234 houstoun's central American leguminos<e. 



formis. Ovarium stipitatum pluriovulatujii. Legumen plauum 

 circiter 6 poll, longum an ultra, f poll, latum, demum glabrum 

 bivalve, 12-16 sperma. 



Hab. Vera Cruz, llomtoun, Herb. Sloane, 292, 8. Fortiu, 

 E. Kerber, Plantaj Mexicana^, No. 286. Nom. veruac. Pata cle cabra. 

 Ill flower and fruit Feb. 1883. 



A shrub or small tree ? Brancblets nearly glabrous, occasion- 

 ally a few scattered glands, not aculeate. Leaves glabrous, lobed 

 about |-^ of their length, generally 7-nerved, longer than broad ; 

 petioles slender, terete, base rounded or subcordate, apex of lobes 

 hardly divaricate. Flowers are in a dense or rather dense unilateral 

 raceme. Fertile stamen much longer than rest. Peduncle about 

 1^-2 in. long. Bracteoles short, acute. Buds columnar, pubescent. 

 Calyx spathaceous, tube cylindrical, striate. Ovary and legume 

 stipitate. Ovary covered with a white tomeutum, which disappears 

 in a later stage. The unilateral raceme is a striking feature of this 

 plant — the leaves recall those of Bauhinia WKjuJata. It is quite 

 distinct from the two species of the same section described by Dr. 

 Donnell Smith from Guatemala, B. lUibelcruziaita and B. Pansama- 

 lana [But. Gau'tte, xiii. 27). 



B. unilatcrale appears to be perfectly distinct from B. spathacea 

 Moc. & Sess. Fl. Me.r. Ic. Bud. t. 224, which is likewise of the 

 § Casparia. The inflorescence of this latter plant as shown in the 

 tracing is racemose, but not unilateral, and the leaves are com- 

 paratively little lobed — apparently never as far as the middle. The 

 pod of B. spathacea is shown as 4-seeded. 



B. h'ptopetala Moc. & Sess. I. c. t. 223, another somewhat 

 obscure Mexican Bauhinia, appears from the tracing to have five 

 fertile stamens, and leaves divaricately lobed about J or ^ their 

 length— the lobes beiug acute. 



Teramnus uncinatus Swartz. "We have a specimen from Herb. 

 Miller with a ticket in Houstoun's hand (probably from Jamaica) 

 which Swartz has written up as his T. volubilis. Swartz, however 

 founds tbat species in his Prodromus on Sloane's plant {HiU. i. 

 182) — with which he places DoUchos uncinatus L. — and the plant on 

 which P. Browne {Hist. Jaw. 290) founded his genus Teramnus. 

 Linnaeus [Sp. I^l. ed. ii. 1019) based DoUchos uncinatus on Plumier's 

 figure (t. ccxxi.), which does not resemble very closely either species 

 of Teramnus. Some confusion has been introduced by Swartz's 

 allocation of the name uncinatus to a second species. Houstoun 

 rightly points out that his plant differs from Sloane's in that " the 

 hair upon the pod is not white, but brown," and this is one of the 

 characters on which Grisebach [Fi. Brit. West Ind. 193) relies as 

 distinguishing T. uncinatus from T. volubilis. We have in Herb. 

 Mus. Brit, specimens of both, sent to Banks from Jamaica by 

 Swartz, and these agree with his brief diagnoses in Prodr. Ind. Occ. 

 105. It seems clear therefore that, in spite of Swartz's identifi- 

 cation, Houstoun's plant is T, iincinatus. 



