332 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



II. REVISION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES 



OF NEPTUNIA. 



Neptunia, Lour. (Dedicated to Nej^tune from the preference for 

 aquatic habitat.) — Unarmed aquatic or terrestrial perennials, herbaceous 

 or suffrutesceut. Leaves bipinnate, more or less sensitive ; leaflets 

 small, oblong, sometimes glandular at the base. Flowers small, aggre- 

 gated in dense globose, ovoid, or short-cylindric heads ; the lowest 

 flowers frequently sterile and with each filament broadened into a con- 

 spicuous linear-lanceolate yellow lamina. Fruit strongly compressed, 

 several-seeded, more or less stipitate. — Fl. Cochinch. 653; Benth. in 

 Hook. Jour. Bot. iv. 354-356, & Trans. Linn. Soc. xxx. 383-385 ; 

 Coult. Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. ii. 95, Desmanthus § Neptunia, DC. 

 Prodr. ii. 444. Hemidesmas, Raf. Sylv. Tell. 119. — About 9 species 

 of the warmer parts of both Old and New World. 



N. OLEKACEA, Lour. 1. c. 654, a tropical floating species with enlarged 

 spongy stems (often 1 cm. thick) has been thought to occur in Texas, 

 see Griseb. Fl. W. Ind. 217, but no specimens from the U. S. have been 

 available. (Mex., Rovirosa, W. Ind., S. Am., Tropics of Old World.) 



* Heads large, subcylindric, about 50-flowered : lower flowers more often uniform 

 with the rest : bracts lanceolate, inconspicuous. 



N. lutea, Benth. Pubescent with rather fine weak spreading 

 hairs : stems prostrate, branched, 9 to 15 dm. long : leaves with 3 to 5 

 pairs of pinnag ; leaflets 8 to 16 pairs, rounded at the ends, pubescent 

 and ciliolate, 3 to 7 mm. long; stipules small, ovate-lanceolate, chestnut- 

 colored: i^eduncles axillary, 5 to 7.5 cm. in length, 12 to 16 mm. in 

 breadth, commonly pubescent, 3-9-seeded ; stipe often 8 mm. long, — 

 Benth. iu Hook. Jour. Bot. iv. 356, & Trans. Linn. Soc. xxx. 384. 

 Mimosa virgata, Batr. Trav. 421, ace. to Wats. Bibl. Index, 244. 

 Acacia lutea, Leavenw. Am. Jour. Sci. vii. 61, ace. to Torr. & Gray, 

 Fl. i. 403, but originally described as glabrous and with shorter pedun- 

 cles. DarUngtonia virgata, Raf. New Fl. pt. 1, 43, ace. to Wats. 1. c. — 

 Moist and clayey soil, vS. Missouri, Bush, to Texas, " Alabama, Leaven- 

 worth," and Florida, Leavenworth, but apparently rare southeastward. 

 Var. TENUIS. Closely similar but with stems and peduncles nearly or 

 quite glabrous. — N. tenuis, Benth. 11. cc. — Texas, Drummond, no. 

 150 of 3rd collection, Berlandier, no, 1602 near Austin and no. 1851, 

 also Lindhtimer, no. 48, and Hall, at Hemstead, no. 178. 



