STIPA 



STIZOLOBIUM 



32-43 



AA. Aucns or pedicels plumose. 

 B. The pedicels plumose. 



elegantissima, Labill. Fig. 3695. Culms 2-3 ft., 

 erect from a horizontal rhizome: Ivs. narrow and erect: 

 panicle very loose, 6-8 in. long, the capillary panicle 

 branches and pedicels plumose; spikelets 4-6 lines long; 

 awn 1)4 in. long. Austral. Thrives in sandy soil. 



BB. The awns plumose. 



pennata, Linn. FEATHER-GRASS. Fig. 3696. Culms 

 2-3 ft., in bunches: glumes narrowed into awns an inch 

 or more long; lemma Y$n. or more long; awn about a 

 foot long, the lower portion smooth and twisted, the 

 upper very plumose, giving the panicle a 

 feathery ornamental appearance. Some- 

 times erroneously called S. gigantea. 

 Steppes of Eu. and Siberia. Gn. 9, p. 199. 

 V. 3:247. R.H. 1890, p. 489. 



tenacissima, Linn. ESPARTO - GRASS. 

 Culms 2-3 ft., in bunches: Ivs. narrow, 

 smooth, cylindrical, elongated: panicles 

 contracted; awn 1-2 in., plumose below 

 the bend. Spain and X. Afr. The Ivs. 

 furnish fiber from which are made ropes, 

 mats, paper, and the like. In Afr. it is 

 called halfa or alfa. A. S. HITCHCOCK. 



STIZOLOBIUM (name refers to the 

 stinging pods). Leguminbsx. VELVET 

 BEAN. Some of the species are grown as 

 ornamental vines in warm countries, as the 

 growth is very strong, but the genus is 

 valuable mostly for its forage species and 

 therefore does not demand extended treat- 

 ment here. 



These plants are allied to Glycine, which 

 includes the soybean. The Ivs. are large 

 and 3-foliolate: fls. in axillary clusters, long 

 or oblong, large, dark purple (sometimes 

 white or yellowish) but turning black 

 when dried, the corolla much longer than 

 the nairow-lobed calyx; the keel long, 

 boat-shaped and usually twice or thrice 

 longer than the obtuse standard and also 

 longer than the wings ; stamens diadelphous 

 (9 and 1) the anthers not uniform in kind: 

 pod often hairy, bristly or pubescent, con- 

 taining pea-like seeds. Species perhaps a 

 dozen, tropics of Old World. The genus 

 Stizolobium was formerly included under 

 Mucuna, but is now distinguished from 

 that genus (which see, p. 2074, Vol. IV) 

 by its seed and other characters. In Stizolobium the 

 seeds are nearly spherical, or flattened-oval in shape, 

 with the hilum covering often less than one-sixth of its 

 circumference and never more than one-fourth, while in 

 Mucuna the seeds are nearly circular in outline, flat- 

 tened, and with the hilum extending at least three- 

 fourths of its circumference. In germination Mucuna 

 has alternate scale-like Ivs., while Stizolobium has 

 petioled, trifoliate Ivs. with cordate Ifts. Mucuna is 

 perennial, while Stizolobium is strictly annual. Such 

 species of Stizolobium as are cult, for forage have pods 

 which are nearly smooth, or are covered by a dense 

 velvety pubescence; but there are a number of Bother 

 species, notably 5. pruriens, grown in the tropics,_in 

 which the pods have a dense covering of bristly stinging 

 hairs, and are known under the common name of 

 "cowage" or "cowitch." 



The principal economic use of the velvet beans or 

 stizolobiums is as a winter pasture crop in the southern 

 states. Thev are commonly plantea with corn, the 

 stalks of wnich give the necessary support, without 

 which they produce few seeds. Some cultivators plant 

 two rows of corn and then one row of the beans, while 



others plant the beans in alternate hills with the corn; 

 the former method gives more corn to the acre, while 

 the latter yields the heavier crops of beans. The crop 

 is seldom cut for hay, as the vines are too long and 

 tangled to be handled easily, but is left in the field 

 until it is killed by frost, and is then grazed, as the 

 vines, leaves, and seeds may remain on the ground a 

 long time without injury from frost or rain. There are 

 many varieties of this bean, some of which mature hi 

 about one hundred days from planting, while others 

 fail to ripen without ten to eleven months free of frost. 

 Some varieties produce profitable crops as far north as 

 Tennessee, while others often fail to mature even in 



southern Florida. 

 Among the many 

 kinds now culti- 

 vated in the 

 United States the 

 best known is the 

 Florida velvet 

 bean (S. Deering- 

 ianum, Bort). 

 This is of un- 

 known origin, but 

 it has been culti- 

 vated as an orna- 

 mental vine in 

 Florida many 

 years. About 1890 

 its value as a 

 forage plant at- 

 tracted attention, 



3697 Stizolobium pruriens, or cowitch. Flower-cluster usually 

 longer and more tapering. ( X about } 4 ) 



and thousands of acres are now grown for feeding cattle 

 and hogs. This species makes a wonderful growth, 

 producing vines 60 to 100 feet in length, and bearing 

 clusters of large purple pea-shaped flowers which are 

 followed by pods 2 to 3 inches in length containing 

 four to six "nearly spherical seeds. In recent years sev- 

 eral sports or varieties have been developed, which 

 mature seed in 110 to 130 days from planting, and 

 are now cultivated largely in the region from Florida 

 northward to northern Georgia and Tennessee. Among 

 the more common of the recently introduced kinds are 

 the Lyon velvet bean (S. niveum ! Kuntze) which bears 

 racemes fully 3 feet in length with white flowers; the 

 Chinese, which is similar but has shorter racemes and 

 matures much earlier; the Black (S. capitatum, Kuntze), 

 which has very long racemes with purple flowers, 

 and late-ripening pods covered with a velvety pubes- 

 cence; and the Yokohama (S. Hassjoo, Piper & Tracy), 

 which matures within three to four months from 

 planting. In addition to these there are numberless 

 crosses and hybrids. As all the species are natives 



