LEGUMINOS.E. 399 



594 ), or rarely triadelphous ; anthers bilocular, versatile. Ovary 

 superior, 1 -celled, consisting usually of a solitary carpel (fig. 594 o), 

 sometimes of 2-5 ; ovules 1 or many ; style simple, proceeding from 

 the upper or ventral suture; stigma simple (fig. 594 s). Fruit a 

 legume (figs. 440, 469, 595), or a drupe. Seeds solitary or several 

 (fig. 595), sometimes arillate, often curved (fig. 596); embryo usually 

 exalbuminous, straight, or with the radicle bent upon the edges of the 

 cotyledons (figs. 429, 516), which are either epigeal or hypogeal (^f 629) 

 in germination (fig. 597), and leafy (Phyllolobae) or fleshy (Sarcolobae). 

 Herbaceous plants, shrubs, or trees, with alternate, usually com- 

 pound leaves, having two stipules at the base of the petiole (fig. 193), 

 and two at the base of each leaflet in the pinnate leaves. Pedicels 

 usually articulated. The flowers are frequently papilionaceous (fig. 

 292), and the fruit is commonly leguminous (figs. 460, 469, 470, 471). 

 and by the presence of one or other of these characters the order 

 may be recognized. 



848. The plants of the order are very generally distributed over the 

 globe, but many genera are very limited in their range. De Candolle 

 gives the following geographical distribution of the 3600 species known 

 in his day : 



Equinoctial America, 605 



Basin of the Mediterranean 468 



East Indies, 452 



Cape of Good Hope, 353 



Levant, , 250 



New Holland, 229 



West Indies, 221 



Europe, excepting the Mediterranean, 184 



United States, 183 



Mexico, 152 



Equinoctial Africa, 130 



Siberia, 129 



Arabia and Egypt, 87 



China, Japan, Cochin-China 77 



Isles of Southern Africa, 42 



South America, beyond the tropics, 29 



Canaries, 21 



South Sea Islands, 13 



It is said that no native species occur in the island of St. Helena. 



The order has been divided into three suborders: 1. Papilionaceae ; 

 papilionaceous flowers, petals imbricated in aestivation, and upper 

 one exterior. This suborder is subdivided into the tribes Podaly- 

 riese, Lotese, Viciese, Hedysarea?, Phaseolese, Dalbergieas, Sophorea? ; 

 according to the nature of the filaments, whether free or variously 

 united, the form and dehiscence of the legume, the cotyledons whether 

 fleshy or leafy, and the simple or compound nature of the leaves. 

 Examples Podalyria, Lotus, Cytisus, Pisum, Hedysarum, Phaseolus, 



