204 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



1. Rudolphia volubilis Willd. 

 (Urban, 302.) 



Twining; leaflets cordate, rarely broadly ovate, 5 to 10 cm. long, 3.5 to 7 cm. wide, 

 truncate at the base, acuminate; pedicels 5 to 7 mm. long; calyx purple, 2.0 to 2.5 cm. 

 long; corolla coral-colored, pale purple or blood-red; standard 4.0 to 4.5 cm. long, 1.2 

 to 1.3 cm. wide; wings 1.5 to 1.8 cm. long, 0.7 to 1 mm. wide; keel petals 1.2 to 1.6 

 cm. long, 0.7 to 1 mm. wide. 



In the primeval forest, not unusual e. g., near Bayamon; near Rio Blanco; in 

 Sierra de Luquillo on Mount Jimenez; Sierra de Naguabo on Mount Piedra Pelada; 

 near Yabucoa, at Guayabota and on Mount Piedra Azul; near Hato Grande on Mount 

 Gregorio; near Aibonito, at Guyon; near Cayey, on Mount Torito; near Adjuntas on 

 Mount -Serrote; near Penuelas, at Las Graces; near Maricao on Mount Alegrillo; near 

 Mayaguez on Mount Mesa; in Sierra de Lares at Guajataca. Indigenous. 



Local names, bejuco Colorado, bejuco de alavibre, bejuco prieto 



57. MUCUNA Adans. 

 Mucuna Adans. Fam. 2: 325. 1763. 



Calyx broadly campanulate, very unequally toothed, the upper tooth (consisting 

 of 2 combined) broader, the lowest longer; standard folded together, shorter than 

 the wings, with inflexed auricles at the base; wings oblong or ovate, incurved, often 

 adhering to the keel; keel equaling or longer than the wings, incurved at the apex, acute 

 or rostrate; upper stamen free, the rest connate; anthers alternately longer and fixed 

 at the base and shorter and versatile, often bearded; ovary sessile, pauciovulate; 

 style filiform; stigma small, terminal; pod thick, linear or ovate-oblong, often clothed 

 with stinging hairs, 2-valved, septate between the seeds, the valves coriaceous, 

 plane or variously costate or lamellate, sometimes winged. Climbing herbs or shrubs 

 (one species erect); leaves pinnate; leaflets 3, with stipels; stipules caducous; flowers 

 usually large, purple, red, or yellowish green, rarely light green, in axillary racemes 

 or fasciculate at the end of the peduncle; bracts usually small, seldom large, usually 

 caducous. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



Pod oblong, nearly straight, with close, broad, irregular, coriaceous 

 undulated lamellations and yellow bristly hairs in the hollows, 

 2 or 3-seeded; leaflets papyraceous, the upper surface with a few 

 deciduous adpressed bristly hairs, under surface more or less silky, 

 central one ovate-oblong, cuspidate; flowers in capitate heads 

 on firm axillary peduncles; corolla sulphur-yellow. (Section 

 Citta DC.) l. M. urens. 



Pod linear, curved, longitudinally ribbed, densely clothed with 

 brown silky bristles, 5 or 6-seeded; leaflets membranous, the cen- 

 tral one ovate-rhomboidal broad, bluntish with a niucro, the 

 upper surface glabrous; flowers in short-stalked copious racemes; 

 corolla deep dark purple. (Section Stizolobium DC.) 2. M. pruriens. 



Leaflets ovate or oval-oblong, glabrous; peduncle long, slender, 

 pendulous; pod compressed, flat, without lamellae, often very 

 long, many-seeded, constricted between the seeds; seeds round; 

 hilum linear. (Section Carpopogon.) 3. M. altis&ima. 



