52 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 



scribed a cowhage also from Surat, but with spotted seeds. A 

 few years later Ray secured what was evidently this same 

 spotted seeded plant from the East Indies. At first he regarded 

 it as identical with Parkinson's black-seeded bean, but after- 

 wards in deference to Plukenet's opinion, considered it distinct. 

 Still later various botanists found and recorded cowhage-like 

 plants in Ceylon, Java, Malabar and Amboina. In the West 

 Indies similar plants were found in Jamaica and Barbados. 



The generic name Stizolobium was proposed by Browne 

 (Brown, Patrick. The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica, 

 p. 290. 1756) and based on two species, namely, the common 

 cowhage of Jamaica which Browne considered the same as one 

 described from Ceylon by Burmann, and the " Smaller cow- 

 hage " of Jamaica, a plant which remains wholly obscure, but 

 is probably merely a form of common cowhage. Browne did 

 not use binomials, but his generic name Stizolobium has been 

 accepted by various botanists in preference to Mucuna, among 

 them Medicus (Medicus, Friedrich Casimir. Vorlesungen 

 Churpf. Phys. Ges.); Persoon (Persoon, Christian Hendrick. 

 Synopsis Plantarum, 2:298. 1807.); Kuntze (Kuntze, Otto. 

 Revisio Generum Plantarum, 1:207. 1891.); and Hiern (Hiern, 

 William Philip. Catalogue of the African Plants Collected by 

 Dr. Friedrich Welwitsch, 1 : 250. 1896). 



Stizolobium as here used, is distinguishable from Mucuna by 

 the pods having neither wings nor plaits; by the relatively 

 small seeds with thin testa; and by the short hilum. Two sub- 

 genera may be characterized as follows: 



Hilum surrounded by a large caruncle ; stems annual, herbaceous 



Chialule 

 Hilum naked or with rudimentary caruncle; stems woody or half 



woody Brachyule 



Chialule includes Stizolobium deeringianum Bort, the Florida velvet- 

 bean, and species with a similar hilum. Brachyule embraces Stizolobium 

 pruriens and the following other species : 



Stizolobium bracteatum Kuntze, Rev. Gen. PI. 208. 1891. 



Carpopogon bracteatum Roxb. Hort. Beng. 54. 1814. 



Mucuna bracteata DC. Prodr. 2:406. 1825. 

 S. comorense n. comb. 



M. comorensis Vatke, Oestr. Bot. Zeitschr. 28:262. 1878. 

 S. sericophyllum n. comb. 



M. sericophylla Perkins, Frag. Fl. Philipp. 1:86. 1904. 



