242 MR. F. G. BAKER ON THE 
The literature dealing with the African species of this genus is very 
extensive and very scattered, but it may be well briefly to refer to some of 
the more important publications. 
In 1786, Lamarck, in his ‘Encyclopédie Méthodique,’ enumerates 37 species, 
dividing the genus into (a) Feuilles simples, (b) Feuilles ternées ou digitées ; 
but several of the African species described are now placed in the genus 
Rafnia. One curious plant described by this author is C. aspalathoides, 
of which further material is desirable. In 1794 Thunberg enumerates 10 
species in his * Prodromus Plantarum Capensium,’ but most of these are now 
likewise relegated to other genera. Dryander, in Aiton’s ‘ Hortus Kewensis,’ 
ed. 1. vol. iii. p. 20, describes C. pallida and C. axillaris, the latter being an 
earlier name for C. Hildebrandtii, Vatke. In 1825, De Candolle published 
the second volume of his ‘Prodromus? He gives short descriptions of 
137 species, among which are the following novelties from Africa :— 
C. acuminata, DC., C. spartioides, DC., C. striata, DC., C. Perrotteti, 
DC., C. cylindrocarpa, DC., C. podocarpa, DC., and C. Willdenowiana, DC. 
(=C. genistoides, Willd., non Lam.). The last species is an Indian plant 
and wrongly ascribed to the Cape. In the following year Desvaux [ Ann. 
Sci. Nat. sér. 1 (1826), p. 407] described the genus Clavulium, but this is 
C. laburnifolia, Linn., one of the oldest species of the genus. 
In 1832 Guillemin and Perrottet (Flore Senegambiæ Tentamen) described 
the genus Chrysocalyx, which, following several other authors, | have con- 
sidered as a section, characterised by having the petals generally the same 
length as the calyx, or shorter, and by the calyx being somewhat bilabiate 
and having very conspicuous bracteoles. 
At the commencement of 1836 two elaborate works on Cape Leguminose 
appeared, written at one and the same time by different botanists without 
any communication with each other— Ernst Meyer’s * Commentationes de 
Plantis Afric Australis,’ and Ecklon and Zeyher's * Enumeratio Plantarum 
Afric Australis) These were actually published so nearly at the same 
moment that it became a matter of controversy which should have priority. 
At a later period in * Linnea,’ vol. xiii. (1839) pp. 449—543, Dr. Walpers 
attempted to consolidate into one enumeration all the Cape species published. 
Dr. Meissner, in Hooker’s London Journal, vol. ii, (1843) p. 60, published 
Krauss’s Cape Plants with considerable care and exactness. In the same 
volume there is a much more important paper, Bentham s “ Enumeration of 
Asiatic and Central and South African Leguminosae” where 140 species of 
Crotalaria are enumerated. 
Bentham, following the lines previously indicated, first by Lamarck 
and subsequently by Wight and Arnott, arranged the species in groups 
characterised chiefly by foliage and habit. The following are his main 
divisions:—Series I. SrurrticiroLLE. Folia simplicia nec in petiolo articulata. 
