‘264 
CALYCIFLOltAi. 
low ; keel in two pieces. Ovary oblong - , smooth : style short : 
stigma simple. Legume about an inch in length, 4-seeded, 
compressed, nearly straight on one edge, and with isthmi mark- 
ing the articulations on the other. 
This is a very common plant in our pastures. The flowers 
have, like the leaves, a very delicate appearance, and are at first 
of a pale flesh-colour changing in the course of a day to a saf- 
fron. The stem varies in being occasionally glabrous. The 
leaves are scarcely entitled to be designated sensitive ; since, 
with the exception that they are folded up during the night, 
and are again opened soon after sunrise, they do not appear 
to be endowed with irritability. The 2E. sknsitiva, a suffru- 
tescent plant, 6 feet in height, stated by Swartz to be a native 
of St Lucia and Dominica, has not, so far as I can learn, been 
detected in this Island. 
XVI. Nicolsonia. 
Calyx 5 -partite, with the divisions lanceolato-subu- 
late, bearded. Corolla shorter than the calyx. Sta- 
mens diadelphous (9 and 1). Legume exserted, of 
several compressed semi-orbiculate 1 -seeded joints 
dehiscent along the convex suture. — De Cand. 
Leaves 1 -jugate, with an odd leaflet. This genus is distin- 
guished from Desmodium, to which it bears a great resem- 
blance, by the calyx being 5-partite and bearded. In this, the 
stipules are subscariose and distinct from the petiole ; the brac- 
teas are similar, but somewhat broader; pedicels in pairs, in 
the axils of the bracteas ; racemes terminal ; flowers small, 
purple ; and there are no bracteoles at the base of the calyx. — 
Named, after Ern. Ant. Nicolson, author of an Essay on the 
Natural History of St Domingo, published in Paris in 1776. 
1. Nicolsonia barbata. Bearded Nicolsonia. 
Leaflets elliptico-oblong, calyces shut after flower- 
ing, legumes minutely puberulous. 
Hedysarum barbatum, Swartz, Obs. 287. — Nicolsonia bar- 
bata, De Cund. Prod. II. 325. 
HAB. Common in dry spots of mountain pastures. 
FL. May — November. 
Roots fibrous, branched ; stem suft'ruticose, erect, very short : 
branches numerous, subterete, of a ferruginous colour, incano- 
pubescent with appressed hairs. Leaflets elliptico-oblong, 
somewhat narrowed at the base, rounded and mucronate at the 
apex, subglabrous above, incano-pubescent with appressed hairs 
beneath : petioles compressed, pubescent. Stipules long, lineari- 
