MR. BENTHAM ON TROPICAL LEGUMINOSA. 299 
sented characters that had not been observed in others. In the first general sketch of 
the group which I made for the * Plants» Junghuhnianæ, it appeared to me that if the 
universally adopted genera Dicerma and Nicolsonia of De Candolle were maintained, it 
would be necessary to keep up several others, and even to establish new ones, for which 
I gave characters in a note to that work. I have, however, since then had occasion to 
examine in detail above a hundred species, besides numerous varieties published as 
species ; and the characters relied on for the separation of the smaller genera have proved 
too uncertain or too artificial to be available for any but sectional divisions; sothat in our 
* Genera Plantarum’ I have found it necessary not only to restore the genus to the extent 
originally contemplated by De Candolle, but to add to it his Dicerma and Nicolsonia, 
which are now shown to be less different from several of his Desmodiums than these are 
from each other. The minor characters have served to distinguish twelve sections, besides 
four subsections of Heteroloma; and it is with much hesitation that I refrained from 
adding to them the small or monotypic genera Ougeinia, Benth., Mecopus, Benn., and 
Pseudarthria, W. et Arn., closely connected as they are with some species of true Des- 
modium. On the other hand, the pod of Micolsonia congesta, Wight, is so very different 
from that of all the other sections, that I have been obliged to raise it to the rank of a 
genus, under the name of Leptodesmia, which I had formerly proposed as sectional in 
Desmodium, the two species described in the ‘Plante: Junghuhniane,’ ix. 222, taking the 
names of L. congesta and L. lespedezioides. 
Among the recent additions to Desmodium are the two following, remarkable for their 
pinnate leaves with more than three leaflets (an exceptional form which, in the whole 
subtribe of Desmodiee, had hitherto been known only in a very few species of Uraria) :— 
D. (HETEROLOMA) PYCNOSTACHYUM, sp. n. Foliis pinnatis, foliolis quinis ovali-elliptieis 
oblongisve obtusissimis-v. emarginatis supra glabris subtus ramisque pilis raris con- 
spersis, stipulis subcordatis patentissimis, racemis densis terminalibus, bracteis parvis 
caducissimis, pedicellis brevibus, legumine hamato-pubescente pluriarticulato sutura 
superiore subeontinua inferiore profunde sinuata. 
-Erectum videtur, ramosum et forte fruticosum. Foliola fere D. concinni at semper in speciminibus 5 ; ter- 
minale 1-11-pollicare, lateralia minora. Stipulæ sicce rigidulæ, acuminate, striate, 1-2 lin. longæ, 
demum deciduæ. Inflorescentia, flores et fructus fere D. polycarpi; bracteæ tamen parvæ, setaceo- 
acuminatæ nec comosæ. 
Hab. Isle of Pines, off the coast of New Caledonia (M*Gillivray). 
D. (HETEROLOMA, Ponocarpra) OLDHAMT, Oliv. in Journ. Linn. Soc. ix. 165. Foliis pin- 
natis, foliolis subseptenis ovato-lanceolatis pilis adpressis conspersis, racemo elongato 
longe pedunculato laxe pubescente, bracteis angustis persistentibus, leguminis longe 
stipitati articulis paucis longe semiovatis. 
Caules elongati, simplices v, parum ramosi. Folia pauca, foliolo terminali 13-23-pollicari, lateralibus mino- 
ribus. Racemi semipedales, rigiduli. Bracteæ lineari-lanceolatz. Pedicelli solitarii v. gemini altero 
abbreviato. Calyx fere cyathiformis. Leguminis nondum maturi stipes 3 lin. longus; articuli 
1-2, fere triangulares, 3 lin. longi, medio 12 lin. lati. 
Hab. Japan (R. Oldham, 1862). 2v2 
