86 LEGUMiNos.E. [Lespedeza. 



3. Ii. viatorum. Champ, in Kew Jonrn. Bot. iv. 47. An erect perennial 

 or undershrub, apparently 1 or 2 ft. high, glabrous, or hoary with appressed 

 hairs on the branches and under side of the leaves. Leaflets obovate, very 

 obtuse, 1 to 1^ in. long, or even more, with numerous parallel veins diverging 

 from the midrib. Piacemes axillary, either 1 to 2 in. long and rather dense, 

 or longer and looser. Flowers 4 to 4^ lines long, on short pedicels. Calyx- 

 lobes lanceolate and acute. Standard obovate. Keel fully as long, shortly 

 acuminate. Pod stalked, ovate, acute, 4 lines long, minutely, pubescent. 



Common about Little Hongkong, Champion. On the slope at the back of Victoria Peak, 

 Wilford. Also on the adjacent continent, as far north as Araoy. 



Tribe YI. PHASEOLEM. 



Stems usually herbaceous, twining or prostrate ; the leaves with 3 leaflets, 

 2 opposite ones inserted below the terminal one, or with 1 terminal one, and 

 almost always stipellate, very rarely trees with pinnately trifoliolate leaves, 

 or herbaceous twiners with pinnate leaves. Inflorescence usually axillaiy. 

 Stamens diadelphous, with the upper stamen quite free at the very base, 

 although sometimes united with the others in the middle. Pod 2-valved. 



13. NEXJSTANTHUS, Benth. 



Calyx campanulate, 4-tootlied, the upper tooth notched or bifid. Standard 

 obovate-orbicular, with inflexed auricles above the short claw. Keel incuiTcd 

 or beaked. Upper stamen free at the veiy base, united with the others in the 

 middle. Ovary sessile, Avith several ovules. Style filiform, glabrous, with a 

 terminal stigma. Pod linear, nearly cylindrical when ripe. — Twining herbs. 

 Leaflets 3, with stipellce. Eacemes axillary, elongated. Plowers shortly pedi- 

 cellate, nodding, arising 2 or more together from gland-like nodes. Bracts 

 very deciduous. Bracteoles persistent. 



A small genus, confined to tropical Asia. 



Plant hairy. Stipules sessile. Flowers scarcely 4 lines long, the 



flowering nodes distant 1. "N. phaseoloides. 



Plant glabrous or slightly pubescent* Stipules peltate. Flowers 6 



lines long, in dense 1-sidcd racemes 2. iV. chinensis. 



1. N. phaseoloides, Benth. in PI. Jaugh. i. 235, and in Kew Journ. 

 Bot. iv. 48. A herbaceous twiner, more or less clothed in every part with 

 rusty hairs, often whitish on the under side of the leaflets. Stipules ovate- 

 lanceolate, striate, not peltate. Leaflets broad, the terminal one 2 to 3 in. 

 long, and usually rhomboid, the lateral ones oblique and rather smaller, all 

 varying from obtuse to acuminate, entire or broadly 3-lobed. Plowers about 

 4 lines long, on rather distant nodes, on the upper half of peduncles of 4 to 6 in. 

 Calyx hairy, the upper teeth scarcely so long as the tube, the lowest one long 

 and subulate. Keel shortly beaked. Pod at least 2 in. long, about 1^ lines 

 broad, hairy, with 8 to 10 small transversely oblong seeds. — Dolichos phaseo- 

 loides, Koxb. PI. Ind. iii. 316. 



Hongkong, Champion. Extends from the Malayan Peninsula to Silhet, Sikkim, and 

 S. China. 



2. N. chmensis, Benth., n. sp. A tall twiner, glabrous or slightly pu- 

 bescent on the stem, inflorescence, and under side of the leaves. Leaflets .3, 



