LEGUMINOS. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 59 
SOPHORA. 
FLOWERS in terminal simple racemes or leafy panicles, papilionaceous; calyx 
d-toothed, the short teeth nearly equal, imbricated in estivation; stamens free or 
rarely subconnate ; ovary short-stalked, many-ovuled. Legume moniliform, indehis- 
cent, or tardily dehiscent. Leaves unequally pinnate. 
Sophora, Linnzus, Gen. 125. — Adanson, Fam. Pl. ii.318.— Patrinia, Rafinesque, Jour. Phys. lxxxix. 97 (not A. L. de 
A. L. de Jussieu, Gen. 352. — De Candolle, Mém. Légum. Jussieu). 
166. — Endlicher, Gen. 1308. — Meisner, Gen. 80.— Zanthyrsis, Rafinesque, New FI. iti. 84. 
Bentham & Hooker, Gen. i. 555. — Baillon, Hist. Pl. ii. Agastianis, Rafinesque, New £7. iii. 85. 
358. Styphnolobium, Schott, Wien. Zeitschr. 1830, 844. — End- 
Broussonetia, Ortega, Dec. v. 61 (not Ventenat). licher, Gen. 1309. 
Edwardsia, Salisbury, Trans. Linn. Soc. ix. 298. — Meis- Dermatophyllum, Scheele, Linnea, xxi. 458. 
ner Gen. 80. — Endlicher, Gen. 1308. Geebelia, Bunge, Boissier Fl. Orient. ii. 628. 
Keyserlingia, Bunge, Boissier Fl. Orient. ii. 629. 
Trees, shrubs, and perennial herbs, with unarmed terete branches, supra or subpetiolar buds, and 
fibrous roots. Leaves alternate, unequally pinnate, persistent or deciduous; stipules minute, deciduous ; 
leaflets numerous and small or few and ample, membranaceous, or coriaceous; stipels minute, setaceous, 
often wanting. Flowers in simple racemes terminal or panicled from the axils of the upper leaves. 
Bracts and bractlets linear, minute, deciduous, or often wanting. Calyx broadly campanulate, often 
slightly turbinate or obconic at the base, obliquely truncate, five-toothed, the short teeth nearly equal 
or the two upper subconnate, often somewhat larger than the others. Disk cupuliform, glandular, 
adnate to the calyx-tube. Petals white, yellow, or rarely violet blue, unguiculate; standard broadly 
obovate or orbicular, erect or spreading, usually shorter, rarely longer than the keel-petals; wings 
oblong-oblique ; keel-petals oblong, suberect, as long as the wings or rather longer, overlapping each 
other at the back, barely connate. Stamens ten, free, or nine of them slightly connate at the base, 
uniform; anthers attached on the back near the middle, two-celled, the cells opening longitudinally. 
Ovary shortly stipitate, contracted into an incurved style terminated by a minute truncate or slightly 
rounded stigma; ovules indefinite, suspended from the inner angle of the ovary, superposed, amphi- 
tropous, the micropyle superior. Legume moniliform, terete or slightly compressed, naked or longitu- 
dinally four-winged, fleshy, coriaceous or woody, many-seeded, each seed inclosed in a separate cell, 
indehiscent or two-valved and tardily dehiscent. Seed globular, oblong or flattened, estrophiolate 
or nearly so, albuminous or destitute of albumen; testa thick, membranaceous, or crustaceous. 
Cotyledons thick and fleshy ; radicle very short and straight or more or less elongated and incurved 
or inflexed. 
Sophora is scattered through the warm parts of the world with twenty-two recognized species. Of 
these Sophora tomentosa,’ a large shrub, is widely distributed on tropical ocean shores in the two 
worlds, reaching those of southern Florida and western Texas. Five other species, two of which are 
small trees, inhabit the territory of the United States? and Mexico.’ The genus is represented in the 
1 Linneus, Spec. 373. — De Candolle, Prodr. ii. 95. — Torrey & ? Nuttall, Gen. i. 280.— Torrey & Gray, l. ec. — Gray, Ives’ Rep. 
Gray, Fl. N. Am. i. 389.— Miquel, Fl. Ind. Bat. i. pt. i. 124.— 10, — Chapman, J. c.— Watson, Proc. Am. Acad. xi. 135. — 
Bentham, Martius Fl. Brasil. xv. pt. i. 314.— Chapman, Fl. 113.— Brewer & Watson, Bot. Cal. i. 114.— Watson & Coulter, Gray’s 
Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 203. — Hemsley, Bot. Challenger Exped. Man. ed. 6, 127. 
i. pt. iii. 144. 8 Hemsley, Bot. Biol. Am. Cent. i. 320. 
