PERKINS THE LEGUMINOSAE OP PORTO RICO. '179 



37. SESBANIA Scop. 



Sesbania Scop. Introd. 308. 1777. 

 Agati Adans. Fam. 2: 326. 1763. 

 Darwinia Raf. Fl. Ludov. 106. 1817. 



Calyx broadly campanulate, truncate or with nearly equal teeth or lobes; standard 

 ovate or orbicular, spreading or re flexed; wings oblong; keel incurved, obtuse, or acumi- 

 nate, with a long claw; upper stamen free, geniculate near the base, the others united 

 in a sheath, angled near the base; anthers uniform or the 5 alternate somewhat longer; 

 ovary usually stipitate with numerous seeds; style with a small terminal capitate 

 stigma; pod long-linear, rarely oblong, compressed, terete or tetragonal, or 4-winged, 

 2-valved or indehiscent, septate; seeds oblong or quadrate. Herbs or shrubs, rarely 

 arborescent; leaves abruptly pinnate; leaflets very numerous, entire; stipules cadu- 

 cous; flowers often large, sometimes very large, usually yellow, red, variegated, or 

 white, very rarely a dark purple, in short loose axillary racemes; pedicels slender; 

 bracts and braeteoles setaceous. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



Flowers in short few-flowered racemes. 



Flowers large, white or carmine-red; petals 8 to 9 cm. long; 



calyx 2 cm. deep; shrub or tree. 1. $. grandiflora. 



Flowers small, a dull yellow, 1.2 cm. long; calyx 3 mm. long; 



herb. 2. S. sericea. 



Flowers in lax, 4 to 12-flowered racemes. 



Flowers orange-colored or yellow; petals 2.25 cm. long; calyx 



6 mm. deep; leaves slightly irritable. 3. S. octidentalis. 



Flowers bright yellow; petals 1.25 cm. long; calyx 4 mm. 



deep; leaves not irritable. 4. S. aegyptiaca. 



1. Sesbania grandiflora (L.) Pers.a 

 (Urban, 286.) 



A tall shrub or small tree of very few years' duration; leaflets 10 to 30-jugate; flowers 

 white or carmine red; legume linear, 30 or more cm. long, nearly 6.5 mm. wide, com- 

 pressed; seeds separated by spurious dissepiments. 



Cultivated and seemingly spontaneous near Bayamon; near Cabo Rojo; at Mayaguez, 

 in a garden. Cuba (Richard), Jamaica (Grisebach), Haiti, St. Thomas (Eggers), St. 

 Croix, St. John (Eggers), Gaudeloupe, Martinique, St. Vincent. Indigenous perhaps 

 in the East Indies and north Australia. Cultivated in the Tropics everywhere. 



S. grandiflora is most noticeable on account of its large and showy red flowers, which 

 make it one of the most beautiful of the Papilionatae. In India the root, bark, flowers, 

 and the juice of the leaves are used medicinally, while the natives eat the tender 

 leaves, pods, and flowers as a vegetable and in curries. Cattle also eat the loaves and 

 tender shoots. The wood is white, soft, and not durable; is. however, used in Bengal 

 for posts of native houses and for firewood, and as a support for the pepper vine. This 

 species yields a gum resembling kino, of a garnet red color when fresh, but becoming 

 almost black by exposure to the air. 



Local names, gallito, bdculo, cresta de gallo. 



2. Sesbania sericea (Willd.) DC. 

 (Urban, 286.) 



Plant 1 to 3 meters high; stem suffrutescent, unarmed, cylindrical, pubescent; 

 leaflets 12 to 20-jugate, oblong-linear, 1.6 to 2.4 cm. long, ! to 6 mm. broad, blunt or 



a Cook and Collins, p. 68, as Agati grandiflora. 



