PERKINS THE LEGUMINOSAE OF PORTO RICO. 217 



rather shorter than the standard; keel almost as long as the wings, truncate, or beaked 

 at the tip, but the point not spiral; upper stamens free, the others united; ovary sessile, 

 multiovulate; style filiform, dilated upwards, longitudinally bearded on the inner 

 side upwards; stigma very oblique; pod linear, straight or slightly recurved, subterete, 

 2-valved, filled within between the seeds; seeds reniform, quadrate. Herbs, either 

 prostrate and trailing or twining or more rarely somewhat erect ; leaves pinnate; leaflets 

 3. stipellate; stipules usually persistent, rarely produced below their insertion; flowers 

 greenish yellow, more rarely purple, in axillary racemes; bracts and bracteoles usually 

 very deciduous. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



Calyx teeth linear-lanceolate, equaling the tube; stem and leaf- 

 lets clothed with adpressed, strong, silky hairs; terminal leaflet 

 lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate; peduncles 7.5 to 30 cm. long, 2 

 to 4-flowered; corolla reddish-purple, 2.5 cm. long, conspicu- 

 ously veined; keel prolonged into an incurved beak; pod linear, 

 7.5 to 10 cm. long, silky, recurved. 1. V. vexillata. 



Calyx teeth deltoid; shorter than the tube. 



Pod 3.7 to 5 cm. long, 6 mm. broad, slightly recurved, glal)- 

 rescent or thinly silky, 8 to 10-seeded; seeds shiny, brown 

 with white hilum; terminal leaflet ovate, acute, 5 to 7.5 cm. 

 long, both sides glabrous; stipules not spurred; flowers 12 

 to 20 in a conical raceme on a glabrous peduncle 5 to 10 cm. 

 long; corolla pale yellow, 11 to 13 mm. long. 2. V. repens. 



Pod pendulous, 15 to 30 cm. long, 9 mm. broad, subcom- 

 pressed, 10 to 15-seeded, slightly torulose when fully 

 matured; seeds white, red, or black; terminal leaflet 

 roundish or ovate, 7.5 to 15 cm. long, both sides glabrous; 

 stipules comparatively large, distinctly spurred; flowers in 

 G to 12-flowered racemes, on glabrous peduncles 15 to 30 

 cm. long; corolla yellow or reddish, 2.5 cm. deep. 3. V. ungmculata. 



1. Vigna vexillata (L.) A. Rich. 

 (Urban, 310.) 



Stem herbaceous, wide climbing; terminal leaflet 5 to 7.5 cm. long; petiolule 1 to 

 1.8 cm. long, flowers white inside, becoming blue; calyx 1 to 1.5 cm. deep. 



Near Bayamon in meadows and on roadsides; between Aguas Buenas and Caguas on 

 roadsides. Cuba, Haiti, St. Vincent, Grenada. This species is widely spread over 

 tropical Asia, Africa, and America. 



This plant on account of the obliquity of the flower and the length of the beak is 

 intermediate in some respects between Vigna and Phaseolus, and has been placed 

 alternately by botanies in either of these genera or in Dolichos, or it has been pro- 

 posed as a distinct genus. 



Local name, frijol cimarron. 



2. Vigna repens (L.) O. Kuntze. a 



(Urban, 311.) 



Stems very slender, wide-twining, glabrous; petiole 2.5 to 5 cm. long; stipules 

 minute, lanceolate, not spurred; leaflets 3, membranous, both sides glabrous, the end 

 one ovate, acute, 5 to 7.5 cm. long; petiolule 0.8 to 1.6 cm. long; lateral ones unequal- 

 sided; flowers up to 12 or 20 in a conical raceme on a glabrous peduncle 5 to 10 cm. 



a Cook and Collins, p. 262, as Viyna luteola. 



