184 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



pedicel; legume sessile, 2 or 1-jointed, usually 1-seeded, mucronate by the uncinate 

 style base. 



Near Bayamon in coast districts at Palo Seco; between Aibonito and Coamo on 

 rocks; near Coamo in sunny copses on Juey brook; near Guanica, in rocky coast dis- , 

 tricts at Carlo Gordo; near Salinas de Cabo Rojo in the sandy soil of the seashore. 

 Bahama, Cuba, Jamaica, Cayman (Hitchcock), Haiti, St. Thomas, St. John (Eggers), 

 St. Martin (Stockholm Herbarium), St. Bartholomew (do.), St. Kitts, Antigua (Tau- 

 bert), Guadeloupe, Desirade, St. Vincent, Beqtiia (Kew Bull. no. 81, p. 245), Bar- 

 bados, Grenada. North and South America. 



Local name, zarzabacoa enana. 



41. ARACHIS L. 



Arachis L. Sp. PL 2: 741. 1753. 

 Mundubi Adans. Fam. 2: 323. 1763. 

 Arachidna Moench, Meth. 121. 1794. 



Calyx tube filiform, the lobes membranous, the four upper ones connate, the lowest 

 thin, distinct; petals and stamens inserted into the apex of the tube; standard sub- 

 orbicular, wings oblong, free; keel incurved, rostrate; stamens all connate in a closed 

 tube, sometimes only 9; anthers alternately longer and shorter, fixed near the base 

 and versatile; ovary subsessile at the base of the tube, 2 or 3-ovulate, the torus after + 

 the flower falls becoming an elongated, deflexed, rigid stalk forcing the fruit into 

 the ground, the apex acute, and after the style falls terminated by a stigma-like 

 callus; style long, filiform; stigma minute, terminal; pod ripening beneath the soil, 

 oblong, reticulated, indehiscent, subtorulose, but not articulated, continuous within; 

 seeds 1 to 3, irregularly ovoid. Low, often prostrate herbs; leaves paripinnate; 

 leaflets usually 2-jugate, rarely one abortive; stipules adnate to the petiole; flowers 

 yellow or whitish, in axillary, solitary, sessile, dense spikes; bracts often auriculate; 

 bracteoles linear. 



1. Arachis hypog-aea L. 



(Urban, 289.) 



Stems 30 to 60 cm. long, herbaceous, diffuse, the branches clothed especially 

 above with spreading hairs; stipules 2.5 cm. long, the lower half adnate, the points 

 lanceolate; petioles 2.5 to. 35 cm. long, silky; leaflets in two pairs, without a termi- 

 nal one, obovate, 3 to 5 cm. long by more than half as broad; flowers yellow, axil- * 

 lary, solitary, on long slender pedicels, only the lower ones fertile; pod 2.5 cm. long, 

 1.2 cm. thick. 



Cultivated and seemingly wild near Bayamon; near Yauco, on Mount Duey in 

 maize fields; near Mayaguez. Cuba (Sagra), Jamaica (Grisebach), St. Thomas 

 (Eggers), St. Croix (do.), St. John (do.), St. Bartholomew (Euphrasen), Antigua ' 

 (Grisebach), Guadeloupe, Dominica (Grisebach), Martinique, St. Vincent. Culti- 

 vated everywhere in the Tropics. It is probably a native of Brazil, to which coun- 

 try the six other species of the genus belong exclusively. 



Arachis hypogaea, the peanut, groundnut, goober, Manila nut, is not only found in 

 all tropical countries, but is sometimes cultivated in southern Europe (in Italy, Spain, 

 and France) and is extensively grown in (he United States, from Virginia southward. 

 In the United States the seeds are consumed in very large amounts after roasting, 

 being sold on the streets and eaten between meals, while smaller but considerable 

 quantities are used in confectionery and in the form of "peanut butter." In the. Old 

 World millions of bushels are utilized for making an oil which is similar to the fines! 

 olive oil and is largely substituted for it. Thv oil cake is used as food for live slock. 

 and in Spain from it is made, by mixing it with cacao, sugar, and spices, a kind of 

 chocolate, which is the daily food of the poorer people. 



