LEGUMINOSAE 259 
51. MUCUNA Adanson 
Annual or perennial, usually coarse vines. Leaves 3-foliolate, the leaflets 
ample, stipellate. Flowers racemose, large, showy, dark-purple or pale- 
greenish. Calyx-tube campanulate, the 2 upper teeth quite connate, the 
lowest longer than the middle ones. Corolla much exserted; standard 
not more than one-half as long as the beaked keel, the wings usually a 
little longer than the keel. Stamens diadelphous; anthers dimorphous. 
Pod linear to oblong, compressed, smooth or transversely ridged, keeled 
along the sutures or not, softly pubescent or often covered with very irri- 
tating, brown, bristle-like hairs. (A Brazilian name.) 
Species 25 or more in all tropical countries, about 10 in the Philippines. 
Pods covered with stiff, brown, stinging hairs...........00000000000.... 1. M. pruriens 
Pods velvety-pubescent, no stinging hairs... eee 2. M. lyonii 
1. M. pruriens (L.) DC. Lipai, Nipai (Tag.). 
A climbing or spreading annual vine reaching a length of several meters, 
more or less pubescent. Leaves thin, ovate to oblong-ovate, rounded or 
subacute, apiculate, 5 to 12 cm long, the lateral ones oblique. Racemes 
pendulous, many-flowered, 10 to 25 cm long, Calyx gray-pubescent and 
with intermixed, brown, stinging hairs. Corolla dark-purple, almost black, 
4 cm long. Pod stout, compressed, slightly curved near the apex, 6 to 11 
em long, 2 em wide, densely covered with stiff, somewhat appressed, 
brown, very irritating stinging hairs. (FI. Filip. pl. 331, M. hirsuta.) 
In thickets etc., occasional near Fort McKinley, fi. Sept—March; widely - 
distributed in the Philippines. India to Malaya, introduced in tropical 
America. 
*2. M. lyonii Merr. 
A stout, herbaceous, twining vine reaching a length of 4 m or more. 
Leaflets thin, broadly ovate, the lateral ones oblique, 5 to 18 cm long, 
slightly hairy beneath. Racemes up to 40 cm in length. Flowers numer- 
ous, about 4 cm long, the calyx grayish-pubescent, the corolla dark-purple. 
Pods 6 to 10 cm long, 1.5 to 1.8 em wide, the valves with 2 longitudinal 
ribs, rather velvety-pubescent with short gray hairs, and with no stinging 
hairs. 
Cultivated, Singalon, fl. May—July, and probably in other months; 
widely distributed in the Philippines in cultivation. This has been reduced 
to the Indo-Malayan M. nivea W. & A., but that species has greenish-white 
flowers. 
52. GALACTIA P. Browne 
Slender, twining, herbaceous vines with 3-foliolate leaves, the leaflets 
stipellate. Flowers racemose, small, the nodes of the infiorescence usually 
enlarged. Calyx tube short, the teeth narrow, the upper 2 fused in one. 
Corolla little exserted, the petals nearly equal in length; keel obtuse, 
nearly straight. Stamens diadelphous. Ovary many-ovuled; style slender. 
Pod linear, flattened. (From the Greek “milk,” some species formerly 
thought to yield milky sap.) 
Species about 45, mostly in tropical America, 1 in the Philippines. 
1. G. tenuiflora (Klein) W. & A. 
A slender, pubescent, twining, annual vine reaching a length of 2 to 3 
m. Leaflets thin, oblong to elliptic-oblong, rounded at the apex, 2 to 3.5 
