298 XL. LEGUMiNOS^E. [Entada, 



nearly sessile, with several ovules ; style filiform, with a truncate stigma. 

 Pod large and long, flat, coriaceous or woody, the sutures thick and forming a 

 persistent replura, the valves falling away separately and divided transversely 

 into 1-seeded ariicles, the endocarp separating from the epicarp and persisting 

 round the large orbicular flat seeds. — Tall woody climbers, unarmed. Leaves 

 abruptly bipinnate, the pinnse of the upper pair often converted into tendrils 

 without leaflets. Flowers small, sessile in long slender spikes, either solitary in 

 the upper axils or forming a terminal simple panicle. Bracts very small. 



The genus is common to the New and the Old World within the tropics. The only Aus- 

 tralian species is the same as the most generally diffused Asiatic one, 



1. £• scandens, Benth. in. Hooh. Journ. Bot. iv. 332. A woody 

 climber, stretching over the largest trees, the young parts and inflorescence 

 slightly pubescent, at length glabrous. Leaves usually consisting of a common 

 petiole of 2 to 6 in,, terminating in 2 simple tendrils, which are not however 

 always developed, and bearing below them 1 or 2 pairs of pinnee ; leaflets on 

 each pinna 2 or 3 rarely 4 or even 5 pairs, ohovate-oblong obtuse or ejnargi- 

 nale, often very oblique, 2 to 5 in. long when few, smaller when more nume- 

 rous. Spikes varying in length from 1 or 2 in. to nearly 1 ft. Flowers 

 about \\ in. long. Calyx very small, truncate or minutely toothed. Petals 

 lanceolate, rigid, becoming at length quite separate. Gland of the anthers 

 very deciduous. Pod woody, attaining 2 to 4 ft. in length and 3 to 4 in. m 

 breadth. Seeds 10 to 30, nearly 2 in. diameter. — Mimom scandens.'Linn' 

 Sp. PL 1501 ; mtada Purscetha, DC. Prod. ii. 425 j Miq. PI. Ind. Bat. i. 

 part i. 45. 



Queensland. Cape York, M'GilUvray, small specimens in flower aiiil leaf only, tlj^ 

 description completed from Indian ones. The species is widely diffused over tropical Asia 

 and Africa and the West Indies, the seeds being carried very far by ocean currents without 

 losing their power of germination. The opinion now^ generally adopted that the East an 

 West Indian species are the same is, however, not universally admitted ; add our hcrbaruun 

 specimens, numerous as they are, are mostly too imperfect, the foliage, flowers, and poas too 

 rarely matched to determine the question with any approach to certainty, 



87- ADEWANTHEBA, Linn; 



Calyx 5-tootlied. Petals 5, valvate in the butl, coliering at first, at lengt 

 free. Stamens 10, free; anthers ovate, tipped by a deciduous gland. Ovary 

 sessile, with several ovules ; style filiform, with a small terminal stignia. 

 Pod linear, compressed, falcate, 2-valved, the endocarp often forming niore 

 or less complete partitions between the seeds ; valves somewhat convex. 

 Seeds thick, with a hard, shining, red or red-and-black testa, surroundea 

 usually by a thin pulp; funiele slightly thickened; albumen scanty; radici^ 

 short, straight, — Unarmed trees. Leaves abruptly bipinnate, with severa 

 pairs of pinnse and of leaflets. Flowers small, white or yellowish, always p ^ 

 dicellate in long spike-like racemes, either solitary in the axils or foriiuug 

 simple terminal panicle. 



A genus of few species, natives of the tropical regions of the Old World, one p^^^.^'^y"^! 

 troduced and now naturahzed in the West Indies. It is closely allied to Frosopts an ^^^ 

 ral others separated from JSIlmosa and Jcacia, differing: chicily'ia the Pedicellate flo^vcr 

 in the seeds resembling those of Ormosia, and externally those of Abriis, and the o g 

 A,pavonina^ Linn., has moreover a remarkabl}- long twisting pod. 



