382 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 
II. REVISION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES 
OF NEPTUNIA. 
Neptunia, Lour. (Dedicated to Neptune from the preference for 
aquatic habitat.) — Unarmed aquatic or terrestrial perennials, herbaceous 
or suffrutescent. Leaves bipinnate, more or less sensitive; leaflets 
small, oblong, sometimes glandular at the base. Flowers small, aggre- — 
gated in dense globose, ovoid, or short-cylindric heads; the lowest 
flowers frequently sterile and with each filament broadened into a con- 
spicuous linear-lanceolate yellow lamina. Fruit strongly compressed, 
several-seeded, more or less stipitate.— Fl. Cochinch. 653; Benth. in 
Hook. Jour. Bot. iv. 854-356, & Trans. Linn. Soc. xxx. 383-385; 
Coult. Contrib. U. 8. Nat. Herb. ii. 95, Desmanthus § Neptunia, DC. 
Prodr. ii. 444, Hemidesmas, Raf. Sylv. Tell. 119.— About 9 species 
of the warmer parts of both Old and New World. 
N. oreracea, Lour. 1. c. 654, a tropical floating species with enlarged 
spongy stems (often 1 cm. thick) has been thought to occur in Texas, 
see Griseb. Fl. W. Ind. 217, but no specimens from the U. 8. have been 
available. (Mex., Rovirosa, W. Ind., 8S. Am., Tropics of Old World.) 
* Heads large, subcylindric, about 50-flowered : lower flowers more often uniform 
‘ with the rest: bracts lanceolate, inconspicuous. 
N. lutea, Bents. Pubescent with rather fine weak spreading 
hairs: stems prostrate, branched, 9 to 15 dm. long: leaves with 3 to 5 
pairs of pinnez; leaflets 8 to 16 pairs, rounded at the ends, pubescent 
and ciliolate, 3 to 7 mm. long; stipules small, ovate-lanceolate, chestnut- 
colored: peduncles axillary, 5 to 7.5 cm. in length, 12 to 16 mm. ™ 
breadth, commonly pubescent, 3-9-seeded ; stipe often 8 mm. long. — 
Benth. in Hook. Jour. Bot. iv. 356, & Trans. Linn. Soc. xxx. 384. 
Mimosa virgata, Batr. Trav. 421, acc. to Wats. Bibl. Index, 244. 
Acacia lutea, Leavenw. Am. Jour. Sci. vii. 61, acc. to Torr. & Gray, 
FI. i. 403, but originally described as glabrous and with shorter pedu”- 
cles. Darlingtonia virgata, Raf. New FI. pt. 1, 48, acc. to Wats. Le 
Moist and clayey soil, S. Missouri, Bush, to Texas, “ Alabama, Leaver 
worth,” and Florida, Leavenworth, but apparently rare southeastward. 
Var. renu1s. Closely similar but with stems and peduncles nearly oF 
quite glabrous. — NV. tenuis, Benth. ll. ec. — Texas, Drummond, 10 
150 of 3rd collection, Berlandier, no. 1602 near Austin and no. 1851, 
also “Lindhetmer, no. 48, and Hall, at Hemstead, no. 178. 
* 
