Amphicarpjea. LEGUMINOS^. 165 



color. Leaflets smooth or pubescent, 1^-3 inches long, rhombic-ovate or oblong-ovate, the 

 lateral ones oblique. Racemes of the stem about an inch long, on rather short slender pedun- 

 cles, solitary or in pairs. Bracts persistent, about a line and a half in diameter. Flowers 

 pale purple or nearly white, clustered or in pairs in the axils of the bracts. Vexillum broadly 

 obovate-oblong. Keel and wing-petals similar. Apetalous flowers produced on slender, 

 prostrate, simple or branching peduncles, thrown out from near the base of the stem, or 

 growing directly from the fibrous roots, the former usually partly or wholly covered with loose 

 earth or decaying leaves. Legumes of the stem about an inch long and a third of an inch 

 wide, hairy along the sutures. Seeds orbicular, compressed, dark purple. Underground 

 legumes short and thick, hairy, usually perfecting but one seed, and that larger than those 

 produced by the stem flowers. 



Woods and thickets ; common. August - September. Li places where this curious plant 

 abounds, the hogs often root up the ground to obtain the subterraneous nuts. 



Tribe III. GALEGEjE. Brown (partly). 



Corolla papilionaceous {or otherwise irregular). Stamens diadelphous (9^1), or sometimes 

 monadelphous. Legume continuous, dehiscent, one-celled, several-seeded {rarely with 

 cellular transverse partitions between the seeds, hut never separating irdo joints) ; or 

 1 — 2-seeded and indehiscent. Radicle incurved or injlexed. Cotyledons foliaceous. — 

 Erect herbs, shrubs or trees. Leaves usually unequally pinnate, seldom stipellate. 

 Inflorescence axillary or terminal, in racemes or spikes. 



* Leaves unequally pinnate. 

 9. ROBINIA. Linn. ; DC. mem. Leg. p. 273 ; Endl. gen. 6546. LOCUST. 



[ In honor of John and Vespasian Robin, French botanists, who introduced the Lociist into Europe more than 200 years 



ago] 



Calyx short, somewhat campanulate, 5-toothed or 5-cleft ; the two upper segments shorter, 



approximated or cohering. Vexillum broad and large : keel obtuse. Stamens diadelphous. 



Style bearded along the inner side. Legume many-seeded, compressed, straight, nearly 



sessile ; the seminiferous suture margined : valves thin. Seeds reniform. — Trees or shrubs 



(exclusively North American), usually bearing stipular spines. Leaves unequally pinnate : 



leaflets petiolulate, stipellate. Flowers showy, while or rose-color, in simple, usually 



pendant axillary racemes. 



1. RoBiNiA PsEUDACAciA, Linn. Common Locust-tree. 



Branches armed with stipular spines ; racemes loose, drooping and (as well as the legumes) 

 smooth ; leaflets ovate and oblong-ovate. — Lam. ill. t. 606 ; Michx. fl. 2. p. 65 ; Pursh, fl. 

 2. p. 487 ; Ell. sk. 2. p. 242 ; Michx. f. sylv. 2. p. 1. t. 76 ; DC. prodr. 2. p. 261 ; Beck, 

 hot. p. 82 ; Darlingt. fl. Cest. j9. 410 ; Torr. ^ Gr.fl. N. Am. 1. p. 294. 



