254 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Cajamts. Grermen subsessile, 1-2-ovulate ; ovules descending ; 

 micropyle extrorse superior ; raphe somewhat thick ; style slender 

 or thickened, 1 curved ahove ; apex minute capitate stigmatiferous. 

 Legume compressed oblique suborbicular, oblong or slightly falcate, 

 ] - or oftener 2-seeded, continuous or more rarely septate within, 2- 

 valvecl. Seeds subglobose or compressed, more rarely subreniform ; 

 hilum lateral or subhorizontal and superior, short or oblong, dilated 

 into a small or rudimentary aril ; funicle subcentral or oblique. 2 — 

 Herbs or undershrubs, prostrate, erect, or oftener twining ; leaves 

 pinnate or more rarely subdigitate, 3-foliolate ; leaflets sprinkled 

 with resinous dots on under surface ; stipellre minute or ; stipules 

 ovate or lanceolate ; flowers 3 in axillary racemes, solitary or in 

 pairs along rachis ; bracts caducous ; bractlets {All hotter 

 region**} . 



50 ? Eriosema Desvx. s — Flowers almost those of Ii/iynchoxia, 

 calyx-lobes 5, all distinct or 2 superior shortly connate. Keel curved 

 at apex, obtuse. Stamens 2-adelphous (of Rkynchosia). Germen 

 sessile or subsessile; ovules 2, descending; style filiform or slightly 

 thickened at apex ; apex often curved, minutely capitate, stig- 

 matiferous. Legume of Mhynchosia, continuous or nearly con- 

 tinuous within, 1-2-seeded, 2-valved. Seeds oblique or transverse; 

 hilum linear superior, more or less thickened ; funicle subhorizontal, 

 attached at internal extremity of hilum. — Herbs or undershrubs, 

 prostrate, erect, or rarely twining ; leaves pinnate 3-foliolate, usually 

 exstipellate ; leaflets usually narrowed, sprinkled with resinous dots 8 

 on under surface ; stipules narrow, free or connate into one super- 

 posed to leaf; flowers 7 in axillary racemes, solitary or in pairs along 



1 More thickened in Sigmodoslylis. 



2 Bentham divides this genus, according to 

 the characters of hilum, aril, and funicle, into 11 

 sections, as follows : — 



a. Aril thick, fleshy (3 sections: Xo»n 

 Phyllomatia [Wight. & Ab> t .], Ptychocenlron 

 Wight & Aen.). 



b. Funicle expanded into a memhrane covering 

 the hilum, hut not truly arillate (S sections : 

 Orthodanum, Chrysoscias, Arcyphylhim, Cyano- 

 spermum, Pseudocajan (Bexth.), Copisma, Poly- 

 tropla). 



3 Yellow or purple, often with dark stripes. 



* Roxb., PI. Coromand., t. 221. — J acq., Ic. 

 Par., t. 146. — Jacquem., Toy. Pot., t. 54. — A. 



Kich., Fl. Abyss. Tent., t. 43. — Hook., Icon., 

 t. 189; Fxot. FL, t. 201.— Sot. May., t. 1859, 

 2L'S4.— Pot. Peg., t. 275.— Benth., in Mart. 

 Fl. Pros., PapiL, 200, t. 54; Fl. Austral., ii. 

 265.— Thw., Emm. PI. ZeyL, 412. — Seem., 

 Herald, t. 20. — Harv. & Sond., Fl. Cap., ii. 

 247. — Bakes, in Olio. FL Trop.Afr., ii. 216.— 

 Waep., Sep., i. 785; v. 540; Ann., i. 252; ii. 

 431; iv. 567. 



5 In Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. 1, ix. 421 (err. 

 Fiiriosma). — DC, Prodr., ii. 388 {Shynchosia 

 § 3).— Exdl., Gen., n. 6691. — Pyrrhotrichia 

 Wight & Asy., Prodr., i. 238, not. 



6 Le<s conspicuous than in Phynchosia. 



7 Yellow, usually small. 



