213 . XL. leguminosj:. 



36. SESBANIA, Pers. 



(Agati, Besv,) 



Calyx-tube broad, truncate, or with nearly equal teeth or lobes. Standard 

 orbicular or ovate, spreading or reflexed ; keel incurved, obtuse or acuminate, 

 the claws much longer than those of the other petals. Upper stamen free, 

 geniculate near the base, the otliers united in a sheath angled near the base ; 

 anthers uniform or nearly so. Ovary with several ovules ; style glabrous, 

 with a small terminal stigma. Pod long and linear (or in some species not 

 Australian oblong), 2-valved or indehiscent, the endocarp continuous with 

 spurious transverse partitions separating the seeds. Seeds without any stro- 

 phiole. — Herbs or shrubs, sometimes arborescent, but of very few years 

 duration. Leaves abrnptly pinnate, with numerous entire leaflets, tbestipelte 

 minute or none. Stipules setaceous, usually very deciduous.. Plowers yellow, 

 red, variegated or white, in short loose axillary racemes; pedicels slender. 

 Bracts and bracteoles very^ rarely persistent to the time of flowering. 



The genus is widely spread over the tropical regions hoth of the New and the Old "World. 

 Of the four Australian species, three are the commonest Asiatic ones, two of them extenamn 

 also over tropical Africa^ the fourth is endemic. 



riowers veiy large (nearly 3 in. long), the petals narrowed at the 



end 1. S. grandiflora. 



riowers not 1 in. long. Petals broad. 



Racemes pendulous. Stem shruhby 2. 5. agyptiaca. 



Eacemes erect. Stem herbaceous. 



Bracts and bracteoles very deciduous. Calyx-teeth very short. 3. 5. acuIeaU. 

 Bracts and bracteoles setaceous, often persistent. Calyx-teeth , . . 



subulate-pointed, nearly as long as the tube 4. 5. sim;plimscula. 



1. S. grandiflora. Pen, Syn, PL ii, 316. A tall slirub or small tree 

 of very few years' duration, glabrous and more or less glaucous. Leaflets 

 to 30 pairs, oblong or elliptical, obtuse and often niucronate, 1 to 1| ]^'^^^o' 

 Racemes short, with 2 to 4 veiy large flowers, white in our Australian sp^' 

 cimens. Calyx-tube | in. long, without the turbinate base, the teeth or lobes 

 short and broad. Petals 2 to nearly 3 in. long ; ' standard ovate, rattier 

 shorter than the others ; keel much incurved, ending in an obtuse bea . 

 Pod upwards of a foot long, nearly 3 lines broad. — Agati grandifora^v^^'^-^ 

 DC. Prod. ii. 266 ; W. and Am. Prod. 215 ; A. formosa, F. Muelh Fragai. 

 ii. 8S. 



^ N. Australia. Near Nichol Bay, F, Gregory's and Ridley's Expeditions; Gleoeg 

 river, N.W. coast, Clarkson ; Fitzmaurice river, Arrihem's Land, F, Mueller. , ^^^ 



The red-flowered variety, S. coccinea, Pers. 1. c, or Agati cocdvea, '^^?'''V '! per- 

 amougst the Australian species 1 have seen. Both varieties are frequent in ludia, "°^J^j^ 

 haps only about villages and other places where they have been planted ; they both ^PP^^^. j^ 

 be really indigenous in the Archipelago. The size of the flower^ with the petals "^^^/* l^. 

 proportion, has indaced the separation of this species as a genns, but there is no ^J?^ ^^, 

 racter to distinguish it from Sesbania, The Sandwich Island S. iomentosa {Agaii 

 io&a, Nutt.) is quite intermediate between the two. 



2. S. aegyptiaca, Pers.; DC. Prod. ii. 264. A sliruL of 5 or 6 . 

 becoming, in India at least, a tree of twice thai size, but of ver}^ fe^ X ,^ 

 duration, glabrous aud somewhat glaucous, the branches terete or obsc . 



