DESMANTHUS 



DESMOS 



991 



herb: Ifts. 20-30 pairs, pbtusish. D. leplolobus, Torr. & 

 Gray, occurs on prairies from Kans. to Texas: Ifts. 

 mostly fewer and acute, and peduncles much shorter 

 (1 in. or less long). 



DESMAZERIA (in honor of Desmazieres, a French 

 botanist). Graminese. Plants resembling Eragrostis, 

 sometimes grown as ornamental grasses. 



Spikelets many-fld., strongly compressed, the lemmas 

 keeled and coriaceous but faintly 3- or rarely 5-nerved, 

 awnless : infl. several closely imbricated spikelets, 

 arranged in a linear, dense, nearly simple spike-like 

 panicle. Species 4, 1 in Medit. region, and 3 in S. Afr. 



sfcula, Dum. (Brizopyrum siculum, Link). SPIKE- 

 GRASS. Fig. 1243. Annual, 8-12 in.: spikelets Y^va.., 

 in a nearly simple spike. Eu. Cult, for ornament and 

 frequently used for edging. A. S. HITCHCOCK. 



DESMODIUM (Greek, a band or chain; referring to 

 the jointed pods). By some called Meibbmia. Legumi- 

 nbsse. TICK TREFOIL. Mostly herbs, upwards of 170 

 species, in temperate and warm regions of Amer., Asia, 

 Afr. and Austral. Lvs. pinnate, with 3-5 (rarely 1) 

 Ifts.: fls. small and papilionaceous, in terminal or 

 axillary racemes in summer, mostly purple; 

 calyx with a short tube, more or less 2- 

 lipped; standard broad; wings joined to the 

 keel: pod flat, deeply lobed or jointed, the 

 joints often breaking apart and adhering 

 to clothing and to animals by means of small hooked 

 hairs. Fig. 1244. A number of species are native to 

 N. Amer., and are sometimes grown in the hardy bor- 

 der, where they thrive under ordinary conditions. One 

 hothouse species, D. gyrans, is sometimes cult, for its 

 odd moving Ifts. D. penduliflorum and D. japonicum 

 will be found under Lespedeza. Several of the native 

 species are worthy of cult., but are practically unknown 

 in the trade. The following have been offered by col- 

 lectors: D. canadense, DC. (Fig. 1244); D. cuspidatum, 

 Hook.; D. Dillenii, Darl.; D. marilandicum, Boott; 

 D. nudiflorum, DC.; D. paniculatum, DC.; D. pauci- 

 florum, DC.; D. sessilifolium, Torr. & Gray. The 

 Florida beggarweed is Desmodium tortuosum, DC., of 

 the W. Indies. It is coming into prominence in the S. as 

 a forage plant (see Cyclo. Amer. Agric., Vol. II, p. 214). 



Two Chinese shrubby species have recently been 

 intro. to Eu.: D. amethystinum, Dunn, growing 3-5 ft.: 

 Ivs. 3-foliolate, the Ifts. elliptic, 4-7 in. long: fls. amethy- 

 stine, Hin. long) in a terminal panicle. D. cinerdscens, 

 Franch., not Gray: broad bush, 3 ft. high, densely 

 leafy: Ivs. large, the Ifts. lozenge-shaped: fls. rosy lilac 

 to violet, in many racemes, produced in June and 

 again in Sept. 



The greenhouse species, D. gyrans, is of tolerably easy 

 culture. It requires stove temperature, and, although a 

 perennial, it is best treated as an annual. The best 

 method of propagation is by seeds. These should be 

 sown in February in a light, sandy soil, in 4-inch pots, 

 and placed in a warm, close atmosphere, where they 

 will soon germinate. The seedlings should be potted 

 singly into small pots as soon as large enough to handle 

 and grown on as rapidly as possible, using a mixture of 

 good, fibrous loam and leaf soil in about equal propor- 

 tions. By midsummer they will be good bushy plants, 

 and, though not showy, they are very interesting. 

