46 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Calliandra brevipes. 



'/W& 





A- 



E?iterolobium l has all the characters of Pithecolobium in inflorescence 

 and vegetative organs. But its pod is broadly circinate or incurved- 



reniform, thick compressed hard and in- 

 dehiscent, with a spongy mesocarp finally in- 

 durated, and an endocarp prolonged inwards 

 to form strong septa, separating the com- 

 pressed transverse seeds. The three or four 

 known species of this genus 2 are unarmed 

 trees from tropical America, with the flowers 

 in globular capitula, collected into spikes or 

 racemes. 



All these genera, so difficult to separate 

 at all clearly, have small flowers, with the 

 exception of certain of the species of Inga. 

 The flowers become relatively voluminous in the three remaining 

 genera of this group — Serianfhes, Jffonsea, and Archidendron. The first 

 consists of unarmed trees, with large bipinnate leaves. 3 The flowers, 

 forming short corymbose racemes, have a thick coriaceous gamose- 

 palous calyx, with five valvate teeth, a gamopetalous corolla, also 

 valvate and five-lobed, and an androceum consisting of a very large 

 number of stamens, whose filaments cohere into a tube, adherent for 



Fig. 36. 

 Inflorescence. 



membranous, caducous, or absent. Peduncles 

 axillary, solitary or geminate. Pod thick (inde- 

 hiscent ?) straight or bowed. Seeds cxarillate. 

 Species five, American. Geisebach refers this 

 species also to Acacia. 



III. Caulanthon. — Unarmed trees with cadu- 

 cous or persistent stipules and paucifoliate leaves. 

 Inflorescences pedunculate, fascicled on the trunk 

 or branches. Pod usually two-valved, straight 

 or bowed. Seeds exarillate. Species fifteen, 

 American. (Vahl., Fclog., iii. t. 27. — Velloz., 

 op. cit., xi. t. 43. — MlQ., Slirp. Surhi., t. 1). 

 To this section belongs Zygia P. Be. {Jam., 

 279, t. 22, fig. 3, nee Auctt.). Geisebach {op. 

 cit., 225) refers it to the genus Calliandra. 



IV. Cathormion. — Unarmed trees ; inflores- 

 cence solitary or subfasciculate in axils of leaves. 

 Flowers often pedicellate. Pod nearly straight, 

 bowed, or circinate, two-valved or indehiscent, 

 with false septa between the seeds, and some- 

 times parting into one-seeded joints at maturity. 

 Species ten, all natives of the Old World, mostly 

 Asiatic (including Concordia Benth., part.), 

 two Australian (Benth., in Hook. Journ., iii. 

 211 ; Fl. Austral., ii. 423), and one from tropical 

 Africa (P. allissimum, Benth., op. cit. 197. — 

 Olit., Fl. Trop. Afr., ii. 364.— Albizzia allis- 

 sima Hook. F., Niger, 332). 



V. Abaremotemon. — Unarmed trees; stipules 

 absent or ill developed. Leaflets usually nu- 

 merous. Peduncles axillary, solitary or rarely 

 fascicled. Pod broad, distorted, cochlear. 

 Species about fifteen, American (Vaul., op. cit., 

 iii. t. 28. — Velloz., op. cit., xi. t. 13, 14. — 

 Kl., ap. Hayn., Arzneig., xiv. 13). 



VI. t'lignis-cati. — Trees; leaves with wholly 

 or partly spinescent stipules, pinnules unijugate 

 or unequally bijugate. Peduncles axillary or 

 panicled, solitary or fascicled. Pod cochlear, 

 valves variably twisted after dehiscence. Species 

 about twenty, two Asiatic ; the rest American. 

 (K., Mimos., t. 15, 16, 18. — Vahl., op. cit., iii. 

 t. 25, 26.— Jacq., Hort. Schoenbr., t. 3y2. — 

 Roxb., PL Coromand., t. 99. — Wight, Icon., 

 t. 198. 



VII. Clypearia. — Unarmed trees. Inflores- 

 cences in numerous pedunculate panicles, whose 

 ramifications are more or less obliquely super- 

 posed. Pod broad, contorted, cochlear, often woody. 

 Aril present or wanting. Species ten, Asiatic. 



1 Maet., Herb. Fl. Bras., 117, 128.— Endl., 

 Gen., n. 6S37 d.— B.H., Gen., 598, n. 396. 



2 Velloz., Fl. Mum., xi. t. 25, 26. — Geiseb., 

 Fl. Brit., W. hut., 226.— Waif., Sep., v. 621. 



3 Benth., in Hook. Journ., iii. 225. — B. II., 

 Gen., 599, 1004, n, 397. 



