58 



PLANT^ WRIGHTIANJS. 



V. 



X H. DREPANOCARPA (sp. nov.) : humiUs, glabella, imdique eglandulosa ; stipulis 

 bracteisque ovato-acutis ; pinnis 3-5-jugis cura impari; foliolis 9-10-jugis oblon- 

 gis subfalcatis enervibus ; racemo elongato laxifloro ; calycis laciniis oblongo-lance- 

 olatis obtusiusculis ; petalis subconformibus obovatis exunguiculatis ; ovario glaber- 

 rimo ; legumine lato-lineari utrinque obtusissimo eximie falcato 9 - 10-spermo, val- 

 vulis cbartaceis reticulatis. — New Mexico, or between Texas and El Paso ; coll. of 

 1851 ; in flower and fruit. — Koot tbick and ligneous, perpendicular, 6 or 8 incbes 

 decp ; tbe crown bearing many abbreviated, slender stems, seldom more tban an 

 inch or two long before tbey terminate in the slender (often subradical) peduncle of 

 the elongated and loosely-flowered raceme (the latter with the peduncle 6 inches in 

 length). Tbe stems, foliage, calyx, &c., are minutely cinereous-puberulent, but al- 

 most glabrous to the naked eye, especially the leaflets, and all are entirely destitute 

 of any kind of glands. Leaiiets about 3 lines long, crowded. Bracts and usually 

 tbe stipules caducous. Calyx 3 lines loiig, persistent. Petals yellow, a little longer 

 than the calyx, broadly obovate, very obtuse, nearly alike, except that the vexillum 

 is broader at the base and truly exunguiculate, the other petals being contracted in- 

 to a narrow insertion ; all naked and glabrous. Filaments equal, all ten antherif- 

 erous and similarly villous-barbate below the middle. The filiform style and the stig- 

 ma as described above by Mr. Bentham in Hoffmanseggia proper. Legume flat, an 

 inch and a half long, following the strong curvature, 3 lines wide, of exactly the 

 same width throughout from the rounded base (subtended by the persistent calyx) to 

 the very blunt and naked apex, glabrous, or minutely puberulent under a lens, not 

 in the least glandular, tardily dehiscent; the thin valves finely reticulated, and 

 transversely impressed between the seeds. 



149. Cercidium TEXANUM(sp. nov.}; pinnis unijugis bifoliolatis; foliolis oblon- 

 go-obovatis retusis ; petalis late obovatis subrhombcis calyce duplo longioribus; 

 ovario villosissimo ; legumine pubero immarginato. — Prairies of Elm Creek and on 

 the Eio Grande, Texas; July, in flower. AIso in the collection of 1851 ; in flower 

 and with some young fruit. — Shrub 2 to 5 feet high, much branched ; the branches 

 very rigid, divaricate, flexuose, and usually armed throughout with short and spread- 

 ing axillary spines, green, when young cinereous, as are the leaves, with a fiue close 

 pubescence. Leaves sparse and soon deciduous. Leaflets one or rarely two 

 pairs on each pinna, 2 to 3 lines long, about as long as the partial and general petiole 

 together. Elowers solitary in the axil of a spine, or subracemose at the extremity 

 of some of the ^branches. Lobes of the calyx oblong-lanceolate. CoroIIa golden- 

 yellow; the ddated petals 4 or 5 lines long; the vexillar one with a longer claw 

 and a httle smaller and rounder lamina than the others, its margins auriculate-in- 

 flexed at the base. Immature legume about an inch long, pubescent, flat, about 2- 

 seeded; the valves minutely reticulated, the reticulations narrow and longitudinal ; 

 both sutures entirely destitute of a winged margin. The pod is probably dehiscent 

 in this species, as it certainly is in the nearly aUied C. floridum.* 



tryug,s obovato-oblong. ; petahs obovat.s calyce subduplo longioribus; ovario glabro ; legun'ne falcato 



