182 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



or erect herbs, undershrubs, or shrubs with equally or unequally pinnate leaves; stip- 

 ules membranous or foliaceous, lanceolate or setaceous; flowers seldom large, usually 

 small, sometimes very small, gold-colored or pale yellow, often streaked with purple, 

 fugacious, in axillary or rarely terminal racemes; bracts resembling the stipules in 

 form. Bracteoles usually addressed against the calyx, often caducous. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



Leaves 10 to 30-jugate. 



Leaflets 1-nerved; stipules semisagittate; flowers whitish in 

 lax few-flowered racemes; peduncle 1.5 cm. long; pod long- 

 stipitate, straight, the joints quadrate, rectilinear on the 

 superior, slightly curved on the inferior margin. 1. A. sensitiva. 



Leaflets 3-nerved; stipules calcarate; flowers yellow or purple 

 in dense racemes; peduncle very short; pod shortly stipi- 

 tate, incurved, contracted at the dissepiments, the joints 

 half-round, rectilinear on the superior, rounded on the in- 

 ferior margin. 2. A. americana. 



Leaves 4 or 5-jugate. 3. A. portoricensis. 



1. Aeschynomexie sensitiva Sw. 



(Urban, 287.) 



Shrubby or suffrutescent, 1 to 4 meters high; stipules 6 to 9 mm. long, semisagittate, 

 caducous; leaves 2 to 10 cm. long; leaflets 15 to 20-jugate, linear-oblong, 6.5 to 9 mm. 

 long, 2 to 3 mm. wide, glabrous, glaucous, sensitive; flowers 2 to 4, in very lax racemes; 

 calyx 4 mm. deep, cleft nearly to the base; corolla pale yellow, the standard red-veined 

 outside, not more than 0.6 mm. deep; pod 3.5 to 5 cm. long, 5 mm. wide, 6 to 9-jointed, 

 the lowest articulation on a pedicel 0.6 mm. long, the upper suture nearly straight, 

 lower deeply indented, the face with a few scattered setae, black. 



Near Bayamon, in moist meadows at Pueblo Viejo; near Fajardo in ditches; Sierra de 

 Luquillo, in swampy places half-way to the top of Mount Jimenez; near Aibonito, in 

 swamps at Buena Vista; near Utuado, on the Rio Grande River at Salto Arriba; near 

 Guanica, in swamps on the lagoon toward La Plata; near Cabo Rojo in swamps; near 

 Mayaguez, on the sides of ditches and on Mount Mesa at 330 meters altitude; near 

 Aiiasco in moist fields toward the sea; near Lares, in grassy places at Anones. Cuba, 

 Haiti, Guadeloupe, Dominica (Swartz, Grisebach), Martinique, St. Lucia (Swartz),. 

 St. Vincent, Grenada, Trinidad (Grisebach). Tropical Africa. 



A common American plant, extending from the West Indies to Brazil. 



A. sensitiva, like the next, seems to be inhabited by ants. The plant can be read- 

 ily recognized by its semisagittate stipules, and its lax few-flowered racemes. 



Local names, yerba rosario, yerba dt ci< in 'in. 







2. Aeschynomene americana L. 



(Urban, 287.) 



Stem herbaceous or suffrutescent. I to 2 meters high; leaves 3 to 5 cm. long; leaflets 

 10 to 30-jugate, oblong-linear, 7 to 9 mm. long, 2 nun. wide; flowers pale yellow, some- 

 times nearly white with dark red lines; calyx 4 mm. long; corolla 8 to 9 mm. long, yel- 

 low or purple; pods 2 to 4 cm. long, 5 mm. wide, glabrous. 



Near Bayamon in meadows; between Aibonito and Coamo along roads; near Coamo 

 at the river in Farajones; near Maricao on Mount Montoso; near Sab'ana Grande toward 

 La Plata along roads; near Mayaguez, on the bank of the river and at the base of Mount 

 Mesa; near Anasco in ditches around Hatillo. Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, St. Thomas, St. 

 Croix, St. Kitts, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. Vincent, Grenada, Tobago. 



