430 
XLIII. LEGUMINOSiE. 
[Galactia' 
2-valved, with a pithy pulp between the seeds. Seeds not slrophiolate.- — Prostrate 
or twining herbs. Leaflets 8 or rarely 1 or 5, stipellate. Flowers in axillary 
racemes, clustered along the common peduncle. Bracts small, setaceous, 
deciduous. Bracteoles very small. 
The species are chiefly American, one of them widely spread over the warmer regions of both 
the New and the Old World, two or three others are African or Asiatic. Of the three Queensland 
species, one is the common cosmopolitan one, the others are endemic. The genus is readily 
distinguished by the acuminate calyx with the upper lobe always quite entire. — Bentli. 
Glabrous or pubescent with spreading hairs. Flowers few in the raceme, under 
Jin. long 1. G. tenui flora. 
Silky-pubescent or villous. Flowers numerous, 7 or 8 lines long 2. G. Muelleri. 
Root fusiform. Plant glabrous, shortly trailing. Flowers few 3. G. various. 
1. G. tenuiflora (flowers slender), Willd.; Wight and Am. Prod. 206 ; Bentli. 
FI. Austr. ii. 255. Stems from a thick rhizome, usually slender, twining, 
attaining several feet, glabrous or pubescent with spreading or reflexed hairs. 
Leaflets 3, ovate or oblong, usually 1 to 2in. long and obtuse, but variable in 
shape and size, glabrous or pubescent, especially underneath. Peduncles rarely 
exceeding 6in., with few distant clusters of 2 or 3 flowers each, on a small gland- 
like node. Pedicels very short. Flowers pale reddish -purple or nearly white, 
varying from 4 to 6 lines. Calyx-lobes narrow, longer than the tube. Pod 1 to 
2in. long, linear, flat, coriaceous, with thickened margins, glabrous or pubescent. 
Seeds obliquely attached, smooth. 
Hab.: Islands of the Gulf of Carpentaria and adjoining coast , It. Brown, Henne, Landsborough ; 
Endeavour River, Banks and Solander ; Keppel Bay, Ii. Brown ; Port Curtis and Keppel Island, 
M'Gillivray ; Brisbane River, F. v. Mueller ; Broadsound, Bowman. 
The species is common in tropical Asia, Africa, and America, and varies much in the breadth 
of the leaflets from almost orbicular to linear, in the indumentum, and in the size of the flowers. 
This has given rise to very numerous synonyms, of which nineteen are quoted in Mart. FI. Bras. 
Papil. 143. The Australian specimens have usually larger flowers and the pod straighter than 
in most of those from other countries, but some are precisely like the Indian ones. — Benth. 
2. G. IVIuelleri (after Baron von Mueller), Benth. FI. Austr. ii. 255. A 
larger and much stouter plant than G. tenuiflora, the branches softly tomentose. 
Leaflets oval-oblong and very obtuse or elliptical, 1^ to 2Jin. long, firm, softly 
silky-pubescent on both sides. Peduncles long, rigid, bearing numerous flowers, 
considerably larger than in G. tenuiflora, in distinct or distant clusters. Calyx 
silky, nearly 5 lines long. Standard 7 to 8 lines long. Pod silky, about 2in. 
long, straight. 
Hab.: Walsh River, T. Barclay -Millar. 
3. G. varians (leaves various), Bail. Bot. Bull. x. “ Morni-li-an,” More- 
head River, Both. Stems trailing from a thick fusiform rootstock, glabrous, and 
more or less angular. Leaves very variable in form and size, often near the base 
reduced to a single oblong leaflet, under lin. long, the larger leaves bearing as 
many as 12 leaflets, alternate or opposite upon the rhachis, nearly sessile, or an 
odd lower one upon the same leaf, with a petiolule |ln. long, oblong, 1 to 2in. 
long, the largest nearly fin. broad, very obtuse at both ends and prominently 
reticulate, pale on the under surface. Peduncles terminal, nearly 1ft. long, 
flower upon the upper half, distant, singly, on slender pedicels of about 3 lines. 
Flowers, only a few at the end of the raceme upon the specimen examined, seem 
to be pale-coloured, somewhat stained with purple, softly hairy on the outside of 
the petals. Standard nearly orbicular, 5 lines in diameter. Calyx slightly hairy, 
the two upper lobes combined, the three others very narrow, the middle one much 
longer than the others. Pod 2in. long, straight, not flattened, nearly terete. 
Seeds about 7, smooth, of a grey colour and elegantly reticulate. 
Hab.: Coolgarra, Matthew Butler, J.P., who, with the specimens, sends the following 
marvellous statement about its medicinal properties : — “ On the 24th December last I was sent 
for to make the will of an old man who was, as he thought, dying of rheumatism. ... In a 
