LEGUMINOS. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 63 
SOPHORA SECUNDIFLORA. 
Frijolito. Coral Bean. 
FLowers in terminal secund racemes; stamens free. Legume woody. Leaves 
7 to 9-foliolate, persistent. 
Sophora secundiflora, De Candolle, Cat. Hort. Monsp. Virgilia secundiflora, Cavanilles, Icon. v. 1, t. 401. 
148 ; Prodr. ii. 96.— Don, Gen. Syst. ii. 110.—Hemsley, Agastianis secundiflora, Rafinesque, New FI. iii. 85. 
Bot. Biol. Am. Cent. i. 321. — Watson, Proc. Am. Acad. Dermatophyllum speciosum, Scheele, Linnea, xxi. 459. 
xvil. 347. — Sargent, Forest Trees N. Am. 10th Census §S. speciosa, Bentham, Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. vi. 178 (Pl. 
U. 8S. ix. 57. — Coulter Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. ii. 72 Lindheim. ii.). — Gray, Smithsonian Contrib. iti. 54 (Pl. 
(Man. Pl. W. Texas). Wright. i.). — Walpers, Ann. ii. 439.— Torrey, Bot. 
Broussonetia secundiflora, Ortega, Dec. v. 61, t. 7. Mex. Bound. Surv. 58. 
A small tree, twenty-five to thirty-five feet in height, with a straight slender trunk six or eight 
inches in diameter, separating, several feet from the ground, into a number of upright branches which 
form a narrow head ; or more often a shrub sending up from the ground a cluster of low stems. The 
bark of the trunk is half an inch thick, with a dark red-brown surface which separates into long thin 
narrow scales. The branchlets are at first coated with fine hoary tomentum which gradually disappears, 
and in their. second year are glabrous or nearly so and covered with pale orange-brown bark. The 
leaves, which appear in February and March, are at first covered, especially on the lower surface of the 
leaflets, with silky white hairs; at maturity they are from four to six inches in length, with stout 
puberulous petioles slightly enlarged at the base, and, like the broad rachises, deeply grooved on the 
upper side; the leaflets are elliptical-oblong, rounded, emarginate, or sometimes mucronate at the apex, 
and gradually contracted at the base into short and very thick petiolules ; they are destitute of stipels, 
thick and coriaceous, dark yellow-green above and rather paler below, glabrous or sometimes slightly 
puberulous along the under surface of the stout midribs, and entire with thickened margins. They are 
conspicuously reticulate-veined, and vary from an inch to two inches and a half in length, and from half 
an inch to an inch and a half in breadth. The flowers, which emit a powerful and delicious fragrance 
not unlike that of violets, appear with the young leaves in early spring; they are an inch long and 
are produced in one-sided canescent racemes two or three inches in length on stout pedicels sometimes 
an inch long developed from the axils of subulate deciduous bracts half an inch or more in length, and 
furnished near the middle with two acute bractlets broad at the base and rounded on the back. The 
calyx is campanulate and slightly enlarged on the upper side, the three lower teeth triangular and 
nearly equal, the two upper rather larger and connate almost throughout. The petals are shortly 
unguiculate and violet-blue, the broad erect standard being marked on the inner surface near the base 
with a few darker spots. The ovary is coated with long silky white hairs, which as the legume enlarges 
develop into dense thick white tomentum which covers the ripe fruit. This varies from one to seven 
inches in length and is half an inch in breadth, stalked, and crowned with the thickened remnants of 
the style; it is indehiscent, from one to seven-seeded, and conspicuously contracted between the seeds, 
with hard woody walls a quarter of an inch im thickness. The seeds, each of which is inclosed in a 
separate cell with thin dry walls, are oblong, rounded, half an inch in length, and bright scarlet, with 
a small pale hilum and bony testa, the thick inner coat being conspicuously lighter colored. The seed 
is destitute of albumen, the thick orange-colored cotyledons filling its cavity. 
Sophora secundifiora is found on the shores of Matagorda Bay in Texas to the mountain canons 
of New Mexico, and to those of Nuevo Leon and of San Luis Potosi. It usually occupies the borders 
