1897.] D. Prain — Some additional Leguminosae. 505 



the writer without hesitation has widened the limits of the section so as to admit it. 

 When B. Championii and the allied B. Curtisii are included there is nothing in the 

 pods of B. strychnoidea to warrant its exclusion ; the only differential character 

 left is the entire calyx-limb, and that taken by itself seems barely sufficient to 

 warrant the establishment of a new section. 



37. Bauhinia monandra Kurz. 



The oldest name for this species is B. Richardiana Wall, in Voigt. Hoft. Suburb. 

 255 (1845) not of DC. The original B. Richardiana DC. {Prodr. ii. 517) from Guiana, 

 which Dr. Wallich seems for the moment to have overlooked, has cordate entire 

 leaves and therefore, though it is in other respects a doubtful species, cannot be this 

 plant. 



That this species is not (as Mr. Kurz and Mr. Baker have treated it) a native of 

 India is beyond dispute ; what its original country may be is, however, somewhat 

 doubtful. The history of its introduction may be best given by transcribing verba- 

 tim the passage in Dr. Wallich's MSS. Catalogue of the Calcutta Garden (Vol. i, p. 

 542), whence Voigt obtained the name. This passage runs as follows : — 



" Bauhinia Richardiana Wall. ' A tree.' No doubt a distinct species, with 

 " large round-cordate two-lobed leaves smooth except a little pubescence on the nerves 

 " and veins on the glaucous under surface, opaque above ; 13-nerved ; petioles 

 " shortish ; stipules lanceolate very small, as well as the young parts a little villous. 

 " It is now (see date) in flower and a most beautiful plant. It is of the section 

 " Casparea ; large ovate, pointed, shortish but distinctly clawed pale-pink petals with 

 " crispate margins and with very conspicuous darker-coloured dots ; lip crimson and 

 " spotted within, oblong and slightly three-lobed, channelled and pubescent at the 

 " margins below. 



" Madagascar ; Mons. Richard, 16 May, 1840 ; germinated, 21st, same month ; 

 " August 22, 1841, it flowered ; pod ripened, 6th December, 1841." 



The time between receipt of seed and flowering seems remarkably short ! 



The subsequent history of the species in India may be briefly given. Specimens 

 in the Calcutta Herbarium show that about 1855 it had become confused in the Royal 

 Botanic Garden with Bauhinia (Phanera) variegata ; and in the Serampore garden 

 (though not in the Calcutta one) with Bauhinia aurantiaca, a species with 6 fertile 

 stamens, which was first sent to India from the western shores of Madagascar by 

 M. Gereve in 1835 and was again sent along with our present plant by M. Richard 

 on 16th May, 1840, on that occasion flowering on the 22nd March, 1841. 



It had also found its way to Southern and to Western India ; the gardeners in 

 Madras confuse it to this day with B. variegata ; those of Bombay had examined it 

 more fclosely, for specimens from the herbaria of Stocks and of Dalzell are named 

 B. latifolia. They have thus placed it in the true section, since B. latifolia Cav. is a 

 Casparea ; an examination of Cavanille's original figure shows, however, that this is 

 quite distinct from his plant. 



At present the species s^eems to have altogether disappeared from gardens in 

 Bengal, but it lingers in Martaban ; doubtless, judging from Kurz's two quoted names 

 (Shway-doh, and Shway-ton), in temple gardens. It has also been recently sent from 

 Poona and from Chittagong. 



It would be interesting to learn if the species be really a native of Madagascar 

 or if it had been originally introduced to that island from elsewhere. The writer has 

 failed to trace it in any work dealing either with African or American botany : one 

 thing only is quite certain — it is not a native of India or of South-Easter n Asia at all 



