186 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



connate with the others; ovary sessile or stipitate; style inflexed; stigma small, ter- 

 minal, often capitate; pod exserted, sessile, or stipitate, compressed, superior suture 

 straight or like the inferior more or less sinuate, with 1 to many membranous or cori- 

 aceous articulations, flat or rarely subturgid, glabrous or more or less hispid, usually 

 indehiscent at maturity and separating from one another, sometimes dehiscing by the 

 inferior suture; seeds 2 to many, ovoid or globose-reniform, compressed. Herbs or 

 shrubs, sometimes arboreous or scandent; leaves bipinnate; leaflets usually 3, some- 

 times only 1 (the terminal), rarely 5, often rather large, with stipels; stipules often 

 scarious, striate, or connate; flowers small, rose-colored, purple, bluish, or white, in 

 compound rarely simple racemes, terminal, or axillary; occasionally solitary or a few 

 fascicled in the axils; bracts often membranous, subulate, striate, persistent, or 

 caducous; bracteoles distinct and persistent or very small and caducous, often entirely 



wanting. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



Flowers in terminal, short, crowded racemes, or 2 to 4 together 

 in the axils of, or opposite to the leaves. 

 Flowers in short, crowded racemes, in pairs in the axils 



of the wide caducous bracts. (Section Nicolsonia.) 

 Flowers 2 to 4 together on long filiform pedicels in the axils 

 of the leaves or opposite to them, more rarely in few- 

 flowered terminal racemes, when they are solitary in the 

 axils of the bracts. (Section Sagotia.) 

 Flowers in lax, usually elongated, racemes or panicles. 



Upper suture of the pod straight, the lower deeply indented ; 

 pod indehiscent. (Section Heteroloma.) 

 Bracts rather large and wide, before florescence im- 

 bricate. 

 Bracts small, inconspicuous. 



Stipules more or less connate at the base. 



Articulations of the pod 2; stipe longer than 



the calyx. 

 Articulations of the pod numerous; stipe 

 shorter than the calyx. 

 Stipules usually free, only the younger ones 

 slightly connate. 

 Stipules cordate. 



Stipules oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate. 

 Both sutures of the pod deeply indented, indehiscent. 

 (Section Chalarium.) 



Pod strongly constricted, more or less tortuous. 



Pod with 2 articulations, superior one enlarged, 



fertile. 

 Pod with many equal articulations. 



Perennial, erect; stipules oblique-subulate; 

 pod tortuous, at length flattened; articu- 

 lations obicular, flat. 

 Annual flaccid, at length subscandent, rooting 

 at the base; pod very tortuous and lasting 

 so; articulations rhomboid-orbicular. 

 Pod slightly constricted at the dissepiments, not tor- 

 tuous; articulations oval-linear. 



1. D. barbatum. 



2. T). triflorum. 



:>>. D. ascendens. 



4. D. axillare. 



5. D. supiniiin. 



6. D. albiflonim. 



7. D. wydlerianum. 



8. D. molle. 



9. D. tortuosum. 



10. I>. spirale. 

 l[. 1>. scorpiurus. 



