STIZOLOBIUM CAPITATUM. 13 



Seed (S. P. I. No. 25120-A) representing this species was obtained 

 from Maj. A. T. Gage, superintendent of the Royal Botanical Garden, 

 Calcutta, British India. This seed was mixed with S. P. I. No. 25120, 

 Stizolobium utile, from the same place. At Gainesville, Fla., this 

 same species was mixed with S. P. I. No. 22464, Stizolobium utile, 

 obtained through Mr. A. C. Hartless, superintendent of the Govern- 

 ment Botanic Garden, Seharanpur, British India, under the name 

 of Mucuna capitata. As the seeds of these two species are much 

 alike, the mixture was in each case probably accidental. 



This species is the only one having pod pubescence of the type 

 found on the Florida velvet bean, but the pods and seeds are very 

 different. At Biloxi, Miss., and Gainesville, Fla., it matures its 

 pods in about the same length of time as the Florida velvet bean, 

 and probably is of about the same agronomic value. 



Later botanical writers have made various comments on Rox- 

 burgh's species. Wight and Arnott (Prodromus Flora? Peninsula? 

 India? Orientalis, 1834, p. 255) quote the herbarium name of Rox- 

 burgh, Dolichos soorootoo, from an unpublished drawing in the 

 herbarium at Calcutta and also identify the plant questionably with 

 Rumphius's Cacara nigra, Plate 138, published in the Herbarium 

 Amboinense. The flowers as indicated on Rumphius's plate are 

 very different from those of any Stizolobium, while the pods resemble 

 closely those of Pachyrhizus angulatus. The drawing of the seed, 

 however, indicates a typical Stizolobium. We are unable satis- 

 factorily to identify this plate. Wight and Arnott also state that 

 they have examined specimens collected by Klein, obtained from 

 the Missionaries' Garden. Baker, in Hooker (Flora of British India, 

 vol. 2, p. 187), also refers Mucuna velutina Hassk. to this species, a 

 reference which we consider erroneous. A similar reference is also 

 made by Miquel (Flora van Nederlandsch Indie, vol. 1, p. 212). 

 Miquel also refers with doubt to this species the plant described by 

 Rumphius in Herbarium Amboinense as Cacara nigra. In this be 

 apparently follows Wight and Arnott. 



There could seem to be little doubt regarding the identity of this 

 species as based on Roxburgh's ample description and from the 

 further fact that this plant has been received from Calcutta, the tvj)e 

 locality. It does not seem likely that Roxburgh's original plant is 

 Stizolobium utile, as the pubescence on the pods of that could scarcely 

 be called velvety. The species is perfectly distinct in its pod char- 

 acters, in which respect it can only be associated with the Florida 

 velvet bean, which has pods of very different shape and seeds of 

 different shape and color. 



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