410 
XLIII. LEGUMINOS^E. 
44. DESMODIUM, Desv. 
(From desmos, a chain ; pods jointed.) 
(Dendrolobium, W. and Am.; Dicerma, DC.; Nicolsonia, DC.) 
Calyx-tube short, the 2 upper lobes more or less united. Standard from 
oblong to orbicular, narrowed at the base ; wings oblong, usually adhering in the 
middle to the keel ; keel obtuse. Upper stamen free or more or less united with 
the others in a sheath or tube ; anthers uniform. Ovary sessile or stipitate with 
2 or more ovules ; style incurved, subulate. Pod longer than the calyx, flat, one 
or both sutures indented between the seeds, separating into indehiscent 1 -seeded 
articles, or rarely the articles opening on the lower edge in 2 valves, and then 
not always readily separating. — Herbs, shrubs or rarely small trees. Leaves 
pinnately 8-foliolate or 1-foliolate, with stipellte. Stipules usually dry, striate, 
membranous. Flowers purple, blue, pink or white, usually small, in terminal 
racemes or panicles, or rarely in axillary umbels or clusters. 
A very large genus widely dispersed over the tropical regions both of the New and the Old World, 
extending beyond the tropics into N. America, and a very few species into extratropical S. 
America, S. Africa, and extropical Australia. Of the following Australian spec'es, 9 belong also 
to E. India and in most cases the Archipelago, 1 is common to Australia and New Caledonia, 
1 in the Moluccas, the remaining 7 are endemic but partaking of the general character of the 
Asiatic species, with the exception of D. acanthocladum, which is singular in the genus for its 
spinescent branchlets. — Benth. 
This genus is readily divisible into from 12 to 15 tolerably well-marked sections, many of 
which have been proposed by myself or others as distinct genera ; but as they have proved to be 
distinguished some by habit only without marked floral or carpological characters, others by 
variations in the fruit, not always constant or easily appreciated, I found it more convenient, on a 
general review for the Floras of Brazil and Hongkong, to retain them all under one generic 
name. — Bentli. 
* Wings usually free from the keel. Pod glabrous or silky-liairy. 
Flowers white, in dense axillary shortly pedunculate umbels. Pod- 
articles rather thick (Sect. Dendrolobium) 1. D. umbellatum. 
Flowers small, in dense umbels or heads along the branches of a leafy 
panicle, each umbel almost enclosed in a 2-foliolate leaf. Pod-articles 
2, nearly orbicular (Sect. Phyllodium) 2. D. pulchellum. 
Flowers in leafless racemes. Pedicels short crowded. Pod-articles 2, 
nearly orbicular. Leaflets digitate or nearly so (Sect. Dicerma) . 3. D. biarticulatum. 
** Wings adhering to slight lateral protuberances or membranous appendages of the keel. 
Branchlets spinescent. Flowering branches reduced to axillary spines 
with 1 or 2 pairs of flowers below the summit. Pod-articles of 
Heteroloma, but usually 1 or 2 only 4. D. acanthocladum. 
Shrub with 1-foliolate leaves, winged petioles, racemose flowers, minute 
bracts and acute keel (Sect. Pteroloma) 5. D. triquetrum. 
Flowers in racemes or panicles. Ovules several, rarely 2 only. Pod of 
several articles (unless by abortion) indehiscent, the upper suture 
straight or slightly indented, the lower suture much indented 
between the seeds (Sect. Heteroloma). 
Bracts narrow, persisting at least till the flower expands. Pedicels 
usually in pairs (Leptostachya). 
Leaves all 1-foliolate. Pod-articles small, nearly glabrous .... 6. H. gangeticum. 
Leaves very large, 1-foliolate. Pod-articles long, almost lanceolate 7. D. dependens. 
Leaves all (except sometimes the lowestl 3-foliolate. 
Pod-articles flat, prehensile-pubescent. 
Stems rather rigid, erect or ascending. Fruiting-pedieels re- 
flexed, not longer than the calyx 8. D. bracliypodum. 
Stems slender, diffuse. Fruiting-pedieels slender, spreading, 
much longer than the calyx. Plant slightly pubescent. 
Ovules and pod-articles several 9. D. varians. 
Stems diffuse or procumbent, rusty-villous. Leaves softly- 
villous, rhomboid-ovate. Pedicels slender, spreading rather 
longer than the calyx 10. D. rhytidophyllum. 
Pod-articles somewhat turgid, slightly pubescent. Stem trailing. 
Leaflets lanceolate, 2 to 3in. long 11. D. campylocaulon. 
