84 Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula, 



ToNGKAH ; Curtis' Collector 2861 ! Distrib. Lower Bengal, com- 

 monly cultivated ; Lower Burma ; Java. 



This species has, like tlie last, been much misunderstood. It is the familiar 

 Dunchi plant of Bengal, where it is widely cultivated ; to a slight extent on account 

 of its fibre which, being more resistent to water than other kinds is employed in 

 making fishing nets and lines ; to a greater extent for its long lithe stems 

 that are used as the wattles of which are constructed the walls of the houses in 

 which Piper Betle is grown in Bengal. Probably this is an introduced plant in 

 Malay countries. 



3. Sesbania grandiflora Pers. Synops. II, 316. A soft-wooded 

 tree 20-30 feet high and 8-10 in. in diam. at base, with virgate terete 

 branches. Leaves 6-12 in. long, leaflets 16-30 pairs, linear-oblong 

 glabrous, pale-green. Eacemes short (1 in. long), 2-4-fld., but distinctly 

 peduncled ; flowers white or pink. Calyx "8 in. deep, glabrous, shallowly 

 2-lobed. Corolla 3-3*5 in. long. Pods up to 20 in. long, falcate or 

 straight, firm, sutures thick straight, valves sliglitly depressed between 

 the seeds. Bak. in Flor. Brit. Ind, II, 115. Agati grandiflora Desv. 

 Journ. Bot. I, 120, t. 4 ; Miq. Flor. Ind. Bat. I, 289. 



Perak ; Thaipeng, Scortechini 525 ! Singapore ; Kunstler 1147 ! 

 Hullett 819 ! Distrib. Mascarene Islands to N. Australia, usually 

 planted. 



The Agati tree, which is very doubtfully native either in India or Malaya, is 

 often grown as a support for Pepper-vines in Southern India. In Northern India 

 it is chiefly planted for the sake of its showy flowers. 



25. Tephrosia Pers. 



Herbs or undershrubs with compound odd-pinnate or, rarely, simple 

 leaves ; the leaflets opposite, subcoriaceous. Flowers in terminal and 

 leaf-opposed racemes. Calyx campanulate with distinct subequal teeth. 

 Corolla much exserted, petals clawed, standard suborbicular ; keel 

 incurved, not beaked. Stamens diadelphous, anthers uniform, obtuse. 

 Ovary sessile, linear, many-ovuled ; style much incurved, flattened or 

 filiform, silky or glabrous ; stigma capitate often penicillate. Pod 

 linear flattened, many-seeded, 2-valved, continuous or obscurely septate 

 between the seeds. Species about 100, in all tropical regions. 



The above definition applies only to the species of the Malay Peninsula. 

 An imdershrub ; calyx-teeth short, deltoid ... ... 1. T. Candida. 



Herbs ; calyx-teeth narrow cuspidate as long as the tube : — 



Pods glabrescent ... ... ... ... 2, T. purpurea. 



Pods clothed with persistent brownish silky hairs ... 3. T. Hookeriana. 



1. Tephrosia CANDIDA DC. Prodr. II, 249. A low shrub, 4-6 feet 

 high, with slender woody grooved branches clothed with brown or grey 



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