550 



The Coral Beans 



Leaves glandless. 

 Pods dehiscent. 

 Leaves unequally pinnate, sometimes equally pinnate in Olneya. 

 Pods flat, wing-margined on one side. 

 Pods not winged on the margin. 

 Flowers racemose; branches spiny. 



Flowers solitar)' or obscurely racemose; branches unarmed. 

 Leaves equally pinnate; flowers very large. 

 Pods indehiscent, 4-winged. 

 Leaves glandular or dotted; petals all distinct. 

 Leaves not more than 3-foliolate, usually unifoliolate, very small and early 

 deciduous (in our species). 



3. Roblnia. 



4. Olneyc. 



5. Coursetia. 



6. Agati. 



7. Ichthyomethia. 



8. Eysenhardtia. 



9. Parosela. 



I. THE CORAL BEANS 



GENUS SOPHORA LINN^US 



OPHORA includes 25 or 30 species, mostly trees or shrubs, a few, 

 perennial herbs, natives of warm and tropical regions of both the 

 Old World and the New. They have unarmed stems and branches, 

 odd-pinnate leaves and showy flowers in racemes or panicles. The 

 calyx is bell-shaped with short teeth; the standard is obovate to orbicular, the 

 wings obhquely oblong, the keel oblong, straight or nearly so; the 10 stamens are 

 all separate or nearly separate, their anthers versatile ; the pistil has a short-stalked 

 ovary and incurved style. The pod is leathery or fleshy, constricted between the 

 seeds, usually not spUtting open, containing several or many seeds. The generic 

 name is from the Arabic, signifying yellow, the flowers being that color in many 

 species. Sophora tomentosa Linnaeus, is a shrub of tropical seacoasts, occurring 

 in Florida. The Japanese Sophora japonica Linnasus, is much planted for orna- 

 ment. The type species of the genus is the Asiatic Sophora alopecuroides Linnseus. 

 Our arborescent species are : 



Racemes terminal; leaves thick, persistent. 

 Racemes axillary; leaves thin, deciduous. 



1. S. secundiflora. 



2. 5. affinis. 



I. EVERGREEN CORAL BEAN Sophora secundiflora (Cavanilles) 



de Candolle 



Virgilia secundiflora Cavanilles 



This shrub or small tree inhabits borders of streams and seacoasts from Texas 

 to New Mexico, southward, in Mexico, to Nuevo Leon and San Luis Potosi. It 

 sometimes becomes about 12 meters high, with a trunk 2 dm. in diameter, and is 

 known in Mexico as Frigolito. 



The young twigs are finely velvety, becoming smooth and brown. The ever- 

 green stalked leaves have from 7 to 1 1 thick leathery leaflets, which arc oblong to 



