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



A careful examination of the now abundant material of this species both from 

 India and from China shows that . Mr. Bentham's two proposed species are not 

 separable even as varieties. Recently the species has been obtained by Mr. Clarke 

 and by the writer in the Naga Hills of Upper Assam, and by Dr. A. Henry in Hupeh, 

 so that its geographical area is probably continuous from Japan to Sikkim, where it 

 is quite common. 



lb. Pueraria Collbttii Prain ; shrubby when young, sometimes 

 climbing when older, pedicels in flower not exceeding the small calyx ; 

 pod pubescent 8-10-seeded. Pueraria sp. nov. Coll. Sf Hemsl., Journ, 

 Linn. Soc. xxviii. 4S. 



Upper Burma; Shan Hills at Ywangyen, 4000 feet, Collett 654! 

 Maymyo, King's Collectors ! Fort Stedman, Indine, Taungyi, Saga, etc., 

 very common, King's Collectors ! 



Perennial ; when shrubby 5-6 feet high, with subterete velvety branches. Leaflets 

 thickly membranous, usually densely velvety on both surfaces and not losing their 

 tomentum even when aged ; end one ovate-acute, 5-7 in. long, base cuneate from the 

 middle, lateral similar but with oblique base, externally slightly rounded. Racemes 

 spicate axillary, canescent, 8-10 in. long ; bracts small soft usually falling ; pedicels 

 in fruit '25 in. Calyx '2 in., velvety. Corolla '4 in., purplish. Pod linear, flat, pale, 

 2 in. long, '25 in. wide, very uniformly 10-seeded, occasionally 1 or 2 abortive. 



This is extremely near P. stricta Kurz, but differs in having longer axillary racemes 

 with soft hardly persistent bracts ; in having pubescent pods with thicker valves 

 and in having densely pubescent, indeed almost velvety leaves, the pubescence 

 persisting even when the plant is in ripe fruit. Sir H. Collett and Mr. Hemsley had 

 already decided that this was probably an undescribed species, but in the absence of 

 fruit were unable to provide a diagnosis. It is therefore named in honour of Sir 

 Henry, who first collected it. 



Sir Henry found it an erect shrub, as have all our native collectors save one, 

 who notes that at Maymyo it was climbing. It is very strange that although this 

 species has now been found so plentifully, none of our Calcutta collectors have 

 again met with P. stricta, P. hirsuta or P. brachycarpa, three species described in 

 this Journal (vol. xlii) by the late Mr. Kurz, and all of them described from 

 rather inadequate material ; none of the three are in flower and of none were 

 there duplicate specimens for distribution, so that Mr. Baker when dealing with 

 the genus in the Flora of British India had seen no specimens. That P. hirsuta is 

 very distinct is certain ; its leaflets have 8-10 pairs of lateral nerves that are of 

 equal strength. Otherwise its general appearance is exactly that of the other three 

 species, all of which have primarily sub-3-nerved leaflets, owing to the lowest pair 

 of lateral nerves being stronger than the others. P. brachycarpa indeed looks as 

 if it might only be a short-podded variety of P. stricta, and it is within the bounds of 

 possibility that when their flowers are known it may be necessary to reduce the one 

 to the other and to unite P. Collettii with the two. 



10. Pueraria phaseoloides Benth. 



The synonym usually quoted as Phaseolus decurrens is an error for P. decurvus, 

 the latter being what Graham and Wallich actually wrote. 



106. Piekalua sunsriCATA Benth, Jour n, Linn, Soc. ix. 125 j Kurz 



