220 ONTBIBTJTIONS PROM l 1:1. NATIONAL BERBABITJM. 



> jural; upper stamen free, often append iculate or incrassate near the base; anthers uni- 

 form; ovary Bubeessile, multiovulate; style thickened upwards, either bearded longi- 

 tudinally "ii the inner Bide or hairy ill around, at least around the stigma, whit h is 

 small and terminal; pod linear or broadly oblong, compressed, straight or curved, the 

 sutures incraasated, the valves nearly flat or slightly convex; seeds thick, compn 

 Twining, trailing, or erect shrubs or undershrubs; leaves pinnate; leafl< Ls :;. stipellate; 

 Btipules usually small; flowers violet, flesh-colored, yellowish or whitish, sometimes 

 solitary or fascicled, sometimes in racemes; bracts and bracteoles striate, usually small. 



I Dolichos lablab L. 

 I Urban, 312, as Lablab i idgarti Savi.) 



A wide-«limbing perennial with Bubglabrous stem; Leaflets membranous, central 

 one ovate-deltoid, 7.5 to 1<» cm. Long, broadly Bpatulately narrowed at the base; flowers 

 in racemes, 7.5 to 15 cm. long; calyx 3.3 to 6.5 mm. long, Bubglabrous; corolla 1.5 to L.9 

 cm. deep, reddish or pale, k < *« l abruptly incurved; style flattened upwards, not 

 twisted, narrowed at the base; pod 3.5 to 5 cm. long, 2 cm. broad, narrowed at th< 

 the upper suture nearly straight, the faces glabrescent, rarely persistently pubescent; 

 Is 2 to l . 



There occur also three varieties, one with white flowers, variety albiflorua I>< .. the 

 second with purple flowers, variety purpureas DC, and the third with rose-colored 

 flowers. 



Cultivated and Beeminglywild at Bayamon in gardens; nearCaguas; nearMayagues; 

 cultivated near Rincon and also near Aguadilla, at Bspinal. Bahama (Hitchcock), 

 Cuba i < rrisebach I, Jamaica, St. Croix, St . Bartholomew Buphrasen I, St. Kitts I 

 bach), Antigua (do.), Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Vincent, Bequia (Kew Bull. no. 

 81, p. 247). In the tropics of both hemispheres. Native country probably tropical 

 Africa Bentham . 



This planl is universally cultivated in the tropics, where the young pods and the 

 black or brown seeds are used as a vegetable. 



:1 names, frijoles caballeros, ckicharos, cicero. 



