XLIII. LEGUMINOS^. 
391 
33. TEPHROSIA, Pers. 
(From the foliage being usually grey.) 
Calyx-teeth or lobes nearly equal, or the 2 upper ones more united, or the 
lowest the longest. Petals clawed ; standard nearly orbicular, usually reflexed ; 
wings slightly adhering to the keel ; keel incurved, obtuse or scarcely acute. 
Upper stamen free at the base, usually geniculate and at first united with the 
others in the middle in a tube or sheath, often quite free as the flowering 
advances ; anthers uniform. Ovary sessile, with many or rarely 1 or 2 ovules ; style 
in the Australian species glabrous, incurved or indexed, more or less flattened 
with a terminal stigma, often slightly penicillate. Pod linear or rarely ovate, 
flattened, 2-valved. Seeds often with a small strophiole. — Herbs, undershrubs, 
or, in species not Australian, shrubs. Leaves pinnate ; leaflets usually opposite 
with a terminal odd one, sometimes reduced to a single leaflet, either sessile or 
articulate on the petiole, the veins in most species numerous, parallel and oblique 
with the midrib. Flowers red, purple, or white, in pairs or clusters, in terminal, 
leaf-opposed or rarely axillary racemes, the lower clusters occasionally or some- 
times all in the axils of the leaves. Bracteoles none. Standard always and the 
keel sometimes pubescent or silky-villous with appressed hairs. 
A large genus, widely spread over the warmer regions of the New and the Old World, and 
particularly numerous in species in S. Africa. The following species are all endemic with the 
exception of T. purpurea , and, even of that, scarcely any of the Australian varieties quite agree 
with the common Asiatic and African forms. With the exception perhaps of T.flammea and 
T. crocea, they all belong to the section Reineria, with terminal or leaf-opposed racemes or 
axillary clustered pedicels, and to the large subsection with subulate or small stipules. Several 
species differ from all extra-Australian ones in the venation of the leaflets. In general the 
Australian species, more even than the Asiatic ones, are extremely difficult to define ; 
the terminal or axillary, racemose or clustered inflorescences, usually so distinct, seem to 
pass the one into the other or to be blended together even on the same specimen, the foliage and 
indumentum is more than usually diversified and variable, and when to this is added the imper- 
fection of the specimens we possess from tropical Australia, it must be expected that further 
investigation may considerably modify the circumscriptions of several of the species here 
described. — From Bentham’s note on the Australian species in FI. Austr. ii. 202. 
Leaflets obovate, oval, elliptical, or oblong, the primary veins anastomosing 
or reticulate within the margin. 
Leaflets mostly 5 to 11, rarely under lin. long. Racemes elongated. 
Plant softly tomentose or silky. Flowers numerous. Calyx 4 to 5 lines 
long, softly villous, lobes longer than the tube 1. T.flammea. 
Plant nearly glabrous. Flowers few. Calyx scarcely 2 lines long, the 
teeth very short 2. T. reticulata. 
Leaflets numerous, above £in. long, glabrous above, silky-pubescent or 
villous underneath. Racemes long. 
Leaflets J to lin. long, very silky underneath, the veins reticulate. 
Stipules persistent. Bracts small 3. T. crocea. 
Leaflets 1 to 2in. long, silky-pubescent underneath, the primary veins 
parallel but anastomosing within the margins. Stipules very 
deciduous. Bracts linear-subulate, long 4. T. oblongata. 
Leaflets numerous, not |in. long. Racemes long. 
Plant loosely pubescent or villous. Stipules striate, reflexed. Leaflets 
11 to 19 5. T.porrecta. 
Plant closely silky-pubescent. Stipules minute, erect. Leaflets 30 to 
40 or more G. T. polyzyga. 
Leaves all or mostly simple or 1-foliolate. Leaflets long and linear or 
cuneate-oblong, the veins mostly reaching the margin or irregular. 
Leaflets long and narrow-linear, either solitary with 2 stipellse or 3 with 
the middle one sessile or rarely another pair lower down. Flowers 
very small 7. T. leptoclada. 
Leaflets cuneate-oblong, 1 or rarely 3 or 5. Flowers large 11.2’. oligophylla. 
Leaves pinnate. Primary veins of the leaflets oblique, numerous, and 
parallel. 
Flowers in short dense terminal racemes. Leaflets narrow, silvery-silky 
underneath. Pod incurved towards the end. Standard nearly 6 lines 
diameter. Leaflets usually green above 8. T. astragaloid.es. 
Part II. p 
