PERKINS THE LEGTTMINOSAE OF PORTO RICO. 219 



1. Pachyrhizus erosus (L.) Urb. 

 (Urban, 311.) 



Root a tuber like a turnip; stems perennial, firm, wide-twining, eubglabrous; 

 stipules small, linear or lanceolate; petioles firm, 5 to 15 cm. long; leaflets roundish, 

 usually more or less rhomboida!, often sinuate-lobate, 10 to 15 cm. each way. both 

 sides glabrous or the lower with thinly adpressed gray-silky hairs when young; 

 flowers in ample racemes 10 to 15 cm. long, on firm peduncles often equaling them; 

 pedicels 4 to 6 mm. long; calyx 6.5 to 8.5 mm. deep, silky, the teeth reaching about 

 halfway down; corolla blue, 2.5 cm. deep or more; pod 15 to 22.5 cm. long, 17 to 

 19.5 mm. wide, glabrescent, subcompressed, distinctly constricted vertically, 9 to 

 12-seeded; seeds compressed -roundish. 



Near Bayamon; near Las Piedras; near Aguada, in mountain woods at Rio Grande; 

 near Aguadilla on mountain slopes. Cuba (Grisebach), Haiti, St. Thomas, Guade- 

 loupe, Dominica (Grisebach), Martinique, St. Vincent (Kew Bull. no. 81, p. 247), 

 Bequia. Native country not clearly known. 



This plant is not only widely distributed in the tropics of Asia and America, but 

 is often cultivated on account of its tuberous root, which resembles a turnip, and is 

 eaten raw or cooked. 



Local name, habilla. 



2. Pachyrhizus tuberosus (Lam.) Spreng. 

 (Urban, 312.) 



Herb twining, 3 to 6 meters high; root consisting of a number of simple cord-like 

 fibers, several feet in length, stretching under the surface of the ground, bearing in 

 their course a succession of tubers; leaflets subentire or slightly sinuate (in the young 

 leaves sometimes deeply lobed); raceme almost simple, the lower branches very 

 short, many-flowered; flowers white; pod 20 to 30 cm. long, 1.8 to 2 cm. broad, con- 

 stricted between the seeds; seeds red. 



Cultivated near Rincon in Hacienda La Palmira. Native country unknown. Mr. 

 Oliver says "I think this plant may well be a variety of P. angulatus Rich, originated 

 under cultivation, but so marked as to require a distinct name for cultural purposes, 

 and for the present the specific name given by Lamarck may suitably be adopted." 



Cultivated for its large edible tubers. It can be planted at any season of the year, 

 and the roots are fit for digging in 4 or 5 months. The pods of this plant (the yam 

 bean), according to Dr. Trimen, are an admirable vegetable, superior to ordinary 

 French beans in the absence of a fibrous string about the sutures of the pod. The 

 seeds are poisonous. Macfadyen says in the Flora of Jamaica, "The tubers may either 

 be boiled plain, in which state they are a very good substitute for yams and other 

 roots in common use, or they may be submitted to a process similar to arrowroot, and 

 a starch obtained. This starch is pure white and is equal in every respect to arrow- 

 root." 



67. DOLICHOS L. 



Dolichos L. Sp. PI. 2: 725. 1753. 



MacrotylomaWiGHT & Arn. Prod. Fl. Pen. Ind. Or. 1: 248. 1834. 



Dolichus E. Mey. Comm. PL Afr. Austr. 140. 1835. 



Calyx campanulate, the 2 upper teeth united into one entire or emarginate one; 

 standard orbicular, the thickened base appendiculate with inflexed auricles; wings 

 falcate-obovate, adhering to the keel; keel much incurved, usually rostrate, but not 



"Cook and Collins, p. 208. as Pachyrrhizus angulatus. 



