158 Mr. Bentham on the Structure and affinities 



than with F'icia, Centrosema, TrifoUum, or others, and in other respects the 

 two genera are very different. I have no perfect flowers in my specimens of 

 Voandzeia, but they are not described as having the long calycine tube of 

 Arachis : the fertile flowers have a calyx though they have no corolla, and the 

 legume, though indehiscent from being subterraneous, has the sutures very 

 prominent, and is not reticulated. The foliage, stipules, and inflorescence 

 are entirely those of Phaseolecp, to which tribe I should follow Ernest Meyer 

 in referring it, although the want of the perfect flowers prevents me from 

 ascertaining to which section of that tribe it approaches the nearest. Apeta- 

 lous flowers are common in Phaseolecc, as, for instance, in the genera Galactia, 

 Glycine, Amphicai'pcea, Neurocarpum, Centrosema, &c. 



The following are the distinctive characters I should propose for the genera 

 Arachis and Styhsanthes, to which I subjoin a synopsis of the species of 

 Arachis. 



Arachis. Linn. 



Flares polygami. Floris hermaphroditi sterilis : calyx tubo longo filiform!, 

 limbo subbipartito, labio superiore breviter 4-dentato, inferiore tenui 

 integro. Corolla fauci calycis inserta. f^exillum suborbiculare. Ala; 

 oblongse, liberse, transversim leviter plicatfB, Carina incurva, rostrata. 

 Stamina monadelpha vexillari interdum abortiente. Antherce alternse 

 subrotundse, medifixse ; alternae oblongse, adnatse. Ovarium intra tubum 

 calycis subsessile, minutum, 2 — 3-ovulatum. Stylus ad antheras attingens, 

 filiformis. .S'#/§"/na minutum vel nullum ? Floris foeminei fertilis : calyx, 

 corolla et stamina nulla. Ovarium toi'o mox elongato reflexo rigido sti- 

 pitatum, et cum eo continuum, acutum, intus uniloculare, simplici serie 

 2 — 3-ovulatum, ovulis ovoideis anatropis. Stylus brevissiraus, subnullus. 

 Stigma subdilatatum, terminale. Legumen intra terram raaturescens, 

 oblongum, crassum, reticulatum, indehiscens, subtorulosum, 2 — ^3-sper- 

 mum. Semina irregulariter ovoidea, cotyledonibus crassis carnosis, ra- 

 dicula recta brevi. 



Herha; humiles, soepe prostratae. Folia petiolata, abrupte pinnata, ecirrhosa, 

 foliolis oppositis bijugis. Stipuhe basi petiolo adnatae, striafae. Stipellw 

 nullce. Flores in spicam densam axillarem ssepius approximati, singuli 



