LEGUMIN0S2E- CMSALPINIE31. 



113 



Bauhinia ( Caspar id) porrecta. 



are three fertile stamens; the rest are sterile, and the calyx is re- 

 curved ; while the insertion of the gynseceum, central in Casparia, is 

 here excentric. Phanerd 1 resembles Looco- 

 calyx in the insertion of the pistil ; hut 

 its calyx splits to the base into long straps, 

 while it is only shortly five-cleft in the 

 former section. In Lasiobema 2 the receptacle 

 is shallow, and the number of stamens is 

 often reduced to live, of which the three 

 anterior are alone fertile. The gynseceum, 

 which is often pauciovulate, has behind it 

 a large gland of variable form. 



Thus constituted, 3 the genus Bauhinia 

 consists of some hundred and twenty-five 

 species 4 of erect or climbing trees or shrubs 

 from all tropical countries. The stem is 

 often flattened and deformed, 5 and there are 

 often simple cirrhi or tendrils at the base 

 of the inflorescence. The leaves are simple 

 alternate, with a variable number of digitate basilar ribs, entire or 



Fig. 80. 

 Flower. 



1 LorR., Fl. Cochinch., 46. — Symphyopoda 

 DC, Mem. Legum., xiii. t. 70 ; Prodr., ii. 515. 

 Fertile stamens four or five, the rest sterile or 

 altogether absent. Pod coriaceous bivalve. This 

 section comprises some forty species from tropi- 

 cal Asia and Africa, and from the Cape. Un- 

 armed shrubs either sarmentose and cirrhose or 

 erect, with entire or two-lobed leaves. (Vahl., 

 Synib. But., iii. t. 62. — Wight, Icon., t. 263, 

 264.— Wall, PI. Asiat. Ear., t. 253. — Koetu., 

 Verh. Nat. G-esch. Bot., t. 10, 11, 23, 24.— 

 Benth., in PI. Jungh., 263 (part.) ; Fl. Hongk., 

 99.— Haev. & Sond., FL Cap., ii. 375 [B. 

 Burkeana~].) [For the African species of this 

 genus see also Oliv., Fl. Trop. Afr., ii. 285.] 



2 Koeth., ex Miq., Fl. Ind.-Bat., i. p. 1, 71. 

 This section might perhaps be raised to the rank 

 of a distinct genus. The flowers have a very 

 shallow receptacle. In L. anguinea Griff., 

 the calyx is gamosepalous, five toothed; the 

 petals are markedly imbricate, with the vexillary 

 internal. There are five stamens, alternipetalous, 

 of which the three anterior alone have fertile 

 introrse anthers. The two posterior are short 

 tongues, which may even be absent. Between 

 these two, in the middle line against the pla- 

 centary edge of the ovary, is a large projecting 

 gland. The stipitate ovary is somewhat excentri- 

 cally inserted; it contains two descending ana- 



VOL. II. 



tropous ovules, and ends in a bowed subulate 

 style. The fruit is short, flattened, and inde- 

 hiscent. Lasiobema consists of cirrhose climbing 

 shrubs, with a compressed undulate stem, entire 

 and two-lobed leaves, and numerous small flowers, 

 in ramified racemes. Only one species is known 

 (Roxb., PL CoromandeL, t. 285). By the 

 above features Lasiobema affords a transition 

 between Bauhinia proper and the genera Sin- 

 dora and Detarium of the series Copaiferea:. 



1. Pauletia. 



2. Perlebia. 



3. Adenolobus. 



4. Schnella. 



5. Piltostigma. 



6. Lysiphyllum. 



7. Amaria. 



8. Casparia. 



9. Loxocalyx. 



10. Phanera. 



11. Lasiobema. 



Bauhinia 

 Sect. 11. ^ 



4 DC, Prodr., ii. 512.— Gkiseb., Fl. Brit. 

 W. Ind., 213.— Haev. & Sond., Fl. Cop., ii. 

 275, 596.— Bolle, in Pet. Moss. Bot., i. 22.— 

 Walp., Rep., i. 847; ii. 901 ; v. 572; Ann., i. 

 258; ii. 4 IS; iv. (102.— Oliv., loc. cit. 



b See Sciilkid., Griotdz., ed. 3, ii. 167, tig- 



