319 



There is a good deal of variation in the number 

 of stamens, but only because some are not developed. 

 For instance, we find in CASSIA some species with 

 three of the ten anthers small and without pollen, other 

 species with only seven stamens (the other three not 

 being developed at all). In AMHERSTIA NOBLIS, Wall., 

 planted in Ceylon for its handsome large pink flowers, 

 there are apparently only four sepals, three petals, 

 and nine stamens and the Tamarind has but three 

 petals and three stamens. But the presence of the 

 posterior petal opposite the top sepal, shows that the 

 latter is composed of two, fused together, and there 

 are two short points representing the two anterior 

 petals, and in the Tamarind seven others in place of 

 the remaining stamens. So that these departures from 

 the ordinary rules are due to the fusion of some, and 

 the non-development of other missing parts. The 

 flowers are really on the 5 + 5+ 10 + 1 plan. 



One large genus BAUNHINIA has peculiar simple 

 but deeply cleft leaves, like the spoor of a cloven- 

 footed animal (goat, cow, etc.), but all the other 

 C^ESALPINE^E have pinnate or bipinnate leaves with 

 prominent pulvinus. 



In its pinnate leaves, one carpelled ovary and usually 

 ten stamens, this family resembles the PAPILIONACE^E, 

 but the petals of a flower are more or less alike 

 (there are no 'wings' and 'keel'), the stamens are 

 nearly always separate (not mono- or dia-delphous), and 

 the aestivation of the petals is 'ascending', the lower 

 pair being outside and unfolding first, the uppermost, 

 odd petal last. The very common shrub PARKINSONIA 

 ACULEATA has already been referred to (chapter xv, 



