed. So far as known, at least, the 

 seeds of the sections Ternatea and Neurocarpnm or Clitoria proper, 

 are very different. I have collected the shrubby or lignescent 

 American species into a third section, characterized by their habit 

 only ; for although in some species I have seen pods apparently 

 full grown, yet the seeds are not far enough advanced to say whe- 

 ther they are compressed and smooth, as in Ternatea^ or endued 

 with the peculiar viscid exudation of Neurocarpum. 



In nearly all the Clitorias, whether with or without winged 

 pods, the lower flowers are often apetalous, almost without 

 stamens, and with smaller calyxes, but producing perfect fruits. 

 This circimistance, long since known in the allied genus Amphi' 

 carp<say aijid more recently observed in Clitoria glycinoides, led, 

 when first discovered, to the establishment of Leandro de Sacra- 

 mento's genus ilfar^/a, in which Zuccarini included a similarly cir- 

 cxunstanced species of Galactia, 



Clitoeia. 



ClitoriiB sp. Linn. — Ternatea 



H. B. et K. Nor. 



Gen. et Sp. Amer.— C/i/ona, Sect. 1 et 2, et Neurocarpurriy D.C. Prod- 

 vol. ii. — Clitoria et Neurocarpum, Benth. in Ann. Mus. Vind. vol. ii- 



Calyx 



igustiore. Vexillum amplum^ emargi- 



gustatum. 



latum. Alae falcato-oblongse, vexillo breviores, longe unguicula 



\ 



cannse 



Stamina 





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