50 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



long sea passage of 4000 miles, so that plants have frequently been raised in 

 greenhouses from seeds of this species found stranded on the shores of Europe. 

 In frequency of occurrence and widespread dispersal as a drift seed on the 

 western shores of Europe, Eulada comes easily first. The records range from 

 South Kerry to Spitzbergen. 



Mucuna urens Medic. Ti. (altissima ?) DC. 



Lilve EnUula scandois. both of these species are climbers, M. urcns being 

 widely distributed in the tropics of both hemispheres, including the Pacific 

 Islands ; while M. aitisshna appears to be confined to the New World, where 

 it occurs in the West Indies, Central America, and Brazil. Dr. Guppy has 

 found tlie seeds of botli species in the beach drift of the West Indian Islands,. 

 those of M. unm being much rarer there, as they are in the drift of the 

 European shores, than those of M. altissima. The seeds of the two species 

 are not easy to discriminate. Both are of rounded outline, more or less 

 flattened ; brown in colour, and almost completely surrounded by a broad, 

 black, sharply defined baud— the liilum or scar formed by the cord which 

 attaches the seed to the seed-case. The seed of M. urens is the smaller, not 

 exceeding an incli in diameter. It is more swollen or approacliing to a 

 globular form tlian the seed of M. altissima, which attains a diameter of an 

 inch and a-Iialf. As in Entada, the buoyancy of the seed is duo to an inter- 

 cotyledonary cavity. 



The firet mention of this genus I can find is in the Latin version of 

 Monarde.s, pubii.sJied by Clusius in 1574. Here a figure of a young plant is 

 given along with a few seeds, showing fairly well the characteristic broad 

 hilum. This figure, as Clusius tells us, was drawn from a plant which he 

 grew in Belgium from a seed brought from I'ernambuco, and procured by him 

 in Lisbon in 1564. He succeeded in growfiig this plant to a heiglit of two 

 cubitvs (about o feel 6 inches), but failed to flower it. A better figure of the 

 seed is given by J. Bauhiu in Vol. ii, p. 271, of his "Historia Plantarum," 

 published in 1651. The generic name Mucuna is derived from the native 

 Brazilian name, Macouna, under which the seeds were first introduced into 

 Europe. It is not jjossible to determine to which of the two drift siJecies 

 of Mucuna the figures and descriptions of Clusius and Bauhin should be 

 referred. 



Ooilandina Bondnc Linn. G. Bondncella Linn. 



The distribuliun of bolii of these .species is as wide as that of Entada and 

 Mucuna, and the hard, round, sliining seeds have attracted attention from 

 early times. The Liiineau specific name Bouduc, witii its diminutive 

 Bouducella, is derived from the Arabic word Bondog, signifying a necklace, 



