480 FABACEAE 



2. Cercidium fldridum Benth. Border Palo Verde. Fig. 2552. 



Cercidium floridum Benth. in A. Gray, PI. Wright. 1 : 58. 1858. 

 Parkinsonia florida S. Wats. Proc. Amer. Acad. 11: 135. 1876. 

 Parkinsonia Torreyana S. Wats. Proc. Amer. Acad. 11: 135. 1876. 

 Cercidium Torreyana Sarg. Gard. & Forest 2: 388. 1889. 



Small tree, 4-6 m. high, with smooth pale gray-green bark, branchlets often armed with short 

 simple spines. Leaves of short duration, leaving the plants leafless most of the year ; primary 

 rachis 1-2 cm. long, bearing 2 pinnae at the summit ; leaflets mostly 2 or 3 pairs, oblong-oblan- 

 ceolate, 4-7 mm. long, these and the rachis sparsely pubescent ; petals with rounded blades about 

 7 mm. broad ; pods flattened, 2-6 cm. long, usually about 1 cm. wide, acute or acuminate at both 

 ends, 1 to several-seeded, and more or less constricted between the seeds. 



Desert washes, Lower Sonoran Zone; Colorado Desert, southern California, to Arizona, Lower California, 

 and Sonora. Type locality: originally collected by Coulter on his trip from Monterey to Yuma. April-June. 



4. HOFFMANSEGGIA Cav. Ic. 4:63. pi. 392, 393. 1797. 



Herbs or low shrubs, with glandular-punctate bipinnate leaves and small stipules. 

 Flowers in terminal or lateral racemes. Calyx deeply 5-parted into nearly equal lobes. 

 Petals 5, nearly equal, yellow. Stamens 10, distinct, slightly declined; filaments often 

 glandular below; anthers similar, longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary sessile or nearly so; 

 ovules many. Pod flat, linear to ovate, 2-valved. [Name in honor of Joh. Centurius Graf 

 Hoffmansegge, a Portuguese botanist.] 



About 20 species, natives of America and South Africa. Type species, Hoffmanseggia falcaria Cav. 



Leaves with 5-9 pinnae; perennial herb. 1. H. densiflora. 



Leaves with 3 pinnae, on the uppermost leaves the 2 lateral pinnae reduced or sometimes wanting; shrub. 



2. H. microphylla. 



1. Hoffmanseggia densiflora Benth. Camote de Raton. Fig. 2553. 



Hoffmanseggia densiflora Benth. ex A. Gray, Smiths. Contr. 3: 55. 1852. 

 Hoffmanseggia stricta Benth. ex A. Gray, op. cit. 56. 



Stems several from a deep-seated perennial root, puberulent with minute retrorsely incurved 

 hairs. Leaves 5-12 cm. long, with 5-9 pinnae, the rachises with scattered stout-stipitate glands ; 

 pinnae 5-20 mm. long; leaflets 10-20, oblong, 4-6 mm. long, sparsely puberulent with upwardly 

 incurved hairs ; racemes 5-15 cm. long, the short pedicels and calyx tomentose and stipitate- 

 glandular; calyx-lobes similar, 7-8 mm. long; petals about 1 cm. long, the blade broadly oblong 

 or obovoid, abruptly narrowed to the stipitate-glandular claw ; stamens glandular toward the base ; 

 pods 15-40 mm. long, slightly curved, with scattered short-stipitate glands. 



Alkaline soils, Lower Sonoran Zone; upper San Joaquin Valley and Inyo County, California, southward 

 through the desert region to Lower California, eastward to Texas and Mexico; closely related to the Chilean 

 H. falcaria Cav. Type locality: valley of the Pecos, Texas. April-June. 



2. Hoffmanseggia microphylla Torr. Small-leaved Hoffmanseggia. Fig. 2554. 



Hoffmanseggia microphylla Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. 58. 1859. 



Shrub 0.5-2 m. high, with slender broom-like branches. Leaves sparse, with 3 pinnae, scantily 

 short-pubescent, not at all glandular; petioles 10-15 mm. long; lateral pinnae 5-10 mm. long, the 

 terminal 15^40 mm. long; leaflets oblong, 3-5 mm. long ; racemes slender, 5-15 cm. long, pubescent 

 with spreading hairs, the bractlets and sometimes the calyx-lobes stipitate-glandular on the 

 margins ; petals 6-7 mm. long, the blade rounded, the claw rather short, stipitate-glandular on 

 the back; filaments glandular-stipitate ; pods 15-25 mm. long, rather densely clothed with almost 

 sessile glands. 



Sandy soils, Lower Sonoran Zone; Colorado Desert, southern California, to Lower California. Type locality: 

 "Sandy desert of the Colorado, California." Feb.-June. 



Family 69. FABACEAE. 



Pea Family. 



Herbs or woody plants with alternate usually compound stipulate leaves. Flowers 

 irregular and papilionaceous, perfect or sometimes polygamo-dioecious. Hypan- 

 thium obsolete or obscure. Calyx 4-5-toothed or -cleft, the divisions equal or un- 

 equal, sometimes 2-lipped. Petals on the receptacle or on the rim of the very short 

 hypanthium, usually 5, reduced to 1 in Amorpha, the upper one (standard or ban- 

 ner) enclosing the two lateral ones (wings) in the bud, and these in turn enclosing 

 the two lower (keel). Stamens usually 10, separate or generally with their filaments 

 more or less united and diadelphous or monadelphous. Pistil 1 , simple ; ovary supe- 

 rior, 1 -celled or sometimes 2-celled by the intrusion of the sutures ; ovules 1 to many, 

 anatropous or amphitropous. Fruit a legume, or rarely a loment, 1- to many-seeded, 



