332 BENTHAM ON MIMOSEiE. • 



IV. Entada, Linn, 



Calyx campanulatus, brevissime 5-dentatus. Petala 5, 

 libera v. leviter cohaerentia. Stamina 10. Antherae glandu- 

 liferoe. Legumen lineare, plano-compressum, suturisincras- 

 satis persistentibus marginatum, valvulis transverse articulatis, 

 articulis monospermis, a margins secedentibus, indehiscenti- 

 bus V. saepius endocarpio ab exocarpio recedente spuria 

 dehiscentibus. Frutices ssepius altissime scandentes subine- 

 ermes. Folia bipinnata, pinnis jugi supremi saepe in cirrhos 

 mutatis. Stipulas parvae setacese. Florum spicae tenues, soli- 

 tariffi V. geminse, axillares v. in paniculam terminalem dispo- 

 sitae. Flores singuli sessiles, plerique herraaphroditi, pauci 

 tamen fructiferi. 



1. Entada scandens, inermis, faliis cirrliiferis, pinnis I — 2- 

 jugis, foliolis 2 — 5-jugis ovatis v. oblongo-obovatis obtusis 

 acuminatis emarginatisve saepius obliquis supra nitidis, subtus 

 glabris puberulisve, spicis elongatis solitariis subgeminisve 

 longeracemosis. — Mimosa scandens, Linn. — Tropical Ameri- 

 ca, Africa, and Asia. 



The Mimosa scandens of Linnaeus, the plant furnishing 

 the well-known gigantic pod, was separated by De CandoUe 

 into three species. Wight and Arnott have already shown 

 (Prodr. Fl. Fenins. Lid. Or. i. 261.) that the two East In- 

 dian ones 'E. Purscetha, DC.f and E. monostachya, D C ■■> 

 are the same species in different states. The West Indian 

 one, E. gigcdohium, DC, has been supposed to differ in the 

 number of stamens described by Swartz, as twenty or twenty- 

 five; but this must be a mistake. M'Fadyen, who saw the 

 plant living, expressly describes it as having but ten. The 

 Adenanthera scandens, Forst. or Entada adenanthera, D C ., 

 is assuredly also this same species which Sprengel has divid- 

 ed (Syst. 2, 325,) into two only, which he calls Entada Par- 

 rana, and E. Bheedii. 



2. E. polystachya (DC. Leg. Mini., 434. t. 61, 620 iner- 

 mis, foliis demum cirrhiferis, pinnis 2 — 6-jugis foliolis 6—8- 

 jugis oblongis obtusis emarginatisve glabris v. subtus pubes- 



