12 FLORIDA VELVET BEAN AND RELATED PLANTS. 



white seeds, apparently being identical in all other respects with the 

 ordinary form having mottled seeds. 



The original source of this species has never yet been determined, 

 though in all probability it comes from southern Asia or some 

 island of the Malay Archipelago. It has been widely distributed 

 throughout the world by the United States Department of Agriculture. 

 Seed which is undoubtedly the progeny of such distributions has 

 been obtained from Saigon, Cochin China (S. P. I. No. 25261), and 

 also from Poona, India (S. P. I. No. 25715). On account of the wide 

 distribution which has been made of the seed of this species, it will 

 be rather difficult to ascertain its exact place of nativity, which can 

 probably be determined only by finding the plant growing under 

 conditions where it is undoubtedly wild. 



STIZOLOBITJM CAPITATTJM. 



StizoloUum capitatum (Roxburgh) Kuntze. (PI. II, A.) 

 Carpopogon capitatum Roxburgh, Flora Indica, 1832, vol. 3, p. 284. 

 Mucuna capitata Wight and Arnott, Prodromus Florae Peninsulse 

 Indise Orientalis, 1834, p. 255. 



Roxburgh's original description is as follows: 



Annual, twining. Heads axillary, subsessile. Legumes armed with soft velvet- 

 like down. 

 Teling. Soorootoo. 



This I have only found in a cultivated state, and that during the cold season, in the 

 gardens of the natives. It is an annual. 



Stem herbaceous, twining, branchy, running to an extent of 10 to 12 feet, if sup- 

 ported; young shoots slightly downy. Leaves ternate. Leaflets equal in size, the 

 exterior ones ovate, about 3 inches long and 2 broad, the lateral ones obliquely 

 cordate ; all are entire and obtuse, above smooth, a little downy underneath. Stipules 

 of the petioles axillary, short, many flowered. Bracts, flowers, stamens, and pistil 

 as in C. pruriens. Legumes cylindric, depending, a little curved, about as thick as 

 the forefinger or thumb, and about 6 inches long, covered with soft, velvet-like 

 down; when ripe wrinkled longitudinally. Seeds five or six, of the size of a small 

 garden bean, smooth, shining, black. 



The young pods like those of Dolichos lignosus and lablab are used by the natives 

 in their curries, after rubbing off the down that covers them. 



Pods 9 to 10 cm. long, about H cm. wide, strongly falcate, much 

 compressed, mostly four seeded; valves with a strong central ridge 

 extending from near the base to the tip, a secondary ridge usually 

 present extending for the upper third; pubescence identical with 

 that of StizoloUum deeringianum, dense, soft, nearly black, the larger 

 hairs tipped with white; seeds oblong, glossy, black, with or without 

 faint brownish markings, 8 by 15 mm., the white hilum 5 mm. 

 long. 



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