358 D. Prain — Some additional Leguminosae. [No. 2, 



20. MILLETTIA W. & A. 



The genus Millettia, here retained because its species are familiar under that 

 name to residents in the East, does not differ, as Baron von Mueller has shown, 

 from Wistaria. Unfortunately though Wistaria has become most familiar as the name 

 of the genus it is by no means the oldest and therefore is not the one that ought to 

 be employed. As Sir J. D. Hooker and Mr. Jaokson show (Index Kewensis vol. 

 ii. p. 1232} there are at least four names with a prior claim to being used. The oldest 

 of these is Kraunhia (Raf. Med. Rep. N. Y. v. 352 [1808]) and the propriety 

 of restoring the use of this name seems to be unquestionable. Dr. Otto Kuntze, 

 however, proposes to employ the name Phaseolodes, — a modification of his own, of 

 Phaseolcrides, a name employed before the time of Linnaeus — to indicate the genus. 

 To this the writer cannot agree, because of the inadvisability of employing an 

 adjective, even when a wrong spelling is adopted, as the name of a genus. 



lb. Millettia puerarioides Prain; leaflets 5-7 membranous 

 narrowly elliptic-oblong exstipellate densely silky beneath, standard 

 densely silky on back, stamens monodelphous, pod glabrescent. Millet- 

 tia sericea Kurz, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xlv. pt. 2, 275 ; For. Flor. i. 353 

 not of W. 8f A. Kraunhia puerarioides Prain MSS. 



Tenasserim ; Choungya, 4000 ft., Gallatly n. 531 1 Pegu; Tonkyegbat, 

 Nakawachoung, Kurz n. 1765 ! Upper Burma ; Poneshee, /. Anderson ! 



A woody climber, the branches glabrous and lenticelled. Leaves 2 feet long ; 

 leaflets 7-10 in. long, narrowed from the middle towards both extremities, the base 

 cuneate, the apex very long caudate-acuminate, green and glabrous above, densely 

 grey-silky beneath, the petiolules |-$ in. long and the rachis densely brown-tomen- 

 tose. Racemes lateral a foot long, the lower half naked the upper densely set with 

 fascicles of pedicellate flowers. Calyx £ in., silky, scarcely toothed. Corolla $ in., 

 pale-pink, very silky. Pod (unripe) 2-3 in. long, sparsely coated with adpressed hairs, 

 becoming ultimately glabrescent. 



This is the Burmese plant referred by Mr. Kurz to M. sericea ; it is difficult to 

 decide whether it differs most from that species as to pods, which are narrower and 

 become, even while young, glabrescent ; as to flowers, which are about half the 

 size ; as to inflorescence, which is much longer and narrower, or as to leaflets which 

 are densely silky beneath with much longer hairs, which taper gradually into a 

 very long caudate sharp point instead of being abruptly shortly bluntly cuspidate, 

 and which are membranous in place of coriaceous. 



Millettia sericea has never been sent to Calcutta from Burma. 



4. Millettia pulchra Bth,. 



Var. tomentosa; branchlets and leaf-rachises densely tomentose, 

 leaflets softly tomentose beneath. MiHetfcia tomentosa Watt MSS. in 

 Herb. Calcutta. 



Assam; Silhet, Be Silva (Wall. Cat. 5630 C) ! Naga Hills, below 

 Kohima, 3500 ft., Prain 1 Manipur, at Laireain, 3000 feet, Watt n. 

 6,274 ! 



This variety is very different in appearance, owing to its tomentum, from the 

 typical plant ; its leaflets are also larger. 



