Smithia,] LEGUMINOS^, 269 



with a long epur. Racemes 1-3 in, laxly 3-12-flowered ; bracts ovate, 

 acute, almost concealing the yellow flowers, dotted. Pods 1-6-jointed, 

 pubescent, densely prickly. 



Common in sandy waste places, Distbib. Plains from the Himalaya to 

 Ceylon, Burma and the Malay Penins. ascending to 4,000 ft. in 

 Kumaon ; everywhere in the tropics. 



47. SMITHIA, Ait.; FL Brit. Ind. ii, 14S. 



Herbs or under shrubs. Zieaflets many, small, opposite, sensitive, 

 leaf-rachis ending in a bristle; stipules scariose, with large auricles. 

 Flowers racemose or axillary. Calyx deeply 2-lipped, the lips 

 usually entire. Corolla exserted, standard oihiauVsiY \ heel in- 

 curved, obtuse. Stamens in 2 bundles of 5 eacb, anthers uniform. 

 Ovary linear, manv-ovuled ; style incurved, filiform; stigma 

 minute, capitate. Pod of few or many small flattened or turgid 

 joints, folded together inside the calyx. — Species about 30, found in 

 the tropics of the Eastern. Hemisphere 



Calyx rigid, lips acute. 



Flowers in short racemes. 1. 8. sensitiva. 

 Flowers in pairs, axillary . 2. 8. geminiflora. 



Calyx membranous, upper lip 



truncate. 5. S, ciliata. 



1. S sensitiva, Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. I, Hi, 496 ;Eoxb.,' Fl. Ind. Hi, 342 : 

 W. ^ A. Prod. 220 (in ^art) ; Boyle III. 201 ; D. ^ G. Bomb. Fl. 63 (in 

 'part) ; F. B. I. ii, 148 ; Watt E. D. 



A diffuse spreading annual. Stems IJ-S ft. long, slender, much-branched, 

 glabrous. Leaf-rachis i-1 in., bristly; leaflets 3-10 'pairs, 5-5 in. 

 long, oblong, obtuse, bristly on the almost straight margins and on the 

 midrib beneath, Floivers 1-6, in close short-peduncled simple racemes 

 from the axils of the upper leaves ; pedicels short, ascending, bracteo- 

 late. Calyx 5-I in. ; lips subequal, acute, entire, with a few scattered 

 pale-yellow bristles, Corolla | in. long, yellow. Pod 4-6 jointed, 

 faces densely papillose. 



Dehra Dun and Siwalik range. Distbib. Outer W. Himalaya to the 

 Khasia Hills and south to Ceylon, Burma, Andaman and Nicobar Islands ; 

 also in Abyssinia, Madagascar, Java and China, The leaves are eaten as 

 a potherb, and the plant affords excellent fodder for cattle. 



2, S- seminiftora. Roth Nov. sp. 352 ; F, B. I. ii, 149, S. sensitiva. 

 Wall. ; W. ^ A. Prod. 220 {in part). 



Very similar to the preceding, but with fewer leaflets and the bristles 

 on the edges and midrib are more copious and longer. Flowers in 

 pairs in the axils of the leaves. 



