468 P H A N E R G A M I A. 



Leaves abruptly pinnate. Petioles with the rhachis an inch to 2 

 inches in length. Stipules not seen. Leaflets 2 pairs, or the upper- 

 most reduced to a single pair (or rarely 3 pairs, according to Dr. 

 Pickering's memoranda), ovate, either obtuse, acutish, or somewhat 

 acuminate, coriaceous, somewhat lucid, and of nearly the same hue 

 both sides, 3 or 4 inches long, veiny, on partial petioles of 2 or 3 lines 

 in length. Panicle terminal, small, consisting of short and corymbose 

 racemes. Only flower-buds occur on the specimens : the largest of 

 these are but 2 or 3 lines long, obovoid, on pedicels of about the same 

 length : these are articulated with the rhachis, subtended by a small 

 ovate bract, and furnished about the middle with a pair of similar 

 bractlets, that do not enclose even the half-grown bud : the bracts and 

 bractlets both caducous. Calyx four-parted; the segments ovate, 

 obtuse, nearly equal. Vexillum in the bud roundish, plicate, auricu- 

 late at the base, and with a short claw, at this period not longer than 

 the auricles, the margins undulate : its position is opposite the poste- 

 rior sepal, and its size in the bud is about the same. Lateral petals, 

 or alee much smaller, about half the length of the vexillum, semi-ovate 

 with the upper edge straight, raised on a short and slightly pubescent 

 claw : but in the greater number of flower-bucls examined the alae are 

 altogether wanting, as are the anterior petals in all of them. Fertile 

 stamens 3, being the anterior and two lateral of the outer series, on 

 filiform and at length elongated slightly hairy filaments : anthers 

 oblong, fixed by the middle, two-celled; the cells opening longitu- 

 dinally. Sterile stamens 7 (or sometimes fewer), reduced to very small 

 and naked filaments, one of them interposed between each fertile sta- 

 men, the others belonging to the posterior side of the flower. Ovary 

 sessile or nearly so, compressed, semi-ovate, silky-pubescent, containing 

 from 5 to 7 roundish ovules in a single series. Style filiform, spirally 

 involute in the bud : stigma terminal, subcapitate. Legume oblong, 

 flat, coriaceous, glabrous, from 5 to 8 inches long, about 2 inches wide, 

 at length two-valved; the valves externally reticulated, within fur- 

 nished with narrow transverse projections, which intercept the cavity 

 between the seeds. Seeds from 2 to 5, or sometimes solitary, compressed, 

 orbicular, an inch or more in diameter, not arillate nor appendaged at 

 the small hilum; the bony but thin testa smooth, involved in a 

 covering of furfuraceous matter; which when fresh is probably juicy. 

 Cotyledons flat and thin, orbicular, enclosing the short and straight 

 retracted radicle. 



