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NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 47 
» 
DESMODIUM. 
Calyx with two usually caducous bracteoles at its base, cleft to the middle into two lips; upper lip 2-cleft ; 
lower 3-partite. Corolla papilionaceous, inserted into the base of the calyx: vexillum roundish : keel obtuse, 
but not truncated. Stamens diadelphous (9 and 1), or monadelphous from the base to the middle and usually 
diadelphous upwards: filaments somewhat persistent. Ovary with several ovules. Style filiform. Stigma 
capitate. gume compressed, composed of several joints: joints 1-seeded, separating at maturity.—Herba- 
ceous or suffrutescent plants or small trees. Leaves either pinnately trifoliolate, or simple by the abortion of 
the lateral leaflets. Partial stipules 2 at the base of the terminal leaflet, solitary at the base of the lateral ones. 
Flowers usually racemose, sometimes umbelled, sometimes on simple peduncles, axillary or more usually ter- 
minal. Flowers purplish, blue, or white.—W. and A. Prod. p. 223. 
This, like both the preceding, is a genus et in species inhabiting the tropics and warmer parts of 
Asia, Africa, America and Australia. The number of its species, already described, exceeds 150 and are as 
varied in the forms they present as those of sila of the preceding. They, in common with the rest of the tribe, 
are distinguished by theit peculiar jointed legume or lomentum, as that kind of pod is designated. They are 
herbaceous or shrubby in their habit and are very variable in their forms and the situations in which they are 
found, but notwithstanding this tendency to assume different forms, the genus seems upon the whole a na- 
tural one, as it has scarcely undergone, in the hands of subsequent writers, any alterations since its first publi- 
cation in DeCandolle’s Prodromus, though in the mean time half as many more species have been added to 
it as he described. It is principally of tropical origin and, though there are about 20 Peninsular species, 
only two or three are found on the hills, and these not on the higher levels. Neither of the two here delineat- 
ed are found so high as Ootacamund but both occur at Coonoor and D. strangulatum in woods about Pycarah 
and elsewhere about the same level. 
(od 
DesmopiumM RuFEsScENS (DC. :) shrubby : branch- DESMODIUM STRANGULATUM (W, and herba- 
es, racemes, bracteas, Seliecls. stipules, petioles, and ceous, erect?: b hes hairy, 3-angled, 
nerves of the leaves J catatie den swith ngles obtuse: leaves 3-foliolate long petioled : le 
yellowish- bien tom leaves trifoliolate ; leaflets pubescent on both sides, lateral ones obliquely ovaté, 
é ob 
oval, obtuse with a Tong bristle ; upper side glabrous; terminal one rhomboid : stipules scariose, oblong-lan- 
under densely clothed except the nerves pie aa ages ceolate, concave, glabrous: racemes hairy, axillary and 
silky white hairs, e ore when young : sis ‘es - terminal, panicled, at first oblong and imbricated with 
d 
ucous: racemes axillary and terminal, m , ie arge oO oblon ng concave hairy side pi pa lt be- 
ed; pra as ovate, tapering to a long gabulsts nacials coming very long and lax, few-flow owers 2-3 
before expansion densely imbricated, oo caducous: together, on ake filiform peda: ees campanu- 
vexillam large, obcordate: ale as long as the broad late, bilabiate; upper lip emarginate, under deeply 
keel: legum @ pubescent, about 7-jointed, straight on cleft: vexillum obovate; ale shorter than the keel: 
the one suture, Papp into the middle on the other.— stamens monadelphous from set ase to the middle, 
and A. Prod. p. 228. diadélphons towards the apex: ovary stipitate, about 
This is about the handsomest of the Indian species. 4-ovuled: legume 2-3 jointed (ocestonally ~" abor- 
It is a low shrub between two and three feet high, tion 1 jointed), eg Dig on ted on uture be- 
ce in moist soil among brushwood and by road- tween the joints, ev poe hispid! ly pubes- 
cent; joints semi- oblong, iaty equal on both ends. 
The ecimen delineated was igre on the road- —W. and A. Prod. p. 228. 
side a little below Coonoor. It rally to be met A slender, erect growing, herbaceous plant a native 
with in oer but in _ ereatest perfection ih = the of shady woods in moist ic soil. The v very unusual 
Tainy season. It is a subalpine species met colour of i a flowers, deep orange, renders it a conspi- 
with on we plains though I have very koa “Seta cuous object in such situations. That, combined with 
it in alpine jungles both on the continent and in Cey- the deep divisions of its pod, readily “Witiagaiahes it 
lon. from tlre rest of the genus. 
~ 
SMITHIA. 
Calyx scariose, with two bracteoles at its base, bipartite: segments entire or slightly cleft. Corolla papi- 
lionaceous, inserted into the bottom of the calyx: keel cleft from the base to near theapex. Stamens 10, equally 
monadelphous (5 and 5). Legume 4-6-jointed, folded up within the calyx, very much contracted between the 
Joints: joints 1-seeded, orbicular: sinus rounded.—Procumbent herbaceous plants with abruptly pinnated 
