84 BOTANY OF SOCOTRA. 



C scariosa, Ait. (loc. cit.) ; DC. Prod. ii. 410 ; Baker in Hook. Flor. Brit. 

 Ind. ii. 219; Roxb. PI. Cor. i. 62, t. 92. 



Nom. Vern. Sedhat (B.C.S.). 



Socotra. A not uncommon twiner on the hill slopes. B.C.S. n. 382. 

 Schweinf. n. 534. 



Distrib. Of the genus. 



In Baker's account of the British Indian Leguminosse, the Indian peninsula 

 alone is mentioned as a habitat for this plant. But in Kew Herbarium I find 

 a single specimen labelled " Ins. Maurit., Telfair." It is not, however, referred 

 to as a Mascarene plant in Baker's Flora of Mauritius and Seychelles. 



The Socotran plant, which has a more falcate and less widely expanded odd 

 calyx-lobe, and thinner and less hairy leaves than in the Indian and Mascarene 

 type, is an interesting find, forming a centre connecting the extreme areas of 

 distribution of the species as hitherto known. 



21. RHYNCHOSIA. 



Rhynchosia, Lour. Flor. Cochinch. 460 ; Benth. et Hook. Gen. PL i. 542. 



A large genus of the warmer regions of the globe. Some species are extra- 

 tropical in South America and south Africa. One Socotran species is 

 cosmopolitan in the tropics, the other is a tropical African and south-west 

 Asiatic species. 



1. R. minima, DC. Prod. ii. 385 ; Baker in Oliv. Flor. Trop. Afr. ii. 219, 

 and in Hook. Flor. Brit. Ind. ii. 223 ; Benth. in Mart. Flor. Bras. xv. 204, t. 54, 

 f.2. 



Socotra. Common. B.C.S. nn. 145, 266. Schweinf. n. 712. 

 Distrib. Cosmopolitan in the tropics. Cape and United States. 



2. R. Memnonia, DC. Prod. ii. 386 ; Baker in Oliv. Flor. Trop. Afr. ii. 

 220, and in Hook. Flor. Brit. Ind. ii. 224 ; Boiss. Flor. Orient, ii. 625. 



R. puherulenta, Stocks in Hook. Kew Journ. Bot. iv. (1852), 147 ; T. Anders, in Journ. Linn. 



Soc. v. (1860), Suppl. 17. 

 Dolichos Memnonia, Delile Flor. Egypt. 110, t. 38, f. 3. 



Socotra. On the hill slopes. Common. B.C.S. n. 458. Schweinf. n. 

 801. 



DisTitiB. Tropical Africa, Arabia, and Scindh. 



The Socotran plant is the form found in Arabia and Scindh, which has been 

 described as R. 2>ulverulenta by Stocks. This Baker refers to De Candolle's 

 tropical African species, and I think rightly. It differs from the type R. Mem- 

 rnonia in its less whitely pubescent and less prominently veined leaves, in the in- 

 florescence, calyx-teeth, and the coloration of the seeds, and also in having smaller 



