Vol. 30, pp. 175-178 October 23, 1917 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



NOTES ON CANAVALIA WITH THE DESCRIPTIONS OF 



NEW SPECIES. 



BY CHARLES V. PIPER. 



For several years past various species and varieties of Cana- 

 valia, a genus of Leguminosae, have been under test at various 

 places in the Southern States to determine their possible 

 agronomic value. In the course of this work it was found 

 necessary to determine critically the identities of the species. 

 Two of these are clearly undescribed while another requires 

 some nomenclatorial modification. All of the species here 

 mentioned belong to the section Eucanavalia which includes 

 such well known species as C. ensiformis (L.) DC; C. gladiata 

 (Jacq.) DC; and C. lineata (Thunb.) DC. (0. obtusifolia of 

 most authors). Several of the species in this group are distin- 

 guishable only by the characters of the mature pods and seeds. 

 The original spelling of the generic name is Canavali but most 

 botanists have used Canavalia, a spelling approved by the 

 International Code of Nomenclature. 



Canavalia campy locarpa, n. sp. 



Herbaceous, annual, or under tropical conditions perhaps longer en- 

 during; stems twining, green, branching, minutely and sparsely appressed 

 puberulent with white hairs, growing to a height of 2 to 4 meters ; leaves 

 trifoliolate ; petioles about as long as the leaflets, shallowly channelled 

 above, sparsely puberulent; petiolules dark green, densely white puberu- 

 lent, somewhat swollen ; leaflets membranaceous, ovate to oblong-ovate, 

 short acuminate, sparsely puberulent especially on the margins and the 

 veins beneath, in age nearly glabrous, 10-18 cm. long; stipules triangular, 

 acuminate, ciliate, 3 mm. long, quickly fugacious, but the base of each 

 developing into a persistent green protuberance ; stipels linear, the minute 



43— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. 30, 1917. (175) 



