

1897.] G. King — Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 141 



H. siliquosum Burm. Fl. Ind. 169, t. 55, fig. 2. R. heterocarpon Linn 

 Sp. PL 747. H. purpureum Roxb. Hort. Beng. 57 ; Fl. Ind. Ill, 358. 

 H. retusum Don Prodr. 243. H. patens Roxb. Fl. Ind. Ill, 362. 



Var. typica ; leaves obovate-cuneate rounded at apex ; pods faintly 

 puberulous. 



In all the provinces, extremely common. Distrib. East Africa, 

 India, Malaya, Indo-China, China, Polynesia. 



"Var. ovalifolia; leaves ovate-acute base rounded or truncate; 

 leaflets beneath sometimes softly silky ; pods pubescent with spreading 

 hairs. D. ovalifolium Wall. Cat. n. 5730. 



Penang ; Wallich ! Perak ; Goping, Kunstler 1007 ! Distrib. 

 Sumatra (Forbes n. 1256 !) 



There are several more or less distinct forms of D. polycarpum most of which 

 are readily recognisable, though all are connected with each other and with typical 

 D. polycarpum by means of many intermediates. The form here defined as var. 

 ovalifolia has no intermediates, however, and so far as material hitherto collected 

 goes, might even be treated as a separate species. But its habit and its flowers are 

 so exactly those of D. polycarpum that it seems better to consider the differences of 

 leaves and fruit as merely varietal. 



§ Scorpicrus Bfch. Joints of pod indehiscent much longer than 

 broad constricted along both sutures. 



10. Desmodium laxiflorum DC. Prodr. II, 335. An erect under- 

 shrub 2-5 feet high with woody slender obtusely angled stems, at first 

 densely clothed with short hairs at length glabrescent. Leaves 6-20 

 in. long, 3-foliolate, petiole l'5-2'5 in., pubescent with adpressed hairs, 

 grooved above ; leaflets membranous or subcoriaceous, green and glabrous 

 above, sparsely adpressed-hirsute beneath, terminal ovate-acute base 

 rounded or cuneate, 4-6 in. long 1*5-3 in. across with petiolule 1 in. long, 

 lateral nerves prominent beneath 7-10 pairs; lateral leaflets similar 

 but- smaller l'5-2*5 in. long, 1-15 in. wide, base obliquely rounded, 

 petiolule very short ; stipels subulate 2 in. long ; stipules ovate long- 

 acuminate, 3 in, long. Inflorescence in axillary and terminal racemes 

 6-10 in. long, of 12-20 distant solitary flowers or few-fld. fascicles ; 

 bracts and bracteoles minute linear or setaceous ; rachis puberulous 

 with adpressed hairs as are the ultimately patent pedicels *2-25 in. 

 long. Calyx '1 in., pubescent, tube campanulate, teeth lanceolate as long 

 as tube. Corolla white, '2 in. long. Pod 1-1*75 in. long, pendulous, 

 •1 in. wide, joints *3 in. long, indehiscent, hardly constricted at the 

 sutures and not ribbed, closely beset with short hooked hairs. Miq. 

 Flor. Ind. Bat I, 251 ; Bak. in Flor. Brit. Ind. II, 164. D. bicolor 

 Wall. Cat. 5719. D. elongatum Wall. Cat. 5715. D. leptostachyum 

 Wall. Cat. 5697 B. D. sulcatum Wall. Cat. 5736. D. recurvatum Grah. 

 in Wall. Cat. 5717 ; W. & A. Prodr. 226 • Wight Ic. t. 374. B. diffu- 



