Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 133 



pink, small, included. Pod terete, reticulate-veined, 'S-^S in. long, '08 

 in. wide ; joints 6-8, half as long again as broad ; faintly pubescent, 

 slightly thickened at the ends. Bak. in Flor. Brit. Ind. 11, 158. 



Var. typica. Stems stouter ascending, lower leaves usually lanceo- 

 late and upper oblong, occasionally lower leaves oblong and upper 

 ovate, racemes lax. DC. Prodr. II, 353; W. & A. Prodr. 233. A. 

 diver sifolius Wall. Cat. 5772. A Harnieri Schweinf. Rel. Kotsch. 24 

 t, 19. Hedysarum vaginale Linn. Sp. PL 746 ; Roxb. Horfc. Beng. 56 ; 

 Flor. Ind. Ill, 345. 



Pangkoee ; ScortecMni 1461 ! Malacca ; on Pulo Besai, Maingay 

 516! Singapore; Changi, Ridley 1080\ 



Var, numniiilarifolia Miq. loc. cit. ; Bak. loc. cit. Stems slender 

 diffusely spreading, lower leaves always oblong, upper ovate, racemes 

 dense. A nummular ifolius DC. Pi odr. II, 353 ; Wall. Cat. 5767 ; W. & 

 A. Prodr. 133. A. varius Wall. Cat. 5768. Hedysarum iiummularifolium 

 Linn. Sp. PI. 746. H. varium Roth. Nov. Sp. 35 L H. cylindricum 

 Poir. Encyc. Meth. Suppl. V, 400. Hegetschweilera palchella Reo^el, Bot. 

 Zeit. I, 47. 



Andamans ; Gt. Coco Isd. Prain! Port Blair, King! Perak ; Scorte- 

 cMni! Ridley 8008 ! Penang; Wj.ter-fall, Curtis 1892! 1893 ! Malacca; 

 King ! Hervey ! Singapore ; on Pulo Obin, Kunstler 4 ! 



The writer has followed ]\tiqnel and Baker in nniting these two plants which 

 Linnaeus, De CandoUe, Wallich and Wight have endeavoured to keep distinct. The 

 difficulty that lias arisen in distinguishing them, has been due to the fact that 

 A. vaginalis, though always diagnosed as having lower leaves lanceolate and upper 

 leaves oblong, in reality very often has the lower oblong and the upper ovate as in 

 A. nummular if olixLS. The true distinguishing characters are the spreading habit and 

 condensed racemes of the variety, the ascending stems and lax racemes of the 

 typical plant. The description and the varietal diagnoses now given may, it is 

 hoped, prevent a recurrence of the difficulty that has hitherto been experieuced in 

 differentiating the two. 



41. Desmodium Desv. 

 Herbs or shrubs. Leaves 1- or 3-foliolate, stipellate. Floicers small 

 usually in copious often dense racemes. Calyx campanulafce ; teeth 

 longer or shorter than the tube the two upper often subconnate. Corolla 

 exserted ; standard broad ; wings more or less adherent to the usually 

 obtuse keel. Upper stamen entirely or partially free from the other 

 united 9. Ovary sessile or stipitate, few- or many-ovuled ; style in- 

 curved, stigma minute capitate. Pod usually composed of several 

 1-seeded indehiscent joints, the facefe compressed, the upper suture 

 rarely finally splitting open, the joints usually sepai-ating. Species 

 about 150; cosmopolitan in tropical and subtropical countries, a few 

 in temperate N. America and temperate S. Africa. 



133 



