4 NORTH AMERICAN FLORA (Volume 24 



the keel-petals 3 mm. long, the claws 3 mm. long; pod glabrous, obliquely rounded-ellipsoid, 

 shorter than the calyx, with a short slender erect beak; seed 3 mm. long, remform, brown. 



S^^Esc^rn SSSSL^SS&I^SSW; Cuba; native of Madeira and 

 ^Illustrations: Lob. Ic. 2: 31 (left figure); Jacq. Hort. Schoenb. 2: pi. 227; E. & P. Nat. Pfl. 

 3':/. 115, L, M. 



Excluded species 



PsoralEA corylifolia L. Sp. PI. 764. 1753. This, the type of the genus, has been reported 

 (Bull. Torrey Club 17; 313. 1890) from Appalachicola, Florida, but the specimens on which 

 this record was made belong to the preceding species. 



3. ASPHALTHIUM Medic. Vorles. Churpf. Phys.-Oek. Ges. 

 2:380. 1787. 



Rhynchodium Presl, Bot. Bemerk. 54. 1846. 



'Glandular-dotted herbaceous perennials. Leaves usually pinnately trifoliolate. Flowers 

 in head-like spikes on elongate axillary peduncles. Calyx inconspicuously or obsole tely 

 glandular-punctate, 5-cleft; tube campanula, not gibbous; lobes unequal, lanceolate ubu 

 fate-tipped the lowest much longer than the rest. Banner narrow, oblanceolate- ag ttate. 

 with a broad short claw and small basal lobes; wings shorter, the blades semisagit a e, longer 

 Than the claws, and with long lanceolate-semilunate basal lobes, the lower part of the blade 

 adnate to the blade of the adjacent keel-petal; keel-petals shorter, the blades oblanceolate- 

 oblong rounded and adnate to each other at the apex, truncate at the base on the upper side 

 Stamens monadelphous at the base, but the tenth stamen free above the other mne unxted to 

 near the apex, alternately longer and shorter. Pod indehiscent, with a long sword-shaped 

 beak, which usually ultimately breaks off; pericarp adnate to the seed. 

 Type species, Psoralea bituminosa L. 



1 Asphalthium bituminosum (L.) Kuntze; Post & Kuntze, Lex. 

 Gen. Phan. 48. 1903. 



Psoralea biluminosa L. Sp. PI. 763. 1753. „ ,. ,„ n ]7S7 



AspLlhnun frulcscns Medic. Vorles Churpf. ***■**£ Ges ' 2 ' 380 1 ' 87 ' 

 Rhynchodium biltiminosum Presl, Bot. Bemerk. 54. 1846. 



Stem 5-10 dm. high, decumbent at the base, strigose and striate; stipules distinct, subu- 

 late 5-^0 mm. lo ng; petioles 1-2 cm. long; leaflets lanceolate, 4-6 ^cm ^ ^™f .^ 

 conspicuously veined, entire, acute; peduncles 1-2.5 dm. long; spikes 1.5-2. cm long bract 

 ovate caudate-acuminate; calyx strigose; tube 5-6 mm. long; lobes lance-subulate, the lowest 

 Ho mm. long, the rest 6-7 mm. long; corolla lilac or rose, with purple-tipped keel, banner 

 about 5 mm. long; beak of the pod about 7 mm. long. 



^tViBrmoN- Southern Europe, northern Africa, and the Orient; occasionally escaped from 

 ^Z£™£££™?££. ^/TWr. Hand,, * 210; Sibth. Ft Graeca 

 pi. 738. 



4. ORBEXILUM Raf. Atl. Jour. 145. 1832. 



Psoralea § Poikadenia Ell. Bot. S. C. & Ga. 2: 197. 1822. 



Perennial herbs with rootstocks or fusiform roots, rarely shrubby below Leaves alter- 

 nate I ^usually glandular-dotted, pinnately 1-3-foliolate rarely Mohola* Flow- 

 m long-peduncled axillary spikes or racemes. Calyx campanula, not gibbous at ^the base 

 usually gandular-dotted, rarely glandless. 5-lobed, the lowest lobe ofte, l some ha , nge 

 than the rest Corolla mostly blue or purple, not strongly veined ; banner broadly obovate oi 

 suoorbicular with recurved or spreading sides and a straight or slightly curved narrow claw 

 often wtTsmall basal lobes at the base of the blade; wings about as long as the banner th 

 blades mostly obliquely lunate, rounded at the apex and each with a small basal lobe, about 



