Desmodium.] 



LEGUMINOS^. 



281 



56. DESMODIUM, Desv. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. ii, 161. 



Herbs or shrubs. Leaves 1- or S-foliolate, stipellate. Flowers 

 «mall, usually in copious often dense racemes. Calyx campanulate, 

 teeth longer or shorter than the tube, the 2 upper often sub-connate. 

 Corolla exserted. Standard broad, wings more or less adherent 

 to the usually obtuse keel. Upper stamen entirely or partially 

 free from the other united 9. Ovary sessile or stipitate, few or 

 many-ovuled, style incurved ; stigma minute, capitate. Pod usually 

 composed of several 1 -seeded indehiscent joints, the faces com- 

 pressed, the upper suture rarely finally splitting open, the joints 

 usually separating. — Species about 150, cosmopolitan in trop. and 

 sub-trop. countries, a few ia temp. N". America, and a few in temp. 

 .S. Africa. 



Pods " f distinctly divided into several sepa- 

 rating 1 -seeded joints. 

 Leaves 3-foliolate. 

 Undershmbs or shrubs. 



Flowers in dense axillary umbel- 

 late heads 



Flowers in elongated racemes. 



Clusters of flowers concealed by 

 large 2-fol. bracts 



Flowc'rs not c mcealed. 

 Joints of pod indehiscent. 

 Bracts minute. 

 Leaflets narrow, dark-green 

 and shining above ; joints 

 of pL'd twice as l'>ng as 



D. Gephalotes. 

 D. pulchellum. 



broad 



5. 



D. lahurnifolium. 



Leaflets broad, joints of pod 

 3-4 times as long as broad 



4. 



D. laxiflorum. 



Bracts large, closely imbri- 

 cate in bud . . . 



5. 



D. concinnum. 



Joints of pod dehiscing along 

 the lower suture 



6. 



D. 'polycar'pwm. 



Herbaceous. 



An erect annual with glabrous 

 spirally twisted pods 



7. 



D. spirale. 



A diffuse hairy perennial herb, 

 pods clothed with hooked hairs 



8. 



D. diffusum. 



Trailing herbs. 

 Flowers 1-3 in the leaf axils 



9. 



D. triflorum. 



Flowers in racemes . . 



10. 



D. parvifolium. 



