232 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



hilum ; embryo fleshy ; cotyledons thick ; radicle short, nearly 

 straight or curved, accumbent. — Annual or perennial herbs ; leaves 

 imparipinnate ; terminal leaflet similar to remainder (i.e. mem- 

 branous and dentate or cut) or ending in a spine or small tendril ; 

 stipules membranous, adnate to base of petiole ; flowers 1 solitary or 

 few, pedicellate on a subaxillary peduncle ; bracts small ; bract- 

 lets {Mediterranean, Western and Central Asicr). 



6 ? Abrus L. 3 — Calyx truncate ; teeth 4, 5, very short or obsolete. 

 Petals elongated, arched or falcate ; keel a little longer than wings. 

 Stamens 9 ; filaments scarcely perigynous, connate into a sheath 

 cleft above ; anthers uniform. Germen subsessile cc-ovulate; style 

 short curved beardless ; stigma minute capitate. Legume oblong 

 or linear, plano-convex, more or less septate between seeds, 2-valved ; 

 seeds subgiobose or ovoid, shining.— Shrubs or undershrubs, slender, 

 often turning ; leaves paripinnate ; petiole terminating in an abortive 

 bristle ; leaflets cx-jugate exstipellate ; flowers 4 racemose articulated ; 

 racemes terminal or axillary, each terminating a short, almost leafless 

 branch" (All hot regionf). 



II. PHASEOLE.E. 



7 Phaseolus L. — Flowers irregular resupinate ; receptacle cupuli- 

 form, lined by a disk produced into a tube round buse of gynseceum. 

 Calyx gamosepalous ; lobes or teeth 2, posterior nearly free or 

 connate to a variable height, imbricated in aestivation. Corolla 

 papilionaceous : standard suborbicular, recurved patent, or rather 

 twisted, at base thickened fleshy, subappendiculate at inflexed 

 margins ; wings obovate or oblong, about equal to or longer than 

 standard, adhering to keel in a variable manner and often twisted 



: White, bine, or violet. 



2 DC, Mem. Leju,n.,i. 51; Prodr., ii. 351. — 

 Wight, Icon., t. 20. — Sibth., Fl. Qrac, t. 

 703. — Jaub. & Spach, III. PI. Orient., t. 42- 

 45. — Fenzl, in Puss. Meise, t. 9. — Alef., in 

 (Estr. Pot. Zeit. (1859); in Bonplandla (18G1), 

 67.— Pot. Mag., t. 2274.— Gren. & Godb., Fl. 

 de Fr., i. 477. — Walp., Pep., ii. 833; Ann., i. 

 212 ; ii. 397. 



3 See p. 195. 



4 Small, white, or pink. 



* I'hi.-s genus, anomalous among Viciece, and 



having some affinity with DalbergietB, has by 

 some authors been placed among l'ltaseolece 

 (where it is similarly anomalous), while by 

 others it is made the type of the sub-tribe 

 ■iicce (Wight & AEN., Prod/:, i. 23G ; — 

 Em.:.., Gen., 1301). 



6 Koxb., Fl. hid., iii. 257. — Wight, Icon., 

 t. 33. — Thw., Fnum. PI. Zettl., 91. — Bbnth., 

 in Mart. Fl. Bras., PapU.,~2l5. — Bakee, in 

 Oliv. Fl. Trop. .///•., ii. 174.— Walp., Rep., i. 

 791 ; v. 511 ; Ann., iv. 5G9. 



