80 LEGUMINOS^. \^8chynomene. 



East Point, Champion. Common in tropical Asia, extending also into tropical Africa. 

 The Hongkong specimens are rather stouter than usual, but the flowers are precisely those 

 of ^. indica, not half so large as those of y^. aspera, the other common Indian species. 



7. ZORNIA, Gmel. 



Calyx 2-lipped, usually small and membranous. Petals nearly equal, the 

 standard broad, the keel almost beaked. Stamens monadelphous in a dosed tube. 

 Ovary sessile or nearly so. Pod linear, flattened, consisting of several articles, 

 often muricate. — Herl3s, usually glandular-dotted. Leaves with 2 or 4 digi- 

 tate leaflets, without stipellae. Stipides usually half-sagittate. Eacemes or 

 loose spikes terminal ; the flowers yellow, usually sessile and solitaiy between 

 2 bracts, which are like the stipules, but much larger and concealing the calyx. 



A genus of several American and two or three Afi-icau species, with one widely spread 

 over the whole world within the tropics. 



1. Z. diphylla, Fers. Syn. PI. ii. 318. A low herb, sometimes an- 

 nual, sometimes forming a thick root-stock of several years' duration ; the 

 branches decumbent, ascending or nearly erect, fi-om 6 inches to 1 or 2 feet 

 long. Leaflets 2 only at the end of the petiole, varying from ovate and only 

 2 or 3 lines long in the lower leaves, to lanceolate or linear, fi'om i to 1 in. 

 long in the upper ones. Plowers in the common Asiatic varieties 3 to 3^ 

 lines long, almost enclosed in the narrow-ovate bracts, which like the stipules 

 are produced into a short auricle below their insertion, and are often, as well 

 as the leaflets, marked with a few pellucid glandular dots. Pod longer or 

 shorter than the bracts, of 3 to 6 articles, usually muricate with hooked or 

 pubescent prickles. 



East Point, Champion ; also Eance and Wright. A very common species in S. America, 

 where it is exceedingly variable ; abundant also but less variable in many parts of tropical 

 Africa, Asia, and Australia. Some of the Chinese specimens are almost without pellucid 

 dots, as in the generality of the W. Indian specimens ; but others have several on the bracts 

 and occasionally a few on the leaves also ; they con-espond to the varieties € vulgaris im- 

 punctata and C vulgaris punctata of my enumeration of varieties in Mart. Fl. Bras. Leg. 

 p. 80 to 83. 



8. ALYSICARPUS, Neck. 



Calyx narrow, acute at the base, deeply 4- or 5 -cleft ; the segments dry and 

 stiff. Petals naiTOw, scarcely exceeding the calyx. Stamens diadelphous, the 

 upper ones free from the base. Pods sessile, scarcely compressed, consisting 

 of several indehiscent 1-seeded articles. — Herbs. Stipules and bracts palea- 

 ceous or scarious. Leaves simple (reduced to 1 leaflet). Racemes terminal 

 or leaf-opposed. Plowers 2 together. 



A rather small genus, chiefly S. Asiatic, a few species extending into tropical Africa, or 



occasionally natm-alized in tropical America. 



Calyx-lobes narrow-subulate. Pod slightly wrinkled and not con- 

 tracted between the seeds 1. J. vaginalis. 



Calyx-lobes lanceolate, glumaceous. Pod smooth, slightly contracted 



betw^eeu the seeds 2. J. buplevrifolius. 



1. A. vaginalis, DC. Frod. ii. 353. A perennial, tufted or much 

 branched at the base ; the stems decumbent or ascending, from a few inches to 

 a foot long, glabrous or slightly pubescent. Leaves on short slender petioles, 



