216 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Ddlbergia melanoxi/lon . 



VII. DALBEKGIA SERIES. 



Dalbergia 1 (fig. 187) lias irregular resupinate flowers, whose cup- 

 shaped receptacle is lined by a glandular disk. The gamosepalous 

 calyx divides above into five unequal teeth, imbricated in the bud. 

 The two superior are the largest, and the inferior, often longer than 

 the two lateral ones, is also narrower and more acute. There are 

 nine or ten stamens, monadelphous or diadelphous ; for the vexillary 

 stamen may be quite free, united to the rest in a sheath split open 



above, or even altogether absent. The anthers 

 are short erect and didymous, with their two 

 cells often placed back to back ; they dehisce 

 by longitudinal clefts extending all the way 

 down, or only to a variable distance from the 

 apex. The one-celled ovary, inserted by a short 

 foot in the bottom of the receptacle, ends in an 

 incurved style, with an obtuse truncate or 

 slightly dilated stigmatiferous apex. Its cavity 

 contains one or few descending incompletely ana- 

 tropous ovules, whose micropyles look upwards 

 and outwards. The fruit is dry, flattened, and 

 samaroid, obliquely linear or seldom bowed, with 

 a thin reticulate pericarp, one or few-seeded, 

 thinned off at the edges, and somewhat swollen and thickened over the 

 seeds. These are reniform compressed ; the radicle is inflexed and 

 accumbent. Dalbergia contains some three-score species 2 of climbing 

 trees or shrubs, from all the tropical countries of Asia, Africa, 

 America, and Oceania. The leaves are alternate imparipinnate ; 

 with alternate leaflets (sometimes reduced to one). There are no 

 stipels, but only two lateral ill-developed stipules, often caducous 



Fig. 187. 

 Longitudinal 



section of flower (f). 



1 L. til., Suppl., 52 (nee Tuss.).— J., Gen., 

 362.— Lamk., Diet., ii. 251; Suppl., ii. 115; 

 III., t. 601.— DC, Prodr., ii. 416 (part.).— 

 Spach, Suit, a Buffon, i. 359.— Endl., Gen., n. 

 5717. — Benth., in Ann. Wien. Mus., ii. 102. — 

 B. H., Gen., 544, n. 236. — Solori Adaxs., Fain, 

 des Pl„ ii. 327. — Amerimnum P. Be., Jam., 288, 

 t. 32, fig. 3. — Adans., loc. cit., 320.— DC, 

 Prodr., ii. 421. — Endl., Gen., n. 6701. — Trvp- 

 tolemaza Mart., ex Benth., loc. cit., 102. — 

 Endl., Gen., n. 6718. — Semeionotis Schott, in 

 Wien. Zeitschr. (1830), 1206.— MiscoloUvm 

 Yog., in Linnaa, xi. 200. — Benth., loc. cit., 



101. — Endl., Gen., n. 6719. — Endospermum 

 Bl., in Flora (1825), 132 (nee Bemii.).— 

 DC, Prodr., ii. 415. — Podiopetalvm IIociist., 

 in Flora (1841), 657. 



2 Roxb., PL Coromand., t. Ill, 191.— 

 Wight, /«,«., t. 242, 243, 261, 2i;l\ 266, 1156.— 

 (1( ill. & \'i Ki:., Fl. Seneg. Tent., i. 227, t, 53.— 

 BAKEB.in Oliv.Fl. Trop.Afr., ii. 232.— Bemii., 

 in Jovrn. Linn. Soc, iv. Suppl., 28; in Mart 

 Fl. Bras., Papil., t. 58-62 ; Fl. Austral., ii. 

 270.— Thw., 'Emm. PI. Zeyl., 93 (part.).— 

 Walp., Pep., l. 799; ii. 903; v. 515; A,ni.,i. 

 255; ii. 438; iv. 575. 



