Ceesalpinia.] 
XLIII. LEGUMINOS^E. 
451 
linear, 2 to 3in. long and nearly lin. broad, rounded at the end, with a long 
narrow point, glabrous. Seeds 6 to 8, ovoid, thick, the hilum very small at one 
end. — Wight, Ic. t. 37. 
H ib.: Naturalised in many parts of Queensland. 
An E. Indian species, much planted for hedges, and now naturalised in the W. Indies and many 
other tropical countries. — Benth. 
77. MEZONEURUM, Desf. 
(Referring to the pod having a nerve at the middle ) 
Sepals 5, shortly united at the base, much imbricated, the lowest one larger 
and concave. Petals 5, spreading, rather unequal, the upper inner one the 
smallest, the 2 outer lower ones the largest. Stamens free ; anthers uniform, 
ovate or oblong. Ovary with 2 or more ovules ; style subulate, with a very 
small terminal stigma. Pod quite flat, very thin or coriaceous, indehiscent or 
opening tardily in 2 valves, the upper suture bordered by a wing. Seeds very 
flat, reniform or orbicular, with a small lateral hilum ; albumen none. — Woody 
climbers (or rarely erect?), sparingly armed with small prickles, usually only 
at the base of the pinnae of the leaves. Leaves abruptly bipinnate. Flowers 
(yellow?) in racemes, either simple in the upper axils or forming large terminal 
panicles. Filaments glabrous or slightly hairy. 
The genus is dispersed over tropical Asia and Africa, with 2 Australian species which appear 
to be endemic. 
Stems with several longitudinal flanges of cork. Leaflets oblong or oval, 
about 4 lines long. Pods rhomboid-ovate, acute, 1 to ljin. long . . . 1. M. brachycarpum. 
Stems without corky flanges. Leaflets distant, oblong-elliptic, lin. long, 
Jin. broad. Pods rhomboid-orbicular, 1J to 2in. diameter 2. M. Scortechinii. 
1. 2 Ml. brachycarpum (short pods), Benth. FI. Austr. ii. 278. “ Bowar,” 
Nanango, Shirley. Tall, rambling or climbing, the stems and branches bearing 
lines of cork flanges, and with the petioles tomentose-pubescent, unarmed except 
a minute prickle under each raceme and a rather larger recurved one under each 
pinna of the leaf. Leaves often above lft. long ; pinnte 3 to 8 pairs, each 3 to 
lin. long; leaflets 4 to 10 pairs, ovate oblong, nearly or quite sessile, about 
4 lines long, glabrous above, pubescent underneath. Racemes paniculate, about 
Gin. long, clothed with a golden-yellow pubescence ; pedicels very short. 
Flowers much smaller than in the rest of the genus, the calyx-lobes not above 
2 lines long and the petals scarcely exceeding them. Filaments rather longer, 
slightly bearded at the base. Style filiform, with a slightly dilated stigma. 
Ovules 2 (or sometimes 3 ?). Pod rhomboid-ovate, acute, about from 1 to ljin. 
long, with a narrow wing along the upper suture. Seeds blue, flat, reniform, 
hilum small. 
Hab.: River-side scrubs south of Brisbane. 
2. IYI. Scortechinii (after Rev. B. Scortechinii), F. v. M. in Winy's South. 
Sri. Her. ii. 73. Stem cylindrical, greenish, covered with a slight mealy tomen- 
tum. Leaves consisting of 14 or less pairs of pinnae. Rhachis very slightly 
downy, with broad, somewhat decurrent, recurved opposite prickles, usually at 
the base of the pinnae. Pinules rather densely short-hairy, the lowest with 8 to 
10, the others with 14 to 13 leaflets; the latter obovate or verging to elliptic, 
rather distant, lin. long, Jin. broad, of thin structure, on very short petiolules, 
inequilateral towards the base, above nearly glabrous, beneath paler with very 
short and appressed hairs. Racemes many-flowered, forming a long panicle; the 
rhachis, bracts, and petiolules clothed with a short brown tomentum ; petiolules 
not much shorter than the calyces, jointed below the summit, about as long as 
the narrowly semi-lanceolar finely acuminated bracts; calyces anteriorly very 
oblique and almost truncate at the base ; lateral and upper segments of the calyx 
