Entada.] xlvii. § mimose^ (oliver). 325 



3. ENTADA, Adans. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant, i. 589. 



Flowers spicate, 5-merous, sessile or shortly pedicellate. Calyx 

 campanulate, toothed or deltoid-lobate. Petals free or coherent at base, 

 oblong-lanceolate or linear, valvate. Stamens 10, usually exserted ; 

 anthers elliptical or roundish with a terminal caducous gland ; pollen- 

 grains indefinite. Ovary subsessile or shortly stipitate, multiovulate ; 

 style filiform ; stigma terminal, truncate, concave. Legume straight 

 or arcuate, sometimes of enormous size, woody, coriaceous or papery ; 

 sutures more or less thickened, persisting after the separation of the 

 1 -seeded articles as a replum. Seeds flattened, exalbuminous ; testa 

 with a central areole. — Trees or climbing shrubs, unarmed in the African 

 species. Leaves bipinnate ; number of pinnae and of leaflets very vari- 

 able. Spikes solitary or fascicled from the upper axils, or panicled at 

 the extremities ; hermaphrodite or polygamous. 



_ Excepting E. scandens, the following species appear to be confined to Africa*. Entada 

 differs from Elephantorrhiza only in the legume-valves breaking up into articles. 



Pinnae usually 2-jugate. 

 Leaflets 2-5-jugate falcate elliptical 14-3 in. long. Spikes 



axillary solitary 4~1 ft. Legume very large 1. E. scandens. 



Leaflets 4-1 8-j agate, linear-oblong, ±-1 in. long. Spikes solitary 



or distichously panicled, 14-24 in. Legume flat arcuate, 4-6 in. 



in chord 2. E. Wahlbergii. 



Leaflets 8-15-jugate, linear-oblong, \-\ in. long. Spikes axillary 



fascicled. Legume 10-15 in. long, 3-44 in. broad . . . . B. E. africana. 

 Pinna? 3-oo-jugate. (See E. africana) 



Pinnae 5-8-jugate. Leaflets 14-20-jugate, 4~1 in- long. Articles 



2-24 times broader than long 4. E. sudanica. 



Pinnae 14-18-jugate. Leaflets 25-5Q-jugate, ^~4 in. long. Articles 



24-4 times broader than long 5. E. dbyssinica. 



1. E. scandens, Benth. in Hook. Journ. Bot. iv. 1842, 332. A widely 

 spreading shrub with slender longitudinally striate glabrous glauces- 

 cent extremities. Leaves glabrous or the rachis faintly pubescent on 

 the upper surface, 1|— 3 in. to the upper pinnae, usually produced as a 

 simple or branching slender tendril. Pinnae 2-jugate ; leaflets 2-5- 

 jugate, the upper usually larger and more oblique, falcate obliquely 

 elliptic -oblong' or varying from ovate to obovate, obtuse and more or 

 less distinctly emarginate ; petiolules \ line or less ; upper leaflets 

 1J-3 in. long, f-1^ in. broad. Stipules narrow-linear or subulate_, 

 2-3 lines long. Spikes solitary, axillary, straight or curving, with the 

 peduncle J-l ft. long, rachis pubescent with subulate bracts present at 

 flowering. Flowers polygamous or unisexual by abortion, yellowish- 

 white, 2-3 lines long, subsessile Or pedicels very short. Calyx 5- 

 toothed. Stamens much exserted. Ovary rudimentary in the staminate 

 flowers. Legume woody, very large, often twisted, 2-4 ft. long, 3-4 

 in. broad. — Mimosa scandens, L. ; Entada Pursoetha, DC. Prod. ii. 425 

 (Jide Bentham, whose memoir, cited above, see for further synonymy). 



Upper Guinea. Sierra Leone, Afzelius ! Senegambia, Heudelot 1 (E. scandens, 

 /3. Heudelotiana, Baill. in Adans. vi. 209) ; Fernando Po, Mann I 



