PAXTON’S 
MAGAZINE OF GARDENING AND BOTANY. 
MUCUNA MACROCARPA. (Long-fruited Mucuna.) 
Class, Diadelphia. Order, Decandria. Nat. Order , Fabace^;. (Leguminous Plants, Veg. King.) 
Generic Character. — Calyx campanulate, bilabiate; 
lower lip trifid, with acute segments, the middle segment 
drawn out most; upper lip broad, entire, and obtuse. Corolla 
with assurgent vexillum, shorter than the wings and keel. 
Wings oblong. Keel ensiform, or straight, acute. Stamens 
diadelphous, five of the anthers oblong-linear, and the other 
five ovate and hairy. Legume oblong, torose, two-valved, 
hispid. Seeds round, with the hilum girded by a circular 
mark. 
Specific Character. — Plant a shrub. Stems twining, 
extending to 40 or 50 feet in height, fiexuose. Leaves 
pinnately-trifoliate, sparingly pilose ; leaflets cordate. 
Racemes axillary, pendulous, 18 to 21 inches long, many- 
flowered. Flowers large. Calyx bibracteate, middle tooth 
of the lower lip diverging at the apex, tube oblique at the 
base, surface indurated, of a yellow-green, and covered with 
a ferrugineous tomentum. Vexillum large, yellow-green, 
partially ascending. Wings oblong-lanceolate, rounded at 
the apex, lunate at the base, of a deep and rich purple. Keel 
sword-shaped, longer than the wings, of a purplish-brown, 
acute. Legumes long, ensiform, hispid, from being covered 
with short brittle hairs, many-seeded. 
Authorities and Synonymes.— Mucuna, Be Candolle's 
Prod. ; Juss. Ann. Mus. Stizolobium, Persoon’s Synopsis. 
Citta, Loureiro. Carpopogon, Roxburgh’s Hort. Beng. 
Macroceratides, Raddi. Negretia, Ruiz and Pavon. Hor- 
nera, Necker. Mucuna macrocarpa, Wallich’s PI. Asiat. 
Rarior., i. t. 47- Dolichos macrocarpus of some authors. 
The subject of our present plate is without doubt the handsomest species of Mucuna 
known. The plant is a very lofty grower, and the racemes, which are produced abundantly 
on the old wood, are very large, and the quantity of flowers in each are prodigious. 
The plant at Chatsworth, from which our drawing was prepared, grows at the south 
end of the large conservatory, and being a climber of rampant growth, it has ascended to 
the roof, over some part of which it has spread its branches to a considerable distance. 
One of the racemes produced in February, 1848, was found on measurement to be 
21 inches long, and contained as many as eighty-eight or ninety flowers, seventy-five or 
more being expanded at the same time ; and this was far from being a solitary case; many 
others appea,red equally as large, and perhaps contained even more flowers than the one 
described. The colours, however, are by no means lively, the standard being of a pale 
yellow-green, the wings deep purple, and the keel purple-brown. The flowering season 
continues from December until March. 
The plant is a native of the East Indies, chiefly in the north of Hindoostan, about the 
mountains of Nepal, and was introduced to this country by the Duke of Devonshire in 
1837 through Mr. Gibson, his Grace’s collector, where, at Myrung, on the Khoseea hills, 
according to Mr. Gibson’s own memoranda, he found it growing in wild luxuriance, 
unequalled, perhaps, by very few, even of the most robust of the Indian creepers. And 
this leads to a few general observations on the habits of this beautiful portion of the Indian 
Flora, whose great feature is the extraordinary manner in which they take possession of, and 
overrun the most gigantic denizens of the forest, literally covering them with a mantle of 
their own, which renders them more ornamental and varied under the yoke of death, than 
the most perfect development of their own leaves and blossoms could effect. Mr. Gibson 
was often surprised in the jungle with their peculiar habit and form, and used to wonder 
how the fragile stems of these plants could rear their heads and reach even the lower 
branches of these patriarchs of the forest, which support them, and very frequently die 
under their grasp ; and more particularly so, as they are generally found situated at a 
considerable distance from their stem, very seldom close to it, as one would naturally 
VOL. i. — no. iv. o 
