BENTHAM ON PAPILlONACEiE AND C^SALPINIEiK, 131 



pous ovule* in LeguminosEe being but one of degree. The 

 curvature in the so-called Orthoblasta? is often imperceptible 

 without a very nice examination, but at other times quite 

 evident. In SophorOy Edwardsia, and some others of my Soph- 

 oreae, it is more apparent, (though often very much less than 

 in Cercis), and offers almost every shade from the orthoblastaj 

 to the cyrtoblastee. In the great mass of Papiiionace.-e it is 

 most decided. I do not deny, that to a certain extent, this 

 difference coincides with others in the structure of the flower; 

 and so far it is important, but I cannot consider it sufficiently 

 positive to warrant the making it absolute in preference to 

 all others. 



Taking therefore the form of the embryo only as a charac- 

 ter for the natural division of the Leguminosse, we shall find 

 that it will oblige us, 1st, to separate Arachis from some spe- 

 cies at least of Stylosanthes^ and place it in a class where there 

 is no genus near it; 2d, to remove the Brongniartiece far 

 away fi-om the only genera that have any affinity with them 

 in flower or vegetative characters, to place them also as an 

 isolated tribe amongst those which they resemble in nothing 

 but the fruit; 3d, to remove Cydolobium far away from Amerim- 

 num, Andira from Pterocarpus, and probably break up, in 

 other respects, the tribe oi Dalbergieie^ to form a third papili- 

 onaceous tribe among CcBsalpiniea ; 4th, to break up or con- 

 sider as ambiguous the genera Sophora, Calpurnia, Bowdichia, 

 Leptolobium, and probably many others ; 5th, to isolate Or- 

 fnosia in a tribe by itself; and if the curvature of the embryo 

 be tested as proposed by that of the nucleus, to break up 

 several of those genera hitherto considered as undoubted Cas- 

 ttlpiniecE. 



On the other hand, if, as originally proposed by Vogel,t 

 the preference be given to the aestivation of the corolla as the 



' See a very interesting paper on the development of tlie flower in 

 Leguminosee by Schleiden and Vogel in the Nova Acta. Acad. Nat. Cur. 

 "• ^>x. p. 1. 



t Linnsea, vol. xi, p. 381, quoted above. 



