Africa, from Natal northwards, and was introduced into the 

 Botanical Garden of Calcutta from the Mauritius, where it is 

 almost naturalized. Unfortunately it is usually an annual, 

 though it sometimes forms a woody stem of longer duration. 

 The specimen figured flowered in the Eoyal Gardens in October 

 of the present year. 



Descr. Stems solitary or many, erect or ascending from an 

 annual or biennial root, slender, terete, and covered like the 

 leaves, calyx, and pod, with appressed pubescence. Leaves two 

 to three inches long, drooping ; petiole very short, cylindric ; 

 leaflets thirty to sixty pair, one-third of an inch long, linear, 

 mucronate, obscurely falcate, sessile, deep green; glandbetween 

 the basal pair large, orbicular. Stipules subulate from a 

 triangular base, erect, longer than the leaflets. Peduncles 

 axillary, solitary or fascicled, capillary, erecto-patent, half as 

 long as the leaves ; buds deflexed, acuminate. Flowers one 

 inch in diameter. Sepals lanceolate. Petals subequal, golden- 

 yellow, elliptic-ovate. Stamens seven to eight ; anthers large, 

 with two terminal pores. Pod long or short, much com- 

 pressed, acuminate, not septate within, dehiscent; valves 

 flat. Seeds vertical, compressed. — /. D. If. 



Fig. 1 base of leaf and stipules; 2, flower and top of pedicel with bracts, 

 the petals removed : — both magnified. 



