Bvachysema.] 
XLIII. LEGUMINOSrE. 
835 
Sect. Iieptosema. — Stems leafless , except small scales. No inner disk round the ovary. 
Stems winged, bearing the flowers at their notch-like nodes. Keel scarcely 
exceeding the calyx or shorter. Pod ovoid. Flowers solitary. Bracts 
minute or none. Pod more than twice as long as the calyx. 
Wings of the stem 2 or 3 lines broad on each side, striate. Calyx and pod 
hairy 1. B. oxylobioides. 
Wings of the stem not 1 line broad on each side. Calyx almost and pod 
quite glabrous 2. B. unifloruin. 
1. B. oxylobioides (Oxylobium-like), Benth. FI. Austr. ii. 9. Stems 
apparently several from the same stock, diffuse or suberect, 1ft. or more long., 
flat, with coriaceous striate wings decending from the rather distant nodes, and 
about 2 or rarely 8 lines broad, pubescent when young but soon glabrous. 
Pedicels short, recurved, solitary at the upper nodes or 2 or 3 together 
in a short raceme. Calyx pubescent or villous, about 4 lines long, deeply lobed, 
the 2 upper segments united to the middle. Standard shorter than the calyx, 
the lamina oblong, concave, reflexed ; wings scarcely exceeding the calyx ; keel 
rather longer and broader. Ovary sessile, very villous, with about 20 crowded 
ovules; style rather short. Pod ovoid, inflated, acuminate, f to lin. long, 
hirsute with long spreading hairs. Seeds as in B. aphyllum. — Leptosema 
oxylobioides, F. v. M. Rep. Burdek. Fxped. 8. 
Hab.: Shoalwater Bay, R. Brown; Repulse Bay, A. Cunningham; Port Sinclair, Fitzalan ; 
Newcastle Range, F. v. Mueller. 
There are also specimens in the Hookerian Herbarium, marked Victoria River, Bynoe ; but 
there may be possibly some mistake. The specific name is unfortunately chosen, as there is no 
leafless species of Oxylobiurn known, and the flowers are very unlike. — Benth. 
2. B. uniflorum (one-flowered), E. Br.; Benth. Flora Austr. ii. 12. Habit of 
B. oxylobioides, but the wings of the stem very narrow, the whole breadth of the 
2 wings rarely exceeding 2 lines, and scarcely striate. Flowers solitary at the 
nodes, on reflexed pedicels of 3 to 6 lines, rather smaller than in B. oxylobioides, 
but otherwise similar. Calyx only very slightly silky pubescent. Ovary sessile, 
slightly villous. Pod ovoid, inflated, nearly lin. long, quite glabrous. Seeds, 
according to R. Brown’s notes, about 15. — Benth., l.c. 
Hab.: Islands of the Gulf of Carpentaria, R. Br. 
2. OXYLOBIUM, Andr. 
(From oxys sharp, and lobos a pod ; pods sharp-pointed.) 
(Callistachys, Vent.; Podolobium, R. Br.) 
Calyx-lobes nearly of equal length, the 2 upper ones usually broader and united 
higher up. Petals clawed. Standard orbicular or reniform, emarginate, longer 
than the lower petals ; wings oblong ; keel broader than the wings and about the 
same length, straight or slightly curved, obtuse. Stamens free. Ovary sessile or 
stipitate, with several (4 to above 30) ovules, on straight filiform funicles ; style 
incurved, filiform or thickened towards the base, with a small terminal stigma. 
Pod sessile or stalked, ovoid or oblong, turgid, continuous inside or rarely with a 
cellular tissue forming irregular transverse half-dissepiments, or slightly lining 
the cavity ; valves usually coriaceous. Seeds with or without a strophiole. — 
Shrubs or rarely undershrubs. Leaves on very short petioles, more or less 
distinctly verticillate or opposite, occasionally scattered or rarely all alternate, 
simple, entire or rarely with pungent lobes. Stipules setaceous, sometimes 
minute or none. Flowers yellow, or the keel and base of the standard, or rarely 
entirely, purple-red, in terminal or axillary racemes, either loose or contracted 
into corymbs or whorl-like clusters. Bracts and hracteoles very deciduous. 
Staminal disk usually very short. Ovary very villous, except in 0. staurophyllum. 
The genus is limited to Australia. It differs from Chorizema chiefly in habit and in the 
proportions of the lower petals ; from Gastrolobiinn only in the number of ovules, 4 or more, not 
2 only. — Benth. 
