THE FLORIDA VELVET BEAN AND ITS HISTORY. 31 
of the pubescence on the pods, and in the shape, color, and size of the 
seeds. The differences in the character of the pubescence of the pods 
are such as to make it practically certain that they are specific in 
value and not merely varietal. 
In view of these facts the Florida velvet bean is herewith described 
as a new species. 
Stizolobium® deeringianum n. sp.—An annual, herbaceous, climbing vine 
sometimes 20 meters in length when growing on supports, and even on the 
ground attaining a length of from 2 to G6 meters, bearing long, pendent racemes of 
purple flowers which produce dark, velvety pods 5 or 6 centimeters long, 
Stems rather slender, terete, sparsely pubescent, with white, appressed hairs, 
especially on the ridges. Petioles equaling or exceeding the leaflets, pubescent 
like the stem, and continued for 2 to + centimeters beyond the lateral leaflets ; 
stipules subulate, pubescent, about 1 centimeter long; stipels similar but 
smaller; petiolules about 5 millimeters long, stout, very pubescent. Leaflets 
rhomboid-oyate, the lateral ones oblique, membranaceous, acuminate-cuspidate, 
5 to 15 centimeters long, about half as broad, sparsely pubescent above, espe- 
cially on the veins, more densely pubescent beneath, the white hairs closely 
appressed. Inflorescence a raceme or thyrsus 15 to 30 centimeters long, pendent, 
bearing 5 to 30 flowers, usually about 12; rachis like the stem, but more 
pubescent; flowers borne singly or in twos or threes on short lateral branchlets, 
Bracts lanceolate-subulate, very pubescent, early fugacious. Calyx pubescent 
within and without with short, white, appressed hairs, 2 lipped, the upper 
lip broadly triangular, the lower lip 3 cleft, the lobes triangular-subulate, 
the middle one longest; stinging hairs absent. Corolla dark purple, 3 to 4 centi- 
meters long; standard less than half the length of the keel, darker than the rest 
of the flower; wings slightly shorter than the keel, rather broad, oblanceolate- 
oblong, obtuse; keel straight to near the tip, where it curves sharply upward, 
the tip firm and acute; anthers of two sorts alternately long and short, the 
latter on much broader filaments; ovary linear, pubescent; style filiform, 
pubescent nearly to the tip: stigma small. Pods when mature 5 to 6 centimeters 
long, turgid, densely covered with a soft, nearly black, velvety pubescence with- 
out stinging hairs; valves with 1 or 2 or sometimes 3 obscure longitudinal 
ridges. Seeds 3 to 5 in each pod, subglobose, marbled and speckled with brown 
or black, and sometimes both, on ash-gray ground color (though pure gray and, 
it is said, pure black occur rarely), 1 to 1.5 centimeters in diameter. Hilum 
white, oblong-crateriform, less than one-half the length of the seed. 
4The genus Mucuna, as recognized by Bentham & Hooker and Engler & 
Prantl, clearly consists of two distinct genera, as pointed out by David Prain 
(Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. 66, new series, p. 404, 1897). 
The genus Mucuna is first published in Adanson (Fam., vol. 2, p. 325, 1763) 
and the type species is Mucuna urens. The genus Stizolobium was first pub- 
lished by Patrick Browne, in 1756, in his history of Jamaica, and the type 
species is Stizolobium pruriens. The two genera are easily distinguished by the 
seed. In Stizolobium the hilum is linear, elevated, and oblong-crateriform, 
extending from one-fifth to nearly one-fourth the circumference of the seed. In 
Mucuna as restricted to include such species as Mucuna urens, the hilum is 
much elongated and band-like, extending nearly all the way around the seed. 
Furthermore, Mucuna is hypogeous in germination, while Stizolobium is not. 
141—1II 
