1897.] D. Prain — Some additional Leguminosad. 367 



Au examination of the species of this genus that occur in Bengal, when living 

 examples and not merely herbarium material are dealt with, shows that the only good 

 account of tliem hitherto published is that by Dr. Roxburgh who treated them as 

 species of Aeschynomene. 



1. Sesbania .egyptiaca Pers. 



The Jait, Jay ti or Jaynti ; a very familiar hedge plant in Indian fields nnd 

 gardens. Its wood is still, as in Dr. Roxburgh's day, highly reputed as a source of 

 charcoal for gunpowder manufacture. The fnct that this is a small tree, lasting for 

 several years, has prevented any confusion between it and tl.e other species in the 

 field. In herbaria however it is often mixed with the second species which like 

 it has twisted pods and which has even larger flowers ; in literature on the other 

 hand, this second species is referred to 8. aculeata. 8. asgyptiaca is, by colour of 

 flowers merely, separable into three varieties : — 



1. typica ; flowers uniformly yellow. Sesban P. Alpin, PI. JEgypt. 81. t. 82; 

 Kedangu Rheede Hort. Malab. vi. 49, t. 27; Emerus Burm. Fl. Zeyl. 93, t. 41. 

 Plulcenet, Phytogr. t. 165, f . 2. 



Wight and Arnott refer here another figure of Plukenet's, while they refer 

 Rheede's fig. to var. 3 and Burman's to vab. 2. Both the latter authors however 

 speak of the flowers simply as yellow. This seems to be one of the original Indian 

 forms, it is however much more rarely grown now-a-days than either of the other 

 two varieties. 



2. Var. picta ; standard externally dotted with purple. Pluhenet, Phytogr. 

 t. 164, f. 5. S. picta Pers. Synops. ii. 316 ; Lindl. Bot. Beg. t. 873. Aeschynomene 

 picta Cav. Ic. iv. 7, t. 314. Apparently not originally native in India though now 

 very widely cultivated there. From a perusal of Rheede's description and from 

 Burmann's diffidence about referring Plukenet's figure of this plant to his Emerus 

 it seems fairly clear that this variety had, in Rheede's and Burmann's time, already 

 reached India from America, where it seems truly native. This particular variety is 

 commoner in Bengal than the typical form but is not nearly so common as the next. 

 In Burma on the other hand this and the next appear to be equally common. 



3. Var. bicolor W. & A. Prodr. 214 ; standard dark-maroon or purple outside. 

 Aeschynomene Sesban Roxb. Flor. Ind. iii. 332. Sesbania picta Hort. Calcutta; Flor. 

 Brit. Ind. ii. 114 not of Pers. and not of Bot. Reg. 



This form is as common in Burma as the preceding and in Bengal is the one 

 that is usually cultivated. It has long stood in Indian gardens as the representative 

 of the name S. picta ; this misapprehension, no doubt owing to reliance placed upon 

 wrongly-named specimens distributed from the Calcutta Herbarium, has crept into 

 the Flora of British India. 



2. Sesbania paludosa Prain, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. lxvi. 2. 82 ; very 

 tall annual marsh-plants of tree-like habit, quite unarmed ; flowers large, 

 pod long twisted flexible with strong, not iudented sutures. S. grandi- 

 flora Miq. Flor. Ltd.- Bat. i. 288 not of Pers. S. cochinchinensis Kurz 

 As. Soc. Beng. xlv. 2, 271 not of DG. S. aculeata var. paludosa Bak. in 

 Flor. Brit. Ind. ii. 115 (excl. syn. Aesohynomeue uligiuosa.) S. punc- 

 tata Bth. MSS. in Herb. Kew. not of DG. Aeschynomene paludosa 

 Roxb. Hort. Beng. 56; Flor. Ind. iii. 333 not S. paludosa Jacq. 



