8 FLORIDA VELVET BEAN AND RELATED PLANTS. 



ingly interesting botanical problem has been disclosed, as there are 

 clearly more species than had been recognized by botanists. 



Until the publication of the paper previously mentioned," the 

 Florida velvet bean had been known in this country under the name 

 of Mucuna utilis. Mrs. Bort showed clearly that it could not be 

 the plant originally described under that name, nor could it be 

 identified with any other described species. On this account she 

 named and described the plant as a new species, Stizolobium deeringia- 

 num. She also emphasized the fact that the Florida velvet bean and 

 allied plants constitute a distinct genus from Mucuna, pointing out 

 that the genus Mucuna consists of perennial plants with woody stems 

 and with a band-like hilum that extends two-thirds of the way 

 around the seed, or more, while the genus Stizolobium 6 consists of 

 plants essentially annual, with an oblong-crateriform hilum to the 

 seed. She further stated that Mucuna in germination is hypogeous, 

 while Stizolobium is epigeous. This last statement is incorrect, as 

 both are hypogeous. There is a pronounced difference, however, in 

 the germination. In Stizolobium the first leaves above the cotyledons 

 are a pair of petioled leaves having solitary cordate leaflets, which 

 immediately are followed by the typical alternate, trifoliate leaves of 

 the plant. In Mucuna, on the contrary, the initial leaves are all 

 alternate, very much reduced, and scale-like. These differences are 

 well shown in Plate I, where the germination of Mucuna ~keyensis is 

 contrasted with that of Stizolobium hassjoo. 



Of the 20 forms of Stizolobium obtained, 10 have been grown to 

 maturity for one year or more in the field, and several others in the 

 greenhouse. The field work has been conducted principally at Biloxi, 

 Miss., and in cooperation with the Florida Agricultural Experiment 

 Station at Gainesville, Fla. In addition, large quantities of seeds of 

 the Lyon bean (S. P. I. No. 19979) and considerable quantities of the 

 fleshy-pod bean (S. P. I. No. 21094) and of the Mauritius or Bengal 

 bean (S. P. I. No. 21300) have been distributed for field testing. 



The characters by which the different species of Stizolobium are 

 distinguished are principally in the pods and seeds; otherwise the 

 species are much alike both in habit and foliage. Slight differences 

 occur in the leaves and flowers, which, however, are not conspicuous. 

 It is probably due to the fact that most herbarium material does not 

 contain mature pods that the distinctness of the species has not before 



a Bulletin 141, pt. 3, Bureau of Plant Industry, 1909. 



b The genus Stizolobium was first published by Patrick Browne (The Civil and 

 Natural History of Jamaica, 1756, p. 290) and based upon the species now known as 

 Stizolobium pruriens, the common cowitch. The seed characters by which Stizolo- 

 bium is distinguished from Mucuna have been clearly pointed out by Prain (Jour- 

 nal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, n. s., vol. 66, 1897, p. 404.) 

 179 



