254 XL. LEGUMINOS.E, {Erythiiia, 



r 



tinct stipes. Wings and keel nearly similar, al] free obovate and about \ in. 

 longf. Pod much contracted between the seeds, often attaining 9 in. to 1 ft. 

 Seeds few, large, red, distant.— Wight, Ic. t. 58. 



N. Australia. Islands of the N. coast, R, Brown. 



Queensland. Port Denison, Fitzalan, Common in East India and the Archipelago, 

 anil often jilanted for shade or oraament. 



. 55. MUCUNA, Adans. 



_ Calyx broadly campanulate, 4-toothed, tlie upper one (consisting of 2 com- 

 bined) bioader, the lowest longer. Standard shorter than the wings ; keel iis 

 long as or longer than the wings, incurved at the end, with a hardened point 

 or beak. Upper stamen free, the others united ; filaments usually dilated 

 upwards ; anthers alternately longer and erect, and shorter versatile and often 

 bearded. Ovaiy sessile, with several ovides ; style, filiform, with a terminal 

 stigma. Pod thick, clothed with stinging often very deciduous hairs, 2-valved. 

 Seeds roundish with a long linear hilum, or oblong with a shorter lateral 

 hilum.— Large twiners. Leaflets 3, stipellate. Stipules small or none. 

 1 lowers usually large, purple yellow or nearly white, in axillary racemes, the 

 pedicels clustered along the rhachis on lateral nodes, or on short peduncles, 

 when the raceme is converted into a corymb or dense panicle. 



The genus is widely spread over the tropical regions of the New and the Old World; the 

 only Australian species is a corntnon Asiatic one. With considerable diversity in the pod 

 ana seeds, the species are all distinguished by the keel and stamens. The pungent hairs of 

 the pod are rarely wanting, and all become black in drying. 



gigantea, DC. Prod. ii. 405. Glabrous or slightly hairy wliea 

 young Leaflets from broadly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, 3 to 4 in. 

 long, the lateral ones very oblique. Flowers of a pale greenish-yellow, nearly 

 ia in. long, in short loose corymbs, on pendulous peduncles of from 2 or 3 

 m to nearly 1 ft. Calyx about a in. broad, hirsute with deciduous hairs. 

 standard ovate, concave, reflexed ; win<rs rather lonL^er. the ediies pubescent 

 below the middle; keel still 



M 



Q, - ' ^* «v^ix iwii^ci, Willi (I SHUll lllUUItUCU lliUCA^v*. ^^^"- 



bhorter anthers bearded. Pod rather thick but flat, above 1 in. broad, with 

 a narrow longitudinal wing on each side of each suture, the pungent hnirs 

 usually fill ing off before maturity. Seeds 2 to about 6, large, orbicular, half 

 encircled by the hilum.— W. and Am. Prod. 254: Hook. Bot. Misc. iii. t. 

 ouppl. 14 (wrong as to colour?). 



N. Australia. Islands of the N. coast, R. Brown. 



},.r^^,^^'^^i. ^?"^^ane river and Moreton Bay, Fraser. F. Mueller, and others; Kock- 

 hampton, ra«z.^; Edgecumbe Bay, i>a/W,^. ^' ' 



tI; T; ^*^^«: , ,CJ«':ence river. Herb. F. Mueller. 

 Pacific. '' " ' ^ distributed over E. India, the Archipelago, and islands of the S. 



56. GALACTIA, R. Br. 



Calyx-lobes 4 (the upper one consisting of 3 combined) acuminate, the 3 

 lateral shorter. Standard ovate, narrowed at the base, the margins slightly in- 

 Hexed ; wings narrow, slightly adhering to the keel ; keel about as long. UpPf 

 s amen free the others united ; anthers uniform. Ovary nearly sessile ; style 

 WiUrm, with a small terminal stigma. Pod linear, straight or curved, usually 

 nat, ^-valved, with a pithy pulp between the seeds. Seeds not strophiokte. 



