LEG UM1N0SJE-PAPILI0NA GE. /.'. 



217 



I'h ror/irpus Draco. 



r* i 



Fig. 188. 

 Fruit. 



Fig. 189. 

 Fruit opened. 



or absent. The flowers are small and numerous, 1 in terminal or 

 axillary racemes ; these are ramified, consisting of a large number 

 of regularly or irregularly 

 branching cymes, 8 and co- 

 vered with sometimes large 

 bracts, and small bractlets, 

 either caducous or fairly 

 persistent. 



All the plants which in 

 common with Dalbergia 

 have alternate leaves and 

 a dry fruit, with the seeds 

 attached by the middle of 

 the inner edge, so that they 

 are neither ascending nor descending, have been united into a 

 separate subseries, which has been named Pterocarpece from the 

 included genus Pferocarptt* (figs. lSS-lb9), whose fruit is one- 

 seeded, suborbicular or oblong, with the edge thinning off into a 

 sort of membranous wing. The ten genera of this subseries, 

 distinguished from one another by the form of their anthers and 

 fruit, are Dalbergia, Ecastaphyllum, Machcerium, Cyclolobium, Dre- 

 panocarpm, Platypodhtm, Tipuana, Centrolobium, Pteroearpus, and 

 PoBcilanthe. 



The six genera Andira, Geoffrma, Coumarouna (fig. 1 ( J0), Pterodon, 

 Euchresta, and Fissicalysc, form the small subseries Andirea or 

 Geoffrceece in which both the wings and the pieces of the keel are 

 free, or rarely united. The ovules are few or solitary ; and the fruit, 

 always one-seeded, is usually an indehiscent drupe, or has a thin, 

 turgid indehiscent pericarp. 



The single genus Bocoa forms a group apart, possessing the fruit 

 of Dalbergia and the allied genera, with a dehiscent pericarp, a sub- 

 regular corolla, an irregularly dentate, elongated gamosepalous 

 calyx, and alternate leaves. 



In Lonchocarpeae, the leaves are compound with the leaflets almost 

 constantly opposite. The fruit is not drupaceous but dry and 



1 They are white or more frequently purple 

 or violet. 



'-' BENTHATU {lie. cit.) divides this genus hy 

 means of the inflorescence, androccum, and fruit, 



into four sections, whose differentiating charac- 

 ters are far from being absolute: I. Triptolemceai 

 •1. Sissoa (Benth.) j 3. Balbergaria (Bentu.)j 

 l. .v / iiolobium (Bentii.). 



