148 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



in the primeval forest of Mount Mala Pasqua. St. Thomas, St. Croix (West), Antigua 

 (Grisebach), Gaudeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia (Bentham), St. Vincent. 



This plant is perhaps found on the South American continent, but M. obovata is 

 often mistaken for it. 



Local name, zarza. 



9. DESMANTHUS Willd. 



icwflw Medic. Theod. 62. 1786. 

 Desmanthus Willd. Sp. PL 4: 1044. 1805. 

 Desmanthea DC. Prod. 2: 444. 1825, as section. 



Flowers 5-merous, sessile, hermaphrodite or the lower ones male or neuter; calyx 

 campanulate, shortly toothed; petals free or slightly cohering; stamens 10 or 5, free, 

 exserted ; ovary subsessile, multiovulate ; style subulate, or sometimes incrassate above; 

 stigma terminal, truncate, concave; legume linear, straight or curved, compressed, con- 

 tinuous or slightly septate, 2-valved, the valves adhering to thesutural replum; seeds 

 compressed, subrhomboidal. Perennial herbs or undershrubs; leaves bipinnate, 

 leaflets small; stipules setaceous, persistent; flower-heads subglobose, often pauciflorous, 

 solitary, axillary. 



1. Desmanthus virgatus (L.) Willd. 

 (Urban, 268.) 



Undershrub, decumbent or ascending, 2 to 3 meters high; pinnae 1 to 7-jugate, petiole 

 bearing an ovate-oblong gland between the lowest pair; leaflets 10 to 20-jugate, oblong- 

 linear, 5 to 8 mm. long, 2 mm. wide; flower-heads with a few white flowers, 5 to 9 mm. 

 in diameter; legume straight or slightly falcate, 6 to 8 cm. long, 2 mm. wide, 20 to 

 30-seeded. 



Near Guanica, on the seashore at Cano Gordo and on dry grassy tracts around the 

 lagoon; near Mayaguez, at the fortress. Bermuda (Hemsley), Cuba, Jamaica, "Haiti, 

 Gaudeloupe, Martinique, Grenada. Tropical and subtropical America; common from 

 Buenos Ayres to the West Indies. Tropical Asia; probably introduced into East India. 



Local name, desmanto ray ado. 



2. Desmanthus virgatus strictus (Bertol.) Griseb. 

 (Urban, 268.) 



Shrub 0.5 to 2 meters high or small tree 3 to 4 meters high; flowers white. 



Near Fajardo, on roadside; near Aibonito, between Algarrobo and Cariblanco; near 

 Coamo, about Salinas; near Penuelas, on shady slopes of Mount Llano; near Guanica, 

 on the margins of woods between La Boca and Barinas and about lagoons; near Salinas 

 de Cabo Rojo, in the coast districts, near Aguadilla. Bahama. Cuba. Haiti, St. Thomas, 

 St. Croix, St. Bartholomew (Stockholm Herbarium), Martinique, St. Vincent, Bar- 

 bados, Tobago. 



Variety strictus in Porto Rico and also in the other islands differs obviously from the 

 type and is easily distinguished from it. 



10. NEPTUNIA Lour. 



Neptunia Lour. Fl. Cochinch. 2: 653. 1790. 

 Hemidesma Raf. Sylva Tellur. 119. 1838. 



Flowers 5-merous. sessile, the upper hermaphrodite, the lower masculine or neuter; 

 calyx campanulate, shortly toothed; petals cohering to the middle or free; stamens 10, 

 rarely 5, exserted; ovary sessile, multiovulate; style filiform, with a small, terminal, 

 concave stigma; legume shortly and broadly oblong, oblique and almost at right angles 

 with the short stipes, the apex rounded but with a distinct apiculum, compressed, thinly 



