198 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



1 to 2 cm. long, blunt, subsessile, glabrous or the lower side slightly silky; racemes 

 axillary or terminal, dense, stalked. 5 to 7.5 cm. long, the flowering part 2.5 cm. long; 

 calyx truncate, thinly silky, the teeth very short; corolla 9 mm. long, reddish, rarely 

 white or purple; pod sessile, 2.5 to 3.5 cm. long, 1.2 cm. broad, oblong, rostrate, sub- 

 coriaceous, flat, 2-valved, with cellular partitions between the seeds, glabrous when 

 mature; seeds 4 or 5, globose, shining, scarlet, with a black spot at the base. 



Near Bayamon in sandy soil; near Salinas de Cabo Rojo; near Mayaguez, on hedges 

 at Guanajibo. Bahama, Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, St. Thomas (Eggers), St. Croix, St. 

 John (Eggers), St. Bartholomew (Euphrasen), Antigua (Grisebach), Guadeloupe, 

 Dominica, Martinique, St. Vincent, Barbados (Maycock), Tobago, Trinidad. Widely 

 distributed through the Tropics, but often planted. 



The brilliant red seeds with a black spot at the hilum are strung by the women of 

 Hindustan and are used instead of beads for ornaments for the neck and also for rosaries, 

 hence the name "pater noster herb." The seeds are extremely poisonous when taken 

 in large quantities, and in India they have played an important r6le in many a crime. 



Local names, peronia, peronilas. 



52. CLITORIA L. 



Clitoria L. Sp. PI. 2: 753. 1753. 



Calyx tubular, the 2 Tipper lobes slightly connate, 1 he lowest narrow; standard large, 

 erect, open, narrowed at the base without auricles; wings shorter, spreading, adhering 

 to the keel in the middle; keel shorter, incurved, acute; upper stamens free or more or 

 less united with the others; anthers uniform; ovary stipitate, with several ovules; 

 style elongated, incurved, more or less dilated upward and bearded longitudinally on 

 the inner side; pod linear, flattened, the upper or both sutures thickened, the sides 

 flat or convex, occasionally bearing a raised longitudinal rib, dehiscent; seeds globose 

 or flattened. Herbs or shrubs, short and erect or with long twining branches; leaves 

 pinnate, with 3 or several leaflets or occasionally only 1; stipules persistent, striate; 

 flowers often large, purple, blue, white, or red, often two-colored, solitary or clustered 

 in the axils or in pairs crowded in short racemes; bracts stipule-like, persistent, the 

 lower ones in pairs, the upper united into one. 



This genus is readily distinguished by its large t ubular calyx. 



key to The species. 



Leaflets 2 or 3-jugate (rarely 4 or 5), ovate, blunt or oval; peduncle 

 short, 1-flowered; bracteoles suborbicular, about one-fourth as 

 large as the calyx; calyx lobes lanceolate, acuminate; legume 

 linear, pubescent. (Section Ternatea Benth.) 1. C. ternatea. 



Leaflets only 3. (Section Neurocarpum Benth.) 



Stem twining; leaflets acute. 2. C. rubiginosa. 



Rhizome woody; stem erect, nearly simple, ascending; leaf- 

 lets obtuse, retuse, or emarginate! 3. C. la mi folia. 



1 . Clitoria ternatea L. 

 (Urban, 299.) 



Herbaceous, suffrutescent; stem twining; leaflets 2 to 3 cm. long, about 1.5 cm. 

 wide; peduncle 2 to 4 mm. long; flowers large, resupinate, blue and white; calyx 1.5 

 cm. deep; standard 5 cm. long; pod 6 to 13 cm. long, 1 cm. wide. 



Cultivated and seemingly wild near Bayamon; near Fajardo in Bromelia copse 

 toward the sea; near Mayaguez, toward Guanajibo. Bahama, Culm, Jamaica, Haiti, 

 St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John (Eggers), St. Bartholomew (Stockholm Herbarium), 



