PAPILIONACE^. 115 



of these colours, never yellow. The middle leaflet is 

 usually the largest and has a longer stalk. 

 Species about 120, cosmopolitan in the tropics. 



Named from the Greek desmos, a chain^ because of the jointed pod. 



Shrub ; leaves 2 inches, racemes 2 to 4 inches, erect, blue . . 



D. rufescens. 

 Twiggy plant ; leaflets i to 3 inches across ; flowers few, red, 



D. scalpe. 



Very thin stemmed twiggy plant ; leaves not above J^^ inch, 



flowers blue or pinkish in very slender racemes .... 



D. parviflora. 



Dcsmodium rufescens DC. ; F.B.L ii 171, L 37. 



A shrub, the slender branches, stipules, leaf-stalks and 



veins of the underside, densely clothed with reddish 



brown hairs. Leaf-stalks I inch ; stipels linear, J^ 



inch ; leaflets obovate, cuneate at the base or rounded at 



both ends, mucronate, the upper side covered when 



young with a very fine pile of short grey hairs but 



glabrous when older, the under side covered with white 



silk. " Racemes 3 to 6 inches, occasionally axillary, more 



densely flowered in the upper part. Pedicel % inch, and 



calyx densely hairy. Corolla J^ inch. Staminal tube % 



inch, slender, appearing often outside the keel ; anthers 



obtuse, style abruptly bent, without hairs. Pod I by ^ 



inch, nearly straight on the upper edge, indented by 



the five to seven divisions along the lower, downy. 



Remarkable for its very silky-brown buds and young 



leaves. Wight Ic. t. 984, 111. t. 79. 



Very common in thickets on the Pulney and the Nilgiri 

 downs ; flowers summer. Kodaikanal, Ootacamund, Coonoor, 

 Kotagiri, Pykara and lower levels, but not on the ghats to the 

 north. Fjson 298, 387, 532, 3019. Bourne loi, 121. 



Gen. Dist. Also Ceylon where plants are less thickly covered but 

 hairs long. 



Desmodium scalpe DC. ; F.B.I, ii 165, L 16. Stem 

 woody, slender, young parts pubescent. Stipules H to ^ 



• De Candolle Prod, ii 335 " pubescent." 

 8-A 



