PHANEROGAMS — PROFESSOR BAYLEY BALFOUR. 65 



but the obovate larger leaves with fewer leaflets, and the sparse stellate 

 tomentum, are quite diagnostic. 



I am not certain from our specimens that the leaves are always so small as 

 I have described. One leaf attached to the older wood of a branch bearing a 

 young twig shows leaflets much larger and fewer than those ordinarily occur- 

 ring. The tree from which we took our specimens was not an immature one, 

 as it had young inflorescences, so that the smaller leaves are not a juvenile 

 form. 



Order XXVI. LEGUMINOS^. 



This vast natural family, the second largest of flowering plants, is represented 

 in Socotra by twenty-six genera, and of no other family excepting Gramineae 

 have we so many genera from the island. Of the genera, nineteen have a less 

 or greater range over the tropical regions of the world, some extending to 

 subtropical and temperate regions, some of them spread by cultivation ; three 

 are old world genera of some range, one is peculiarly a south-west Asiatic genus, 

 two are peculiarly genera of the Indian peninsula, one of them occurring also in 

 Mauritius, and one is endemic. 



1. CROTALARIA. 



Crotalaria, Linn. Gen. n. 862 ; Benth. et Hook. Gen. PI. i. 479. 



A large genus, spread in the warmer regions of both old and new worlds, 

 attaining a maximun in tropical Africa. There are five species in Socotra, three 

 of which are endemic, a fourth is a tropical African form, and the fifth is a native 

 of the East Indies now widely spread in Africa and America. 



1. C. spinosa, Hochst. in herb. Schimp. Abyss, sect. i. n. 150 ; Baker in 

 Oliv. Flor. Trop. Afr. ii. 17. 



Socotra. A plant of the sandy plains. B.C.S. n. 501. Schweinf. in lit. 

 Distrib. Tropical Africa. 



2. C. retusa, Linn. Sp. 1004 ; DC. Prod. ii. 125 ; Baker in Oliv. Flor. Trop. 

 Afr. ii. 13, and in Hook. Flor. Brit. Ind. ii. 75 ; Bot. Mag. t. 2561. 



Socotra. Not uncommon on the plains near Galonsir. B.C.S. n. 662. 

 Schweinf. n. 680. 



Distrib. A common East Indian species. Introduced in Africa and 

 America. 



3. O. strigulosa, Balf. fil. in Proc. Roy Soc. Edin. xi. (1882), 508. 



Omnino strigulosa ramis elongatis tenuibus prostratis ; foliis unifoliolatis angustis linearibus v. 

 latis et ellipticis v. oblongo-ellipticis subsessilibus; racemis terminalibus elongatis pedicellis 

 brevibus ; calycis lobis tubo longioribus ; corolla exserta ; legumine oblongo breviter 

 exserto pubescente 6-spermo. 

 TRANS. ROY. SOC. EDIN. VOL. XXXI. I 



