128 BENTHAM ON PA FILION ACE.E AND CiESALPINlEiE. 



Sophora tx>mentosa, Calpurnia sylvatica, Bowdichia virgilioides, 

 (from Salzmann's Bahia specimens which I take to be the 

 same as Kunlh's species), Cercis siliguastrwn, and CcBsalpi- 

 niece pidcherrimce. 



1. Sophora tomentosa. This genus, the type of the SopJio- 

 re(R, has by all botanists been classed amongst PapUionacece. 

 As at present constituted it is not a very natural one, some 

 species (S. alopecuroides,) having considerable affinity to 

 Galegea; or Astrag niece, others to Dalbergiew {S. heptaphylla), 

 and some of the Chilian ones approaching Edwardsia in 

 many points, but all connected together chiefly by the pod. 

 In the species now examined, the ovule is nearly reniform, 

 and the nucleus very evidently curved ; as the seed ripens, 

 the cotyledons enlarge and thicken very much, and the em- 

 bryo becomes almost straight with an exceedingly short 

 radicle. In some other species the ripe embryo is much 

 curved, with a hooked radicle; but in others again it is nearly 

 as straight as in 5. tomentosa. 



2. Calpurnia sylvatica, belonging also to a genus univer- 

 sally admitted to belong to the Papilionaceous class. Here 

 I find an obovoid ovule with the nucleus as nearly straight as 

 in the generality of CcEsalpiniece. The ripe embryo is also 

 straight, which is the more apparent as the radicle is remark- 

 ably long. The hilum in the ripe seed is indeed much in- 

 dented, but this indenture is opposite the narrow base o( the 

 cotyledons, and occasions no perceptible curvature of tne 

 embryo. Of another species, C. intrusa (of which I have no 

 ripe seeds), Vogel says, "jam radiculam semper curvatam 

 video." The genus is a much more natural one than 

 Sophora. 



IT 



3. Bowdichia virgilioides, classed by De CandoUe as wen 

 as by Vogel among CcBsalpiniecB, but on account of the flowers 

 referred by me to Sophorece among PapUionacece. The ovule 

 is much shorter than in Calpurnia sylvatica, the nucleus is 

 more perceptibly curved, but is still what is usually calleu 

 straight. In the i'ipe embryo the I'adicle is very short, but 

 the central line down the cotyledons to the tip of the radicle 



