LEGUMIN0S2E-TAPILI0NACE2E. 



193 



scending campylotropous ovules, whose micropyles look upwards 

 and outwards. 1 The fruit is a pod, elongated and subcylindrical or 

 slightly compressed, thick and at first fleshy, finally coriaceous, 2 and 

 dehiscing by two longitudinal clefts into two valves, freeing from its 

 single cavity a variable number of descending campylotropous seeds. 

 Each of these, attached by a broad hilum, contains within its thick 

 coats a fleshy exalbuminous embryo, with thick cotyledons and an 

 inflexed accumbent radicle. The Bean is a herbaceous annual, with 

 alternate pinnate leaves, whose leaflets, variable in number (from one 

 to three pairs), are unsymmetrical and entire, while the extremity 

 of the rachis aborts and is reduced to a narrow tongue. The two 

 lateral stipules are membranous and unsymmetrical, 3 and the flowers 

 are united, few together, in short axillary racemes. 4 



The other species of the genus Vicia often differ from this in 

 habit, for their stem is rarely erect, more frequently creeping along 

 the ground, and still oftener climbing and hooking on to neigh- 

 bouring bodies by the cirrhi or tendrils borne on the leaves. These 

 tendrils represent the midrib of the terminal leaflet, with (if ramified) 

 those of the last lateral leaflets. The flowers are often collected into 

 racemes, 5 or more rarely one, two, or three together on a level with 

 the axils of the leaves. 6 Each flower is accompanied by a very 

 caducous bract, but has no lateral bractlets. Some two hundred 

 species 7 of this genus have been described, natives of the temperate 

 regions of the whole northern hemisphere and of South America. 8 



The Lentils 9 (Fr., Lentiiles) come very near Vicia, from which 

 perhaps they should not be generically separated; their style is 



1 They have two coats. 



2 The walls are not so thick or so fleshy, or 

 coriaceous, in any of the remaining species of 

 Vicia. 



3 In V. Faba they bear a dark -purple thick 

 glandular spot. 



4 Or rather pseudo-racemes ; the true ar- 

 rangement of the flowers is not yet well known. 



5 In many of the species it will be seen that 

 these so-called racemes have flowers on only one 

 side of the chief axis of the inflorescence, the 

 other side remaining bare. 



6 But not in the very axils of the leaves ; for 

 the study of the development shows that the 

 inflorescence is not really axillary here any more 

 than in the Bean. 



7 But this number should probably be reduced 

 by half, 



8 Jacq., Hort. Vindob., t. 146, 147; Fl. 



VOL. II. 



Austr., t. 34, 229, 364.— W., Spec, iii. 1093.— 

 H. B. K., Nov. Gen. et Spec, t. 581-583.— 

 Ledeb., Fl. Boss. Icon., t. 50, 108, 366, 368, 

 481.— Vent., Jard. Ceh., t. 84.— Desf., Fl. 

 Allant., t. 197, 198.— Beot., P/a/t. Lusit., t. 

 52.— Sibth., Fl. Grcec, t. 699-702.— Moms, 

 Fl. Sard., t. 69-71.— DC, Ic PL Gall. Bar., 

 33.— Webb, Phyt. Canar., t. 65, B, C.— Jattb. 

 & Spach, III. PL Orient., t. 41. — Boiss., Voy., 

 t. 57. — Sweet, Brit. Fl. Gard., scr. 2, t. 274.— 

 GiiEN. & Godr., Fl. de Fr.,\. 458-475. — Benth., 

 in Mart. Fl. Bras., PapiL, 107, t. 29.— Bot. 

 Beg., t. 871.— Bot. Mag., t. 2098, 2141, 2206, 

 2946.— Walp., Rep., i. 713; ii. 885; Ann., i. 

 242; ii. 398; iv. 528.— Baker, in Oliv., FL 

 Trop. Afr., ii. 172. 



9 Lens T., Inst., 390, fc.210.— M<EN< u. Hfeth., 

 131.— Gren. & Godr., Fl. de Fr., i. 476.— 

 B. H., Gen., 525, n. 185. 



O 



