264 CALYCIFLOR/E. 



low; keel in two pieces. Ovary oblong, smooth: style short: 

 stigma simple. Legume about an inch in length, 4- seeded, 

 compressed, nearly straight on one edge, and with isthmi mark- 

 ing the articulations on the oilier. 



This is a very common plant in our pastures. The flowers 

 have, like the leaves, a very delicate appearance, and are at first 

 of a pale flesh-colour changing in the course of a day to a saf- 

 fron. The stem varies in being occasionally glabrous. The 

 leaves are scarcely entitled to be designated sensitive ; since, 

 with the exception that they are folded up during the night, 

 and are again opened soon after sunrise, they do not appear 

 to be endowed with irritability. The JEt. sensitiva, a suffru- 

 tescent plant, 6 feet in height, stated by Swartz to be a native 

 of St Lucia and Dominica, has not, so far as I can learn, been 

 detected in this Island. 



XVI. NiCOLSONIA. 



Calyx 5-partite, with the divisions lanceolato-subu- 

 late, bearded. Corolla shorter than the calyx. Sta- 

 mens diadelphous (9 and 1). Legume exserted, of 

 several compressed semi-orbiculate 1 -seeded joints 

 dehiscent along the convex suture. — De Cand. 



Leaves 1-jugate, with an odd leaflet. This genus is distin- 

 guished from Desmodium, to which it bears a great resem- 

 blance, by the calyx being 5-partite and bearded. In this, the 

 stipules are subscariose and distinct from the petiole ; the brac- 

 teas are similar, but somewhat broader; pedicels in pairs, in 

 the axils of the bracteas ; racemes terminal ; flowers small, 

 purple ; and there are no bracteoles at the base of the calyx. — 

 Named, after Ern. Ant. Nicolson, author of an Essay on the 

 Natural History of St Domingo, published in Paris in 1776. 



1. Nicolsonia barbata. Bearded Nicolsonia. 



Leaflets elliptico-oblong, calyces shut after flower- 

 ing, legumes minutely puberulous. 



Hedysarum barbatum, Swartz, Ohs. 287. — Nicolsonia bar- 

 bata, De Cand. Prod. II. 325. 



HAE. Common in dry spots of mountain pastures. 



FL. May — November. 



Roots fibrous, branched : stem sufi^ruticose, erect, very short: 

 branches numerous, subterete, of a ferruginous colour, incano- 

 pubescent Avith appressed hairs. Leaflets elliptico-oblong, 

 somewhat narrowed at the base, rounded and mucronate at the 

 apex, subglabrous above, incano-pubescent with appressed hairs 

 beneath : petioles compressed, pubescent. Stipules long, lineari- 



