398 
XLI1I. LEGUMINOS-fE. 
[Sesbania. 
with numerous entire leaflets, the stipellse minute or none. Stipules setaceous, 
usually very deciduous. Flowers yellow, red, variegated or white, in short loose 
axillary racemes ; pedicels slender. Bracts and bracteoles very rarely persistent 
to the time of flowering. 
The genus is widely spread over the tropical regions both of the New and the Old World. 
Flowers very large (nearly 3in. long), the petals narrowed at the end . . . 1. S. grandiflora. 
Flowers not lin. long. Petals broad. 
Racemes pendulous. Stem shrubby 2. S. agyptiaca. 
Racemes erect. Stem herbaceous. Bracts and bracteoles very deciduous. 
Calyx-teeth very short 3. S. aculeata. 
1. S. grandiflora (large-flowered), Pers. Syn. PL ii. 316 ; Benth. FI. Austr. 
ii. 212. A tall shrub or small tree of very few years’ duration, glabrous and 
more or less glaucous. Leaflets 10 to 30 pairs, oblong or elliptical, obtuse and 
often mucronate, 1 to l-|in. long. Racemes short, with 2 to 4 very large flowers, 
white in Australian specimens. Calyx-tube Jin. long, without the turbinate 
base, the teeth or lobes short and broad. Petals 2 to nearly 3in. long; standard 
ovate, rather shorter than the others ; keel much incurved, ending in an obtuse 
beak. Pod upwards of a foot long, nearly 3 lines broad. — Agati grandiflora, 
Desv.; DC. Prod. ii. 266; W. and Arn. Prod. 215 ; A. formosa, F. v. M. Fragm. 
ii. 88. 
Hab.: Said to have been found either at the top of Cape York Peninsula or the islands of Torres 
Straits. 
The red-flowered variety, S. coccinea, Pers. l.c., or Agati coccinea, Desv., is not amongst the 
Australian species I have seen. Both varieties are frequent in India, but perhaps only about 
villages and other places where they have been planted ; they both appear to be really indigenous 
in the Archipelago. The size of the flowers with the petals narrower in proportion has induced 
the separation of this species as a genus, but there is no other character to distinguish it from 
Sesbania. The Sandwich Island S. tomentosa (Agati tomentosa, Nutt.) is quite intermediate 
between the two. — Benth. 
2. S. aegyptiaca (Egyptian), Pers.; DC. Prod. ii. 264 ; Benth. FI. Austr. 
ii. 212. “ Ngeen -jerry,” Cloncurry, Palmer. A shrub of 5 or 6ft., becoming, in 
India at least, a tree of twice that size, but of very few years’ duration, glabrous 
and somewhat glaucous, the branches terete or obscurely angled. Leaflets usually 
under 20 and often not 10 pairs, oblong, obtuse, 4 to 8 lines long or when 
luxuriant nearly lin. Flowers rather large, yellow or with a purple vexillum, in 
loose pendulous racemes, shorter than the leaves. Bracts and bracteoles very 
deciduous. Calyx about 3 lines long, without the narrow-turbinate almost stalk- 
like base, the teeth very short and broad. Standard about Jin. broad ; keel 
much incurved, broad, obtuse, with an acute angle at the base. Pod when perfect 
8 to lOin. long and 2 to 2J lines broad, but often much shorter by the abortion 
of many of the ovules. — W. and Arn. Prod. 214 ; Wight, Ic. t. 32 ; S. picta, 
Pers.; Bot. Reg. t. 873. 
Hab.: Gulf of Carpentaria, F. v. Mueller, and other northern localities. 
This species is common in tropical Asia and Africa. 
When dry the natives use two pieces of the same plant for fire-drills; stems are used for the 
ends of reed-spears. — Palmer. 
3. S. aculeata (prickly), Pers.; DC. Prod. ii. 265; Benth. PI. Austr. ii. 213. 
An erect herb, usually of 4 to 5ft., but sometimes twice that size, glabrous or 
the young shoots slightly pubescent, the branches terete or slightly angular. 
Leaflets from 20 to nearly 50 pairs, narrow-oblong, obtuse, mucronate, 4 to 8 
lines long, on a common petiole often ^ to 1ft. long and sometimes armed with 
small tubercles or prickles, which are however often very minute or quite wanting. 
Flowers yellow, much smaller than in S. aegyptiaca, in loose erect racemes shorter 
than the leaves. Bracts and bracteoles very deciduous. Calyx about 2J lines 
