44 FLOKA OF JAMAICA Centrosema 



§ 8. Herbs or shrubs, twining, or sometimes erect, rarely 

 prostrate, or becoming trees in Erythrina. Leaves pinnately 

 3-foliolate (5-7-foliolate in Clitoria Ternatea) ; leaflets with 

 stipels. Flowers in axillary racemes, often 2 or more in 

 clusters along the rhachis of the raceme, peduncles 1-3- 

 flowered in Clitoria, flowers often 1-few in axils in Teramnus 

 and Galacfia unijiora. Stamens 10, all united into a sheath 

 or the uppermost more or less free. • Pod 2-valve.d. 



12. CENTROSEMA Benth. 



Stem climbing with twining branches (in W. Indian species). 

 Leaves 3-foliolate (in Jamaican species), sometimes reduced to 

 one leaflet. Peduncles axillary, solitary or geminate, with one 

 to numerous flowers. Bracteoles adpressed to the calyx, longer 

 than the ce lyx or nearly as long. Calyx campanulate or funnel- 

 shaped ; segments very short, or longer than the tube, or only 

 the lowest longer than the tube. Standard large, broadly 

 roundish, flattened, spurred or slightly gibbous above the short 

 claw. Style dilated at the apex. Pod flat-compressed, with a 

 long beak, and partitions between the seeds ; valves ribbed near 

 both margins. 



Species 30, natives of the "West Indies and Central and 

 S. America, one {C. virginianum) also in southern N. America 

 and naturalized in Java. 



Leaves broadly ovate. Bracteoles 2 or 3 times as long 

 as the calyx- Pod nearly 1 cm. in diam. ; ribs 



3 mm. from margin 1. C. Plumierii. 



Leaves narrowly ovate or oblong. Bracteoles equal 

 to, or shorter than, the calyx. Pod 4-6 mm. in 

 diam. ; ribs close to the margin. 



Leaflets soft and velvety. Calyx-segments 



unequal 2. C . picbescens. 



Leaflets glabrous. Calyx-segments subequal, 



linear-lanceolate 8. G. virginianum. 



1. C. Plumierii Benth. Comm. Legum. Gen. 54 (1837) ; leaflets 

 large, broadly ovate or elliptical, glabrous, 6-12 cm, 1. ; bracteoles 

 2 or 3 times as long as the calyx ; segments of calyx unequal, 

 short, uppermost very short or obsolete ; standard 4-5 • 5 cm. br. ; 

 pod nearly 1 cm. in diam., with ribs about 3 mm. from the 

 margin. — Benth. in Ann. Wien. Mus.ii. 118 & in Fl. Bras. xv. 

 pt. 1, 127; Griseb. Fl. Br. W. Ind. 192 ; Urb. Symh. Ant. iv. 300. 

 Phaseolus amplo flore peltato &c. Plum. Descr. PI. Amer. t. 108 

 & Ic. ined. iv. t. 238. Clitoria Plumieri Turp. ex Pera. Syn. ii. 

 303 (1807); Bot. Beg. t. 268; Bev. J. Lindsay Ic. ined. ; Macf. 

 Jam. i. 253. 



