68 Leguminosce. [Diorfea. 



Lflts. broader, more acuminate; pod shorter and broader, 

 4 in. by i| in wide, oblong, 5-or 6-seeded. 



Dry region ; rather common. Jaffna ; Anuradhapura ; Kekirawa ; 

 Naula. Var. /3, moist low country up to 3000ft.; common. Fl. Dec, 

 Feb., August ; bright pink or nearly white. 



Throughout the Tropics, wild or cultivated. 



This seems truly native in Ceylon, though the type-form is also largely 

 grown as a pulse. The English call it the ' Sabre-bean.' 



The stam. are figured as diadelphous in Wight, Ic, but I find them 

 always monadelphous in flowers examined. 



2. C. obtusifolia, DC. Prod. ii. 404 (1825). Muduawara, 5. 



Thw. Enum. 88. C. P. 1484. 

 Fl. B. Ind. ii. 196. 



Perennial (? biennial), stems spreading, prostrate, rarely- 

 twining, glabrous, young shoots slightly silky ; 1. rather small, 

 rachis 2 -3! in., stip. small, caducous, lflts. 1-2 in. broadly 

 obovate or roundish, quite glabrous, thick ; fl. rather smaller 

 than in the last, few, in erect racemes longer than 1.; cal. 

 pubescent ; pod about 4 in., tapering at base into long stalk, 

 f in. wide, shortly beaked, nearly straight, glabrous ; seeds 5 

 or 6, ovoid, compressed, over \ in., black when dry. 



Sandy seashores ; common. Fl. Jan., July, August ; bright pink. 



Throughout the Tropics. 



A truly seashore plant. The flowers are sometimes white. The seeds 

 are much eaten, boiled, at Batticaloa and elsewhere. 



I doubt if the figure of Rheede, Hort. Malab. viii. t. 43, can be referred 

 to our plant, but the species is very variable. It is possibly the original 

 wild state of C. ensiformis. 



32. DXOCLEA, H. B. K. 



Woody twiner, 1. pinnately 3-foliolate, with stipels ; fl. 

 moderate-sized, on short thickened branchlets of racemose 

 panicles; cal. deeply campanulate, upper segm. connate for 

 nearly whole length, lower ones narrow-triangular the lowest 

 the longest ; pet. about equal, keel not beaked ; stam. mona- 

 delphous, the top one free below; style beardless, stigma 

 capitate; pod large, oblong-falcate, compressed, flattened on 

 dorsal suture with a narrow horizontal wing along each side ; 

 seed large, flat, hilum narrow, linear, extending round more 

 than f of the edge. — Sp. 16; 1 in Fl. B. Ind. 



D. reflexa, Hk.f. in Niger Flora, 306 (1849). 

 D. Fergusonii, Thw. Enum. 412. C. P. 3817. 

 Fl. B. Ind. ii. 196. 



