428 PHANEROGAMIA. 



thickish, finely silky-canescent both sides. Flowers crowded in short 

 panicled racemes at the summit of the branches ; the rhachis persistent 

 and terminating in a spinescent point. Bracts minute. Pedicels 

 slender, 3 to 6 lines long, often longer than the nodding flowers. 

 Bractlets none. Calyx persistent, canescently pubescent, 3 lines long, 

 five-deft to the middle; the tube campamdate, or at first somewhat 

 turbinate, five-nerved; the nerves thickened and extending to the apex 

 of the linear-subulate, nearly equal lobes (the two upper ones slightly 

 exceeding the others). Corolla yellow, marcescently persistent, a little 

 exceeding the lobes of the calyx, incurved in the manner of Ademnia : 

 vexillum dilated-obovate, complicate, at length upwardly spreading, 

 glabrous, marked with a puberulent spot near the summit of the claw 

 on the inner side : alse cuneate-oblong, oblique, nearly equalling the 

 vexillum in length, the lamina minutely bearded on the lower edge 

 near the base : carina obtuse, incurved, its petals bearded on the 

 lower edge up to the point of junction. Stamens 10, abruptly in- 

 curved above the middle : filaments distinct, or slightly coalescent at 

 the base, flattened, in 2 series : anthers uniform, oval. Ovary linear, 

 flattish, minutely pubescent, containing from 4 to 6 ovules. Style fili- 

 form, elongated, geniculate, ascending: stigma minute, terminal, 

 naked. Loment included in the marcescent corolla, and partly covered 

 by the calyx, irregularly or at length spirally twisted, of 3 to 6 pube- 

 rulent, turgid, or globular joints, which separate at maturity from each 

 other and from the continuous, filiform, persistent ventral suture ; the 

 latter coils spirally or assumes a zigzag form, and is tipped with the 

 deflexed persistent style : the joints are promptly two-valved, one- 

 seeded; the valves membranaceous, even, and destitute of reticulations, 

 or very nearly so. Seeds globular, obscurely kidney-shaped, smooth. 

 Embryo incurved : cotyledons very thick. 



Mr. Brown and Mr. Bennett* have called attention to " the variety 

 and singularity of the modes adopted in the different subdivisions of 

 the Linnsean genus He.dysarum for the protection of the pod and its 

 contents, during their progress to maturity." To the various modes 

 which they have enumerated the present plant affords a curious 

 addition ; the protection being here afforded by the persistence of the 

 corolla, as well as the calyx, until the seeds are matured and shed, 

 and the retention of the pod within its enclosure by the twisting or 



* Horsfield, Plantae Javanicae Rariores, p. 157. 