 (Edward J. Canning.) 



gyrans, DC. TELEGRAPH PLANT. Undershrub, 2-4 

 ft. high, with 3 oblong or elliptic Ifts., the small lateral 

 ones (which are almost linear) moving in various 

 directions when the temperature is congenial, and 

 especially in the sunshine: fls. purple or violet, in 

 racemes and terminal racemose panicles. Ceylon to the 

 Himalayas and the Philippines. Grown occasionally 

 as a curiosity, particularly in botanical collections. See 

 Darwin's "Power of Movement in Plan* " an ^ vnrmns 

 botanical treatises, for fuller accounts. 



and various 

 L. H. B. 



DESMONCUS (band and hook, referring to hook- 

 like points on the Ivs.). Palmacese. About 25 palms of 

 U. S., S. Mex. to Bolivia and Brazil, differing from 

 Bactris in the long slender climbing caudex and tech- 

 nical characters. They are gregarious plants, with 

 spines or hooks by means of which they climb or are 

 elevated on growing trees, the sts. usually thin and 

 flexuose and annular: Ivs. scattered along the st., 

 pinnate or pinnatisect, the parts or segms. opposite or 

 alternate, the rachis produced into a long hook-bearing 



climbing organ: fls. 

 greenish, in solitary 

 spadices with 2 

 spathe-lvs.: fr. 

 small, pea -shaped, 

 red. D. major, 

 Crueg., st. becom- 

 ing very long and 

 clinging to sup- 

 ports by the modi- 

 fied retrorse oppo- 

 site segms. on the 

 prolonged rachis: 

 Ivs. pinnate; Ifts. 20 

 pairs, linear-acumi- 

 nate and usually 

 clustered; rachis 

 spiny, dark-tomen- 

 tose: spathe cov- 

 ered with brown 

 prickles. Trinidad. Little known 

 under glass, and reported as cult, 

 in the open in S. Fla. and S. Calif. 

 L. H. B. 



DESMOS (Greek, chain, on ac- 

 count of the fruit resembling nodes 

 chained together ) . Annonacese . 

 A genus established in 1790 by 

 Loureiro and based upon Desmos 

 cochinchinensis (Unona Desmos, Dunal, 1817; Unona 

 cochinchinensis, DC., 1824). The flowers are com- 



Eosed of 3 sepals and 6 petals in 2 series, the 

 itter valvate, nearly equal, and flat; stamens numer- 

 ous, tetragonal -oblong or cuneate, the connective 

 expanded above the dorsal oblong or linear-oblong 

 pollen-sacs into a truncate hood-like process; recep- 

 tacle, or torus, slightly raised, usually truncate or 

 somewhat concave at the apex; carpels indefinite; 

 ovules several, usually forming a single column, but 

 sometimes sub-biseriate; style ovoid or oblong, re- 

 curved ; ripe carpels indefinite, either elongate and 

 chain-like from constrictions between the seeds, or 

 baccate and spheroid. D. cochin -chinensis, Lour., 

 is a shrub with an erect or climbing st. and weak 

 reclinate branches, lanceolate Ivs., fragrant yellow- 

 ish green pendulous fls., and reddish green monili- 

 form frs. D. chinensis, Lour. (Unbna discolor, Vahl), 

 is a small tree of the E. Indies, with ovate-oblong Ivs. 

 glaucous beneath and extra-axillary sweet-scented 

 aromatic fls., for the sake of which it is often cult. 

 The greenish yellow corolla resembles that of Canang- 

 ium odoratum, but the moniliform fr. consists of several 

 joints, each containing a pea -like seed. It is used 

 when green by the Chinese at Hongkong, who make 

 from it a fine purple dye. D. elegans, Safford (Unbna 

 elegans, Thwaites), remarkable for its fr., which resem- 

 bles strings of beads, and the very closely allied D. 

 zeyldnicus, Safford (U. zeyldnica, Hook. f. & Thorns.), 

 are endemic in the moist forests of Ceylon. Many species 

 of Desmos have been erroneously referred to the genus 

 Unona, based upon a S. American plant (Unona discreta, 

 Linn, f.) not congeneric with the Asiatic genus above 

 described, but more closely allied, if not to be identified 

 with the genus Xylopia. See Safford, W. E., Bull. Torrey 

 Bot. Club. 39:501-8 (1912). w. E. SAFFORD. 



1244. Desmodium 



canadense pods. 



(Nearly natural size.) 



