180 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



retuse-mucronulate, irritable; racemes short, few-flowered, 4 times or more exceeded by 

 the leaves; flowers 1.2 cm. long, of a dull yellow; calyx one-third as long as the corolla; 

 teeth subulate; standard dotted with purple; legume 20 to 25 cm. long, compressed, 

 at length biconvex, not torulose, shortly beaked, slightly depressed, tumid on both 1 

 margins. 



Near Guanica in the water of the lagoon ; near Mayaguez, along roads in coast districts 

 near Algarrobo and around the fortress; near Anasco in moist meadows at Hatillo. 

 Bahama, Jamaica, Haiti, St. Thomas, Antigua (Grisebach), Guadeloupe, Martinique. 



3. Sesbania occidentalis (Willd.) Pers. 



(Urban, 286.) 



Undershrub, stem angular, suffrutescent or shrubby, 2 to 3 meters high; leaflets 12 

 to .20-jugate, slightly irritable; flowers yellow or orange-colored, with red lines, the 

 standard dotted with purple; legume 20 to 25 cm. long, 5 to 6 mm. wide, compressed, 

 at length biconvex; seeds separated by spurious dissepiments. 



Near Ponce in ditches and in moist localities; near Guanica, in the water of the bay 

 opposite La Plata; near Cabo Rojo around the hacienda Carmelita; near Mayaguez, 

 on the sides of ditches in Cuesta de las Piedras. Cuba, Haiti, Trinidad (Grisebach). 

 Indigenous in the West Indies. 



Although the difference in the size of the leaves and the form of the leaflets between ., 

 Sesbania occidentalis and S. grandiflora is very slight, the difference in the size of the 

 flowers is very noticeable, those of S. grandiflora being at least 5 times as large as those 

 of S. occidentalis. 



Local name, sesbania. 



4. Sesbania aegyptiaca Pers. 

 (Urban, 286.) 



An erect, copiously branched, pale green glabrous shrub, 1.5 to 2.5 meters, even 3 

 meters high; leaves nearly sessile, the unarmed rachis on the upper ones 5. to 10 cm. 

 long; leaflets 10 to 20-jugate, glabrous, glaucous green, reaching 2.5 cm. in length, 4 

 mm. broad, blunt with a faint mucro; peduncles 2.5 to 5 cm. long; racemes lax, 6 to 

 12-flowered; pedicels spreading, 0.4 to 0.8 cm. long; calyx 0.4 cm. long, glabrous, the 

 teeth very short, deltoid-cuspidate; corolla bright yellow, 1.25 cm. long, the round 

 emarginate standard 1.25 cm. broad, more or less dolled with purple; pod 15 to 20 cm. 

 long, 3 to 4 mm. thick, distinctly torulose, 20 to 30-seeded, the valves rounded on the j 

 back. 



Near Coamo between Serillos and Salinas. Cuba, Jamaica (Grisebach). South- 

 eastern North America, warmer regions of Africa, tropical Asia, and North Australia. 



The wood of this plant is soft and fibrous but rather close-grained, the weight 75 

 pounds to the cubic foot. In the Deccan, Sesbania aegyptiaca, is grown to furnish poles 

 as a substitute for bamboo, and it is often utilized while growing to shade and support 

 tin- pepper vines and various cucurbitaceous plants. In Assam the soft, pithy stems are 

 platted into mats, portions of them being dyed black before being matted so as to work 

 out a bold pat t em. It is, in Bengal, in c< immi m use as a hedge plant, for which purpose 

 its very quick growth renders it suitable. The bark is made into rope, according to 

 Brandis. Seeds, root, juice of the bark, leaves, and flowers are used medicinally. 

 The leaves and young branches are cut for fodder. 



38. PICTETIA DC. 



PictetiaBG. Bibl. Univ. Geneve 29: 40. 1825. 



Calyx with unequal slender lobes, the two upper ones short and obtuse, the three 

 lower longer and acuminate; petals shortly unguiculate; standard suborbicular; 



