[Plate 52.] 
THE YARIOUS-LEAVED LABICHEA. 
(LABICHEA DIVERSIFOLIA.) 
A Greenhouse Shrub, from Swan Riter, lehnglng to the Order of Leguminous Plants. 
THE VARIOUS^LEA VED LABICHEA. Leaves un- LABICHEA DIVERSIFOLIA ; foliis impari-digitatis 
equally digitate, sessile ; the leaflets linear-lanceolate, sessilibus foliolis lineari-lanceolatis spinoso-raueronatis 
spiny- pointed, thick-edged, smooth, those at the sides marginatis sessilibus glabris lateralibus pluries minori- 
many times smaller thaa the middle one. Racemes Lus, racemis paucifloris foliis multo brevioribus, calyce 
few-flowered, much shorter than the leaves. Calyx and corolldque tetrameris, anthera alterS duple longiore 
corolla each in four parts. One anther much longer than I miiporos^ alterd biporosd. 
the other, with a single pore, tlie other with two pores. 
Labichea diversifolia ; Meimer in Plant Frciss., i. 23. 
L. 
nPHis curious Leguminous genus consists of shrubs with spiny digitate leaves, of which the lateral 
leaflets are often very much smaller than the central one. They have short clusters of axillary 
yellow flowers, not unlike those of Cassia, though materially different in structure. In the original 
species the usual number (5) that occurs in the flowers of Leguminous plants is preserved in the 
calyx and corolla; while at the same time the stamens are reduced to 2, one of whose anthers opens 
by 2 pores, and the other, which is much longer, opens by one. In this, on the contrary, we have 
only 4 sepals, and 4 petals, while the stamens remain as in the original species. 
The theoretical structure of the flower in this case appears to be this : the two dorsal sepals 
unite into one, as is indicated by a middle line, which passes through it from the base to the apex ; 
tliis brings one of the petals, in appearance, opposite to the dorsal sepal, although really alternate 
with the two sepals which form it, and at the same time throws all the other petals out of their 
VOL. II. 
