Bibliographical Notices. 285 



of Geoffrea is utterly untenable from the heterogeneous character 

 of the genera assembled under it. The same opinion has been 

 expressed by the late lamented M. Vogel and by Mr. Bentham ; 

 and the latter has placed Geoffroya and Andira in a section of 

 Dalbergiece, distinguished by pendulous seeds and a straight em- 

 bryo, an arrangement in which (with the addition of Euchresta) 

 Mr. Bennett perfectly coincides. He does not, however, agree 

 with Mr. Bentham in placing the genus Broivnea among Mimosece, 

 believing that it unquestionably belongs to a remarkable section 

 of Ctesalpinece, characterized by their abruptly pinnated leaves, 

 the two conspicuous bractese enveloping the base of their calyx, 

 and the adherence of the stipes of their pod posteriorly to its 

 persistent tubular base. 



A singular Hedysareous genus, to which Mr. Bennett has given 

 the name of Mecopus, on account of the extreme length of the 

 stipes of its pod, which far exceeds the length of the pod itself, 

 forms the subject of the next article. It comes nearest to Uraria 

 and Eleiotis ; from both of which it differs in the character just 

 indicated, and in the sudden retrofraction of the stipes at its base, 

 by means of which the pod is immersed and the seeds entangled 

 in the compact comose terminal heads which are seated, like so 

 many diminutive birds' nests, at the extremity of its early denuded 

 branches. The only known species, Mecopus nidulans, Benn., is 

 Uraria retrofracta of Dr. WaHidi's List, no. 5678. Mr. Bennett 

 also characterizes another genus related to Eleiotis (to which the 

 single species has been referred by Messrs. Wight and Arnott as 

 Eleiotis Rottleri) under the name of Oxydium. The remainder 

 of the article is devoted to an examination of the various and 

 curious contrivances adopted in the different subdivisions of the 

 Linnsean genus Hedysarum for the protection of the pod and its 

 contents during their progress to maturity. 



Of these contrivances Phylacium bracteoswn, another new ge- 

 nus of Hedysarecej and the subject of the following article, affords 

 a remarkable instance. In this curious plant the subtending 

 bractese of the floriferous pedicels enlarge very greatly at the time 

 of flowering and during the progress of the fruit to maturity, and 

 at the same time their stipes or petiole bends upwards, while the 

 pedicel of the flower curves downwards. By means of these 

 mutual displacements the flower is brought into relation with the 

 under surface of the bractea, which then folds backwards along 

 its midrib, bringing its margins into contact with each other, and 

 thus forms a compressed cucullate bag for the protection of the 

 flower and fruit. At the period of maturity these enveloping 

 bractese readily fall off together with their contents, and doubt- 

 less contribute much by their levity to the dispersion of the seeds. 

 Mr. Bennett compares this singular oeconomy with that of Fie- 



