Amphicarpjea. LEGUMINOS^. 291 



Around New Orleans, Nuttall. — "Corolla large, sericeous ; keel particu- 

 larly tomentose. Legume very long and narrow." Nittt. — C Plumieri is a 

 South American and i:*erhaps VV'est Indian species: if the plant of Mr. Nut- 

 tall be really the same, it is probably introduced. We have taken the spe- 

 cific character from Bentham. 



13. AMPIIICARP^A.* Ell in jour. acad. Philad. 1. p. 372 ; Nutt. 

 gen. 2. p. 213 ; DC. mem. Leg., <^ prodr. 2. p. 383. 



Flowers of two kiuds ; those of the upper many-flowered racemes perfect 

 and petaliferous, but seldom maturing fruit ; those near the base of the stem 

 or on prostrate branches imperfect, but usually fertile. Perkect Fl. Calyx 

 tubular-campauulate, about equally 4-toothed (the two upper teeth being 

 united; sometimes 5-toothed), ebractcolate and slightly gibbous at the base. 

 Vexillum broadly obovate-oblong, subsessile, slightly auricled at the base, in- 

 cumbent and partly folded round the other petals: keel and wing-petals simi- 

 lar, nearly straight, a little shorter and much narrower than the vexillum, on 

 very long claws, the lamina oblong, that of the wing-petals with a very small 

 callous or saccate spur at the base. Stamens diadelphous. Ovary 4-ovuled 

 raised on a short stipe which is surrounded by a fleshy sheathing disk : style 

 filiform, glabrous : stigma smaU, capitate. Legume linear-oblong, compressed, 

 somewhat scimitar-shaped, 3-4-seeded. Lmperfect or ApetalousFl. Calyx 

 nearly as in the petaliferous flowers. Petals none, or with the rudiment of 

 a vexillum. Stamens either wanting, or often 5-10, shorter than the ovary, 

 three or four of them with p rfect anthers, the others rudimentary : filaments 

 distinct. Ovary nearly sessile, shorter than the calyx, 1-3-ovuled, tipped 

 with a very short recurved style, elongating and protruded beyond the calyx 

 after impregnation. Legumes obovate or pyiiform, 1-2-seeded. usuaUy ma- 

 turing beneath the surface of the ground. — Annual twining or sarmentose 

 herbs. Stems slender, much branched, retiorsely pubescent or hirsute with 

 brownish hairs. Leaves pinnately trifoliolate : leaflets rhombic-ovate, mi- 

 nutely stipeUate. Stipules striate, similar to the bracts. Racemes of the 

 petaliferous flowers solitary or in pairs, often somewhat compound, with the 

 flowers clustered or in pairs from the axils of the bracts : the bracts per- 

 sistent, orbicular, partly clasping, appressed, alternate (but each formed by 

 the union of the pair). Inflorescence of the imperfect or radical flowers 

 similar, but with the filiform peduncles few-flowered, and the bracts distinct 



This genus is manifestly correctly referred by Bentham to his subtribe Clitorieae ; 

 although thepeculiar inflorescence which appears to exist in the whole group is some- 

 what masked by the apparently alternate bracts (a deviation, however, wliicii is evi- 

 dently caused by the union of each pair of bracts into one) ; but in A. moiuiica the 

 vexillum is sliglitly appendiculate at the base, with the margins of the auricles fold 

 ed in, and the upper portion of the style is somewhat indurated, as in Euphaseoleae. 



1. A. Tnonoica : racemes of the petaliferous flowers nodding; teeth of the 

 calyx short and broad, somewhat triangular; bracts shorter than the pedi- 



• This genus was established under the name of Amphicarpa, which De Can- 

 dolle, for the sake of a substantive termination, changed to AmphicarpcEa. 



