Pithecolobium^ Leguminosce. r 3 1 



A. molnccana, Miq., a native of Java and other Malayan Islands, has 

 been a good deal planted as a shade-tree during the last ten or twelve 

 years, having been introduced in 1880. Its growth is extraordinarily 

 rapid ; a tree in the Bot. Garden at Peradeniya 6h years old, cut down in 

 1893, was 89 ft. high, and girthed 6\ ft. at a yard above the ground. 



64. PXTHECOX.OBXU1H, Mart. 



Trees, sometimes thorny, 1. bipinnate, with or without stip., 



fl. small in rounded heads or umbels, not polygamous ; cal. 



campanulate or tubular, segm. very short ; pet. connate half 



way up into a cor. ; stam. indef., monadelphous at base, much 



longer than cor., not gland-tipped ; pod flat, usually curved 



into a circle and often twisted, usually dehiscent, sometimes 



jointed, several-seeded. — Sp. 100; 15 in Fl. B. Ind. 



Pinnae 1 pair 1. P. geminatum. 



Pinnae 2-4 pair. 



Lflts. 5-8 pair 2. P. UMBELLATUM. 



Lflts. 1-3 pair 3. P. bigeminum. 



Lflts. 13-20 pair 4. P. SUBCORIACEUM. 



1. P. g'eminatum, Benth. in Lond. Journ. Bot. iii. 202 (1844). 

 Thw. Enum. 100. Calliandra {?) geminata, Benth. in Trans. Linn. 

 Soc. xxx. 548. C. P. 1531. 



Fl. B. Jnd. ii. 303. Hook. Ic. Plant, t. 15 10. 



A small bushy tree with smooth grey bark, young branches 

 slender, pubescent ; 1. small, stip. spinous, persistent, at length 

 f in., straight, very sharp, dark brown, pubescent, rachis ver}' 

 short \-\ in., pubescent, with stalked erect gland at end, 

 pinnae 1 pair, about 1 in., slender, pubescent, lflts. 2-10 (1-5 

 pair), sessile, unequal, \-\ in., oblong, unequal at base, obtuse, 

 mucronate, dark green, glabrous and shining, with conspicuous 

 veins; fl. sessile, crowded, heads (with stam.) I \ in. wide, 

 peduncles slender, pilose, 1-3 from axils of 1. ; cal. shallowly 

 campanulate, glabrous, segm. widely triangular ; cor. cam- 

 panulate, segm. ovate acute; stam. exserted \-\ in. beyond 

 cor.; pod 2-4 in. by § in. wide, shortly stalked, much curved, 

 often twisted, pointed, flat, usually much constricted (almost 

 moniliform; between the seeds, dark brown, glabrous, shining, 

 ■opening by ventral suture only, seeds about 8. 



Dry region; common. !• I. Sept.-Nov. 



Endemic. The Kl. lirit. Ind., following Beddome, gives also Peninsular 

 India, but I have seen no spe< imens thence. 



First .olI'MfH by Kocnig. lientham has referred this latterly, with 

 a doubt, to Calliandra, not having seen the pod, which is, however, 

 quite that of Pithecolobium. 



P. dulce, Benth., the 'Madias Thorn' of the English in Ceylon, is 

 mu'.h planted for hedges and as a Bhade-tree in towns, and was, doubt- 



