Desmodium.~] leguminosjE. 83 



Calyx obtuse at the base* Keel obtuse, usually with a small oblique 

 appendage on each side. 

 Pedicels or racemes filiform and leaf-opposed. 



Pedicels 2 or 3 together, filiform and 1 -flowered 4. D. triflorum. 



Raceme slender, with 3 to 6 distant filiform pedicels 5. D.parvifolium. 



Racemes terminal. 

 Leaflets 3. 



Racemes dense. Pods erect 6. B. polycarpon. 



Racemes long and slender 7. B.reticulatum. 



Leaflet 1, broad. Racemes lon<? and slender 8. B. qangeticum. 



1. D. triquetrum, DC. Prod. ii. 326. An erect perennial or under- 

 shrub, about 2 ft. high, nearly glabrous. Leaves consisting of a single leaflet, 

 varying from ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate-linear, 2 to 4 in. long ; the petiole 

 flattened or winged, obovate or cuneate, with 2 stipellae under the leaflet. 

 Stipules lanceolate, striate. Eacemes terminal, simple or branched, with nu- 

 merous small shortly pedicellate flowers in fascicles of 2 or 3. Bracts nearly 

 subulate. Keel beaked. Pod sessile, flat, of several almost square articles, 

 both edges of the pod continuous, or the lower edge very slightly indented 

 between the seeds. — Pteroloma triauetrum, Desv.; Benth. in PI. Jungh. i. 220. 

 Desm. acrocarpum, Hance in Lond. Journ. Bot. vii. 473. 



Victoria Peak, Champion ; also Hance and Wright. Frequent in India and the Archipe- 

 lago. It varies much in the size and shape of the leaflet and petiole, as well as in the pod 

 either glabrous or nearly so, or sprinkled or edged with long hairs or thickly silky-hairy all 

 over. 



2. D. elegans, Benth. A branching perennial or undershrub. Stems 

 villous. Leaflets 3, ovate obtuse ; the terminal one about 3 or 4 in. long, the 

 lateral ones smaller, all villous above and very softly silky-villous and whitish 

 underneath, the common petiole not dilated. Flowers small, in dense umbels 

 or heads, sessile along the branches of a terminal leafy panicle, and almost 

 enclosed in a 2-foliolate leaf-like bract at the base of each umbel, each leaflet 

 broadly ovate or orbicular, \ to f in. long and very oblique at the base. Pod 

 usually of 3 flat, nearly orbicular, small articles, very silky-villous, both edges 

 of the pod, especially the lower one, indented between the articles. — Dicerma 

 elegans, DC. Prod. ii. 339. Phyllodium elegans, Desv. ; Benth. in PI. 

 Jungh. 2L7. 



Common in low grounds, Champion ; also Wright. Only known hitherto from Java and 

 from S. China, and perhaps from Cochin China. 



3. D. pulchellum, Benth. A branching perennial or undershrub, like 

 the last in foliage, inflorescence, and flowers, except that the leaves are only 

 slightly pubescent on the upper surface, and softly pubescent not villous un- 

 derneath, and the pod has almost universally oidy 2 articles, glabrous or 

 nearly so on the faces, and slightly ciliate at the edges only. — Dicerma pulchel- 

 lum, DC. Prod. ii. 339 ; Wight, Ic. t. 418. Phyllodium pulchellum, Desv. ; 

 Benth. in PI. Jungh. 217. 



East Point, Champion, also collected in the island by Hance, Seemann, and Wright. 

 Widely spread over India from Ceylon and the Peninsula to the Archipelago, and northwards 

 to the Himalayas, S. China, and the Philippines. 



4. D. triflorum, DC. Prod. ii. 334; Wight, Ic. t. 291, 292. Stems 

 slender, much-branched, prostrate or creeping, often not above a few inches 



g 2 



