III.] 



LEGUMINOS/E. 



197 



yellow, fragrant, irregular tiowers, and long cylindrical in- 

 dehiscent pods. (Corolla, petals imbricated^ upper petal 

 ijiside in bud.) 



In the absence of C. Fistula any common Cassia, as the 

 annual species C. Sophora, or C. Tora, or the ornamental 

 garden-shrub Poinciana pidcherrima^ will serve. 



Mimosa Tribe — Miinosece. 

 Type 3 — Humble Plant {Mimosa pudica). 



A prickly, hairly, perennial garden herb, with alternate, 

 digitate-pinnate, sensitive, stipulate leaves, and axillary, 

 pedunculate heads of small, pale-purple, regular, polyga- 

 mous flowers. (Corolla regular, petals valvate in bud.) 



Observe the stamens in the type of the Pea-flower 

 Tribe. Nine cohere into a bundle by their 

 filaments : one (the upper one next to the 

 sta?idard) remaining free. In the Sunn Hemp 

 (Crotalaria) and several other genera the 

 stamens are monadelphous ; in Abrus there 

 are only nine stamens ; while in Sophora, 

 as in Cassia and Mimosa, types of the 

 second and third Tribes, they are all free. 

 In Mimosa and its allies they are often 

 indefinite. 



Compare the fruit {legumes) of any Pea, 

 Bean, or Haricot (dehiscent, two-valved) ; 

 Dhak (indehiscent, one-seeded) ; Crotalaria 

 (inflated legume) ; yEschynomene, Desmodium^ Alysicarpus, 

 Uraria (articulated, separating into distinct one-seeded 

 articles) ; Dalbergia (thin, flat, indehiscent) ; Fterocarpus, 

 Sanders-wood (winged, indehiscent) ; Sophora (cylindrical, 

 often narrowed here and there but not jointed, indehiscent) ; 

 Arachis, the Ground Nut (indehiscent, one- to three-seeded, 



Fig. 125. Diadel- 

 phous stamens of 

 Pea. 



