\ 



Erythrina,] XL. leguminos^. 253 



^\ith several ovules ; style subulate, oblique at the end, with a small stigma. 

 Pod stipitate, linear-falcate, acuminate, narrowed at the base, more or less 

 contracted between the seeds, 3-valved, usually pithy between the seeds. 

 Seeds distant, ovoid or oblong, with a lateral oblong hilum, not strophiolate. 

 Elect trees or shrubs, rarely tall herbs, the trunk, branches, and often the 

 petioles armed with conical prickles. Leaflets 3, usually broad, entu-e or 3- 

 lobed, tlie stipellae usually gland-like. Stipules small. Racemes axillary, or, 

 if terminal, leafy at the base. Flowers large, usually red, in clusters of 2 or 

 3 on lateral nodes along the peduncle. Bracts small or none. 



The genus is widely dispersed over tropical America, Africa, aud Asia, extending into N. 

 America and S. Africa. Of the 2 Australian species, one is a common Asiatic one, the 

 other is endemic. The genus is a very natural one aud well characterized, some botanists 

 lave, however, proposed to break it up into three or four, founded ou diversities in the form 

 of the caljx and proportions of the petals, which appear to vary so much from species to 

 species as scarcely to serve even as sectional characters. Both the Australian ones have a 

 Bpathe-like calyx, the wings and keel-petals all short and nearly free. 



Leaves broadly 2- or 3-lobcd, Calyx about i In. long. Staudard 

 scai-cely clawed 1. J'- vesperiih'o. 



Leaves entire. Calyx about f in. long. Standard narrowed into a short 

 claw , 2, E. iudica. 



1. E. vespertilio, BentL in Mitch. Trop. Aitstr. 218. Glabrous, the 

 tranches prickly, but not the leaves. Leaflets broadly cuneate at the base, 

 spreading to 3 or 4 in. in breadth, often but not always broader than long, 

 'usually 3-lobe(l, the lateral lobes spreading or recurved, obtuse, sometimes 

 broader than long, sometimes much longer tlian broad, the middle one trian- 

 gular or lanceolate, usually acute, broad or narrow, either longer tliau the 



gether, in 

 ite lobes. 



Calyx about \ in. 

 cate and slit on tlie 



lateral ones or more frequently much smaller or disappearing altog 

 j;liich case the leaf is divided into 2 long luirrovv diverging or^divarici 

 Howers numerous, pendulous, in showy erect racemes. ■" ' - '■ 



long, broad, entire or obscurely toothed, obliquely trunc ^. 



PPper side. Standard orate, erect at the base, recurved upwards, nearly I3 

 m. long, nan-owed but scarcely clawed at the base ; wings obliquely oblong, 

 aWt 4 lines long ; keel-petals like the wings, but about 6 luies long, free, 

 ^tyle hooked at the end. Pod elongated, torulose, with kvi large red seeds. 



N. Australia. Gulf of Carpentaria, R. Brown; Upper Victoria river, F. Mueller; 

 fwqiient towards central Australia, M'Bouall Siuarfs Erpedition. ^ 



Queensland. Endeavour river, Banks and Solander ; Bay of ™? /• ^''%l' 

 Bnsk,ie river aud Morctou Bay, Fa^er, F. Mueller, etc.; Cape lork. ^ ^'{''''Z' IZl 

 I^cmson, Fitzaluu; in tLe interior, on the Marauoa, ^i<^., Mitchell ; found during tlie «hole 



^^{f>^chhardesiyi^tA\i{mi, Herb. Mus. Par. ., ^ , , ^ 1 ,1,pc t»,n.P 



The Brisbane river specimens liave usually large leaflets with broad short lobe^ ho e 

 from the north-west {E. biloba, F. Aiucll. in Hook. Kew Journ. ,x. 21) have 2 'i'^^^;; '"J" 

 ;ith or without a small iutermediatc ouc, the others show every gradation from the one 

 'orm to the other. 



2. E. iudica, Lam. ; BG. Prod. ii. 413. Glabrous, the branches but 

 iiot the leaves armed with prickles usually black. Leaflets entire, very broadly 

 «^vate, often 6 to 8 in. long, the terminal one rhomboidal, the lateral ones 

 ['•'tlicr oblique. "Flowers scarlet, nearly 2 in. long, in dense racemes. Calyx 

 '^'•oad. fully i in. long, entire or slightly toothed, obliquely truncate and slit 

 on the uppei- side. Standard ovate, scarcely recurved, narrowed into a dis- 



