250 A FLORA OP MANILA 



39. SE8BANIA Scopoli 



Erect, branched, suffrutescent herbs, shrubs, or trees. Leaves long, 

 narrow, evenly pinnate, with numerous, oblong or linear-oblong, small, 

 obtuse, mucronate leaflets. Flowers in few-flowered, axillary racemes, 

 small to very large. Calyx campanulate, shallowly 2-lipped or. 6-toothed. 

 Corolla much exserted, white or yellow; petals long-clawed; standard broad; 

 keel straight or recurved. Stamens diadelphous. Ovary linear, many^- 

 ovuled; style incurved. Pods very long and narrow, septate between the 

 seeds, dehiscent, the seeds very numerous. (From the Arabic name of 

 one species.) 



Species about 20 in all tropical countries, 3 in the Philippines. 



1. Trees with very large flowers 7 to 8 cm long, white or tinged with pink 



or red 1. S. gramdiflora 



1. Suffrutescent herbs or shrub-like; flowers small, yellow, 

 2. Flowers about 1 cm long, with numerous purplish 6pots and dashes; 



pods erect or spreading 2. S. cannabina 



2. Flowers about 1.5 cm long, uniformly yellow; pods pendulous. 



3. S. seahan 



1. S. GRANDiFLORA (L.) Pers. Catu^ay (Tag.); Gauay-gauay (Vis.). 



A glabrous tree 6 to 12 m high. Leaves 20 to 30 cm long. Leaflets 20 

 to 40 pairs, oblong, obtuse, pale-green, 2.6 to 3.6- cm long. . Racemes short, 

 axillary. Flowers few, very large, white, 7 to 9 cm long. Calyx green, 

 subtruncate or very shallowly 2-lipped. Pods pendulous, linear, 20 to 60 

 cm long, 7 to 8 mm wide, somewhat curved, many-seeded. (Fl. Filip. 

 pi 291.) 



Not uncommon in cultivation and half -wild, fl. Oct.-Apr.; throughout 

 the Philippines in settled regions and certainly not indigenous, but of 

 prehistoric introduction. India to Mauritius, Malaya, and Australia, often 

 only cultivated. 



2.' S. CANNABINA (Retz.) Pers. Balacbac (Tag.). 



A coarse, erect, branched, suffrutescent, annual herbaceous plant reaching 

 a height of 8 m, with few, scattered, appressed hairs or nearly glabrous. 

 Leaves 20 to 80 cm long, abruptly pinnate, the leaflets 80 to 40, narpwly 

 oblong, obtuse or retuse, apiculate, 1 to 8 cm long, 3 to 6 mm wide. 

 Racemes axillary, 8 to 6 cm long, elongated in fruit, 8- to 6-flowered. 

 Flowers nearly 1.6 cm long, the calyx green, tinged with purple. Petals 

 yellow, the standard with numerous dots and splashes of dark-purple on 

 the back, retuse, reflexed, nearly 1.6 cm. wide. Pods pendulous, straight 

 or somewhat curved, 16 to 20 cm long, about 8 mm wide, sharply pointed, 

 containing from 26 to 86 seeds. (Fl. Filip. pi. i05, S. aegyptiacai) 



In open, usually rather wet lands, scattered, fl. more or less throughout 

 the year; widely distributed in the Philippines, surely introduced. India to 

 the Malay Peninsula and Java. 



8. S, SESBAN (L.) Merr. (S. aegyptiaca Pers.). 



An erect, branched, stout, shrubby plant 2 to 3 m high, slightly ap- 

 pressed-pubescent. Leaves 10 to 20 cm long; leaflets oblong, rounded, 

 apiculate or mucronate, 2 to 3 cm long, 10 to 20 pairs. Racemes axillary, 

 about 10 cm long, few-flowered above the middle. Flowers uniformly 

 vellow. not spotted with purple, slenderly pedicelled, about 1.6 cm long. 



