LEGUMINOSJE. 297 



Of these two species the No-Eye Pea is the most delicate, 

 being 1 , in the green state, very little inferior to the English 

 pea, and, when dried and the cuticle removed, equal to the split 

 peas we receive from Europe. The other species is coarser, 

 and made use of principally by the Negroes, and require, in 

 the dried state, a tedious boiling process before they can be 

 softened. 



From the two species being frequently, through carelessness, 

 planted close to one another, we may occasionally meet with 

 hybrid varieties. When once established they stand for several 

 years. The leaves are annually shed, and are reproduced with 

 the flowers in the early months of Summer. The crop is ga- 

 thered during the months of Autumn. No particular care or 

 trouble is required in the cultivation of these shrubs, and they 

 thrive in the poorest land. They are said indeed to improve 

 the soil on which they grow, by the decay of the leaves, which 

 are annually shed in great profusion. There are few tropical 

 plants indeed so valuable. They are to be found around every 

 cottage in the Island, growing luxuriantly in the parched Sa- 

 vannah, and mountain declivity, as well as in the more fertile 

 and seasonable districts. 



XXX. ERYTHRINA. 



Calyx tubulose, with the mouth truncated, sub- 

 dentate, or spathaceous. Standard very long, oblong ; 

 wings and keel dipetalous, much shorter than the 

 standard. Stamens diadelphous, straight, with the 

 10th, either slightly united to the rest, or free and 

 much shorter, or rarely deficient. Legume long, 

 torulose, 2-valved, many-seeded : seeds ovate, with 

 the hilum lateral. 



Low trees or shrubs, rarely herbaceous; leaves 1 -paired with 

 an odd one ; racemes elongated ; flowers scarlet, pedicelled, 

 ternately approximated. Name, from sgutigos red, on account of 

 the scarlet colour of the flowers. 



1. Erythrina corallodendrum. Coral-bean tree. 



Stem arboreous aculeate, branches and petioles un- 

 armed, leaflets broad-rhomboideo-ovate glabrous, calyx 

 truncated sub-1 -dentate, standard lineari-oblong. 



Coral arbor, Sloane, II. 178. f. 1. Arborea spinosa et non 

 spinosa, foliis rhomboeis pinnato-ternatis, Browne, 288. 

 HAB. Common. 

 FL. April July. 

 A tree of irregular growth : the stem and a few of the 



