84 KEPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OP AGRICULTURE. 



are poisonous to domestic animals. This department is indebted to liim 

 for much valuable information in regard to the action of these plants. 

 At his request careful chemical examinations have been made of these 

 particular plants ; the work here given is as complete as time will allow, 

 but a supplementary report will probably be made during the coming 

 year. 



Acknowledgments are also due to L. F. Dyrenforth, J. A. Eddy, and 

 others for samples and information. 



BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION OF SOPHOEA SEEECIA, KUTT. 

 By the Botakist. 

 The genus Sopliora is characterized as follows : 



Calyx tube caiapauulate ; teeth short. Petals nearly equal ; etaiularcT broad. Sto- , 

 mens distinct ; anthers uniform, veisatile. Style incurved; stigma uiinute, Podstipi- 

 tate, terete, or somewhat compressed, thick, or coriaceous, mostly indehiscent, several 

 seeded, constricted between the obovoid or subgloboso seeds, and usually necklace-liko. 

 Trees, shrubs, or herbs ; leaves unevenly pinnate, with few or many entire, often coria- 

 ceous leaflets ; stipules small or obsolete ; racemes terminal.— (Brewer and Watson in 

 Botany of California. ) 



The genus belongs to the natural order Leguminosce. It embrace3 

 some 25 species found in diii'erent parts of the world. In North America 

 we have four shrubby species or some becoming small trees, viz., Sopliora 

 tomentosa, found on the coast in Florida ; So])hora speciosa and SopJiora 

 offlnis, found in Western Texas, IS'ew Mexico, and Mexico; and Sophora 

 Arizonica in Arizona, t^opliora Japonica is a middle-sized tree of Japan, 

 T7hich is in cultivation in many of out cities, and is quite an ornamental 

 tree. 



We have two native herbaceous perennial species, viz., Sophora steno- 

 pliylla and Sopliora serecia, ranging from Colorado to Mexico and Arizona, 

 the first named seldom reaching to Colorado. Sophora serecia is described 

 as follows : 



Herbaceous, low, 6 to 12 inches high, more or less silky, canesccnt ; stems ascendinj; 

 or decumbent, branching from the baso; leaflets about ^1, elliptic or cuneate oval, 2 

 to 3 lines long ; racemes terminal, short, H to 2 inches long, peduncled ; calyx gibboua 

 at the base, longer than the pedicels, campanulate, 5-toothed, teeth obtuse, half the 

 length of the tube; corolla 4 lines long, banner reflexed, petals of the keel nearly dis- 

 tinct, acuminate, mucrouate, — (Nuttall.) 



This species is common on the high plains of Colorado and Nebraska, 

 extending into the lower foot-hills of the Ilocky Mountains. The seeds 

 of this species are of a ycHo^vish brown color, of an oblong shape, about 

 one quarter inch in length and half as wide, slightly flattened, with a 

 slender hilum or eye occupying two-thirds the length of the inner face of 

 the seed. 



EXAJIiNATION OF THE nERB OF SOrHOKA SERECIA. 



Received from Francis A. Wentz^ Kinsley, Kans. 



A proximate analysis of the plant and roots yielded the following re- 

 eults : 



1. Volatile oil 23 



2. Chlorophyl 50 



3. Soft yellow resin 2.99 



4. Impure alkaloid 1. 37 



5. Color and malic acid l-(>7 



G. Tannic acid 1-22 



7. Extractives, soluble in water and 60 per cent, alcohol 9. 56 



