rTTTTTVTTTTTTTTTT-^ 









^S'^isj^ia^^^ 



Chapter XXII. 



Order XXII.-LEGUMINOS.E. (Tribe P(qnlionacece .) The Pea and Beau Family. 



Charactie of the Order. — Herbs, shrubs, or trees. 

 Leaves alternate (rarely opposite), stipulate, mostly compound; 

 leaflets usually entire. Flowers irregular, hermaphrodite. 

 Calyx, o-toothed, or cleft, or 4-toothed by the union of the 

 upper lobes. Corolla, papilionaeeoxis, i-e. of 5 petals, the 

 upper (standard) broadest, outside in bud often reilexed ; the 

 two next lateral (wings), vertical, and parallel; the two lowest 

 also vertical and pai-allel within the wings (forming the keel), 

 often combined by their lower edges. Stamens, 10, 9 usually 



united into a membranous tube sheathing the ovary, the upper 

 free, rarely all free. Ovary, sessile, or stipitate, generally 

 long, flattened, 1 -celled, tapering into a straight, or upturned 

 style ; stigma, small, simple, lateral, or capit.ite. Fruit, a 1 or 

 more seeded legume, splitting into 2 valves in all the New- 

 Zealand genera, except Varmichelia. Seeds, exalbuminous ; 

 cotyledons, thick, plano-convex ; radicle, short. — Handbook of 

 the Sem Zealand Flora, p. 47. 



Description of the Order. — 



' HIS orclei- is a very large one, and the plants occur in all parts of the 

 world, but are abundant in tro2)ical countries. It forms, in Australia, 

 a great proportion of the indigenous vegetation — herbaceous, shrubby 

 and arboreous, — but is less developed in New Zealand than in any other 

 jiart of the world. It has been di\ided into three sub-orders, viz. : — 

 (1.) PapUionacecB ; (2.) Coesalpiniea and MimosecB. The first-named 

 sub-order is alone peculiar to New Zealand. Some of the plants of 

 the order are nutritious, others tonic and astringent, others j'urgative, and a few 

 poisonous. They supply timber, fibres, gums, dyes, and various economical substances. 

 Amongst the useful plants may be noted peas, beans, lentils, kidney-beans, and pulse 

 of various kinds — lupins, clover, lucerne, medick, sanfoil, Uquorice, tragacanth, indigo, 

 and kino. Amongst the poisonous plants are Coroiiilla varia, Cytisiis laburnum, 

 GoDijiJ/oIobium uuclnafum, and Physostig))ia reiieiiosum, the Ordenl beans of Calabar. 

 There are about 550 genera and 7,000 species. The New Zealand species consist of: — 

 (1.) Carmichcelia, shrubs, leafless, or leaflets in 1 to 3 pau-s — flowers small ; (2.) 



