204 CALYCIFLOU*:. 



low; keel in two pieces. Ovary oblong, smooth: style short: 

 stigma simple. Legume about an inch in length, 4- seeded, 

 compressed, nearly straight on one edge, and with isthmi mark- 

 ing the articulations on the other. 



This is a very common plant in our pastures. The flowers 

 have, like the leaves, a very delicate appearance, and are at first 

 of a pale flesh-colour changing in the course of a day to a saf- 

 fron. The stem varies in being occasionally glabrous. The 

 leaves are scarcely entitled to be designated sensitive ; since, 

 with the exception that they are folded up during the night, 

 and are again opened soon after sunrise, they do not appear 

 to be endowed with irritability. The JEt. SENSITIVA, a suffru- 

 tescent plant, 6 feet in height, stated by Swartz to be a native 

 of St Lucia and Dominica, has not, so far as I can learn, been 

 detected in this Island. 



XVI. NlCOLSONIA. 



Calyx 5-partite, with the divisions lanceolato-subu- 

 late, bearded. Corolla shorter than the calyx. Sta- 

 mens diadelphous (9 and 1). Legume exserted, of 

 several compressed semi-orbiculate 1 -seeded joints 

 dehiscent along the convex suture. De Cand. 



Leaves 1 -jugate, with an odd leaflet. This genus is distin- 

 guished from DESMODIUM, to which it bears a great resem- 

 blance, by the calyx being 5-partite and bearded. In this, the 

 stipules are subscariose and distinct from the petiole; the brae- 

 teas are similar, but somewhat broader; pedicels in pairs, in 

 the axils of the bracteas ; racemes terminal ; flowers small, 

 purple ; and there are no bracteoles at the base of the calyx. 

 Named, after Ern. Ant. Nicolson, author of an Essay on the 

 Natural History of St Domingo, published in Paris in 1776. 



1 . Nicolsonia barbata. Bearded Nicolsonia. 



Leaflets elliptico-oblong, calyces shut after flower- 

 ing, legumes minutely puberulous. 



Hedysarum barbatum, Swartz, Obs. 287. Nicolsonia bar- 

 bata, De Cand. Prod. II. 325. 



HAB. Common in dry spots of mountain pastures. 



FL. May November. 



Roots fibrous, branched : stem suffruticose, erect, very short : 

 branches numerous, subterete, of a ferruginous colour, incano- 

 pubescerit with appressed hairs. Leaflets elliptico-oblong, 

 somewhat narrowed at the base, rounded and mucronate at the 

 apex, subglabrous above, incano-pubescent with appressed hairs 

 beneath : petioles compressed, pubescent. Stipules long, lineari- 



