LEGUMI NOSJE. 
297 
Of these two species the No-Eye Pea is the most delicate, 
being’, in the green state, very little inferior to the English 
pea, and, when dried and the cuticle removed, equal to the split 
peas we receive from Europe. The other species is coarser, 
and made use of principally by the Negroes, and require, in 
the dried state, a tedious boiling process before they can be 
softened. 
From the two species being frequently, through carelessness, 
planted close to one another, we may occasionally meet with 
hybrid varieties. When once established they stand for several 
years. The leaves are annually shed, and are reproduced with 
the flowers in the early months of Summer. The crop is ga- 
thered during the months of Autumn. No particular care or 
trouble is required in the cultivation of these shrubs, and they 
thrive in the poorest land. They are said indeed to improve 
the soil on which they grow, by the decay of the leaves, which 
are annually shed in great profusion. There are few tropical 
plants indeed so valuable. They are to be found around every 
cottage in the Island, growing luxuriantly in the parched Sa- 
vannah, and mountain declivity, as well as in the more fertile 
and seasonable districts. 
XXX. Erythrina. 
Calyx tubulose, with the mouth truncated, sub- 
dentate, or spathaceous. Standard very long, oblong ; 
wings and keel dipetalous, much shorter than the 
standard. Stamens diadelphous, straight, with the 
10th, either slightly united to the rest, or free and 
much shorter, or rarely deficient. Legume long, 
torulose, 2-valved, many-seeded : seeds ovate, with 
the hilum lateral. 
Low trees or shrubs, rarely herbaceous; leaves 1 -paired with 
an odd one ; racemes elongated ; flowers scarlet, pedicelled, 
ternately approximated. — Name, from zgvt)go; red, on account of 
the scarlet colour of the flowers. 
1. Erythrina corallodendrum. Coral-bean tree. 
Stem arboreous aculeate, branches and petioles un- 
armed, leaflets broad-rhomboideo-ovate glabrous, calyx 
truncated sub-1 -dentate, standard lineari-oblong. 
Coral arbor, Sloane, II. 178. f. 1. — Arborea spinosa et non 
spinosa, foliis rhombceis pinnato-ternatis, JBroiciie, 2bb. 
HAB. Common. 
FL. April — July. 
A tree of irregular growth : the stem and a few of the 
