572 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM 
leaflets membranaceous, broadly ovate, acuminate at apex, the very tip acute 
or obtuse but apiculate, truncate at base, glabrous or nearly so, 10 to 12 em. 
long; peduncles stout, exceeding the leaves, 10 to 40-flowered ; pedicellar glands 
prominent; calyx campanulate, 15 to 20 mm. long, strigillose, the broad upper 
lip emarginate, shorter than the tube, the lower lip 3-lobed, 3 to 4 mm. long, 
the lobes triangular-ovate; corolla pale pink or pink-tinged, 15 to 18 mm. long; 
standard ovate-orbicular, emarginate, reflexed in anthesis, unguiculate, bearing 
two conical callosities near the base of the blade and a pair of inflexed auricles 
at the base; wings as long as the keel, oblong, obtuse, curved, unguiculate, auric- 
ulate at base; keel falcate, the petals united toward the tip, each unguiculate 
and auricled at base; style glabrous; stigma capitate; pod densely strigillose 
when young, becoming glabrous; pod linear, compressed, slightly curved, stipi- 
tate, beaked, straw-colored, 20 to 35 em. long, 3.5 to 5 cm. broad, 8 to 16-seeded, 
each valve with a longitudinal ridge close to each suture and a third more 
prominent one 4 to 7 mm. from the ventral suture; inner layer thin, papery, 
white, separating ; seeds ellipsoid, compressed, 22 to 35 mm. long, 16 to 20 mm. 
broad, 5 to 6 mm. thick, the hilum 15 to 20 mm. long, about one-fourth of 
the circumference. 
The sword bean is known only as a cultivated plant and may be a derivative 
of the wild C. virosa (Roxb.) Wight & Arn., a native of India and the nearest 
known wild species. There are several very distinct cultivated varieties of the 
sword bean. The most common is the typical form with dark red seeds. In 
India and Burma occurs also a variety with ochraceous colored seeds, (. 
gladiata spodiosperma Voight. In China the common variety has rather pale, 
dull red seeds which shrink when dry. This same variety occurs in Japan, 
and in addition one with white seeds. In this last form the pods are less com- 
pressed and usually wrinkled on the surface; the seeds are likewise relatively 
thicker and the hilum narrow and often slightly sunken. It is the “natta- 
name” of the Japanese, and probably the basis of Dolichos incurvus Thunb. 
(Fl. Jap. 280. 1784; Canavalia incurva DC.), although Thunberg’s description 
is faulty. 
All the varieties have been cultivated more or less in America, but the com- 
monest is the typical form with dark red seeds. 
21. Canavalia caribaea Urban, Symb. Antill. 7: 282. 1912. 
Stems herbaceous (7%), terete, densely strigillose when young with reflexed 
white hairs; petioles slender, strigillose, shorter than the leaflets; petiolules 
4 mm. long, densely puberulent; stipules not seen; stipels aculeolate; leaflets 
membranaceous, ovate, short-acuminate, with apiculate tip, sparsely strigillose 
on each surface, closely reticulate, dark green, 5 to 8 cm. long, 3 to 5 em. broad; 
peduncles strigillose with reflexed hairs, about equaling the thyrses; calyx 
campanulate, sparsely strigillose, 10 mm. long, the broad emarginate upper 
lip shorter than the tube, the lower lip 3 mm. long, with triangular acute 
teeth; corolla 2.5 em. long, the petals of equal length; standard with 2 linear 
median callosities below the middle; keel falcate, obtuse; pods densely 
strigillose when young, glabrous or nearly so when mature, linear, beaked at 
tip, dark brown, smooth, 15 cm. long, 3 cm. wide, stipitate, the inner layer 
separating, 3-ribbed, one rib close to each suture, the third 3 to 4 mm. from the 
ventral rib; seeds ellipsoid, compressed, brown, 17 X 10 X 5 mm., a narrow 
darker border about the hilum; hilum 13 mm. long, about two-fifths the cir- 
cumference of the seed. 
ANTIGUA: Rose, Fitch & Russell 3312 (U. 8.). 
St. Vincent: H. H. € G. W. Smith 1638 (Kew). 
