Addisonia 47 



(Plate 248) 



CROTALARIA RETUSA 

 Large Yellow Rattlebox 



Native of tropical regions 



Family Fabaceae Pea Family 



Crotalaria retusa L. Sp. PI. 715. 1753. 



The genus Crotalaria, named by Linnaeus with reference to the 

 rattling of the loose ripe seeds within the swollen pods, consists of 

 many species, perhaps as many as two hundred and fifty, most of 

 them inhabiting tropical and subtropical regions both of the Old 

 World and the New, a few extending into the temperate zones. 

 They are all herbaceous, annual or perennial plants, the leaves 

 various, either simple, trifoliolate, or palmately compound, the 

 flowers in most species yellow and borne in racemes. The ten 

 stamens are all united by their filaments and the anthers are of two 

 kinds, the alternate ones larger. Crotalaria retusa, widely distrib- 

 uted in the American, African, and Asiatic tropics, grows in dry 

 soil, often a weed, but a beautiful one when in bloom; it extends 



northward into southern Florida and has been collected in Bermuda. 



The large yellow rattlebox is an annual plant, with fibrous roots, 

 the rather stout stem up to three feet in height, usually branched, 

 finely and softly hairy. The leaves are simple, oblanceolate, two 

 and one-half inches long or less, short-stalked, the apex rounded or 

 notched, the base narrowed or wedge-shaped, the under side more 

 or less hairy. The showy yellow flowers are borne in racemes at 

 the ends of the stem and branches, on short pedicels; the calyx is 

 finely hairy, five-lobed, two-lipped; the standard is about three- 

 quarters of an inch broad. The at length drooping pods are nar- 

 rowly oblong, nearly round, from one inch to two inches long. 



The painting from which our illustration was engraved is of a 

 plant at Mayaguez, Porto Rico, and is contributed by Mrs. Frances 

 W. Home, talented wife of the dean of the College of Agriculture 

 and Mechanic Arts at that city. 



N. L. Britton. 



Explanation of Plate. Fig. 1. — Summit of flowering stem. Fig. 2. 

 — Summit of fruiting stem. 



