149 
ment anterior ; the segments often unequal, and variously combined. Petals 5, or by 
abortion 4, 3, 2, 1, or none, inserted into the base of the calyx, either papilionaceous or 
regularly spreading ; the odd petal posterior. Stamens definite or indefinite, perigynous, 
or hypogynous, either distinct or monadelphous, or diadelphous ; very seldom triadel- 
phous; anthers versaXile. Ovary simple, superior, 1 -celled, 1- or many-seeded; style sim- 
ple, proceeding from the upper margin ; stigma simple. Fpuit either a legume or a drupe. 
Seeds attached to the upper suture, solitary or several, occasionally with an aril ; embryo 
destitute of albumen, either straight or with the radicle bent upon the cotyledons ; cotyle- 
dons either remaining under ground in germination, or elevated above the ground, and 
becoming green like leaves. — Herbaceous plants, shrubs, or vast trees, extremely variable in 
appearance. Leaves alternate, most commonly compound; petiole txxrmdi at the base. Sti- 
priles 2 at the base of the petiole, and 2 at the base of each leaflet. Pedicels usually articu- 
lated, with 2 bractlets under the flower. 
Anomalies. The Detariums are apetalous and drupaceous. Ceratonia, and five or 
six other genera, are also apetalous. Some Mimoseie are monopetalous ; the latter section 
and Swartzieae have usually also hypogynous stamens. Diphaca and a species of Caesalpinia 
have regularly 2 ovaries. Ormosia has 2 stigmas. DC. Sophora, and some others, have 
no stipules. Some have opposite leaves. Albumen present in Fillsea, Guill. Also in 
Cathartocarpus Fistula. 
Affinities. The most common feature is, to have what are called papi- 
lionaceous flowers ; and when these exist, no difficulty is experienced in re- 
cognising this order, for papilionaceous flowers are found no where else. 
Another and a more invariable character is to have a leguminous fruit ; and, 
by one of these two characters all the plants of the family are known. It is 
remarkable, however, for the complete obliteration of one or other of these 
distinctions in many cases. Swartziese have the iiTegularity in the corolla 
carried so far that not more than 1 or 2 petals remain ; Csesalpiniese have a 
less irregular flower, with spreading petals and stamens adhering to the calyx ; 
while Mimoseae have perfectly regular flowers and indefinite hypogynous sta- 
mens. Detarium, instead of a legume, bears a fruit not distinguishable 
from a drupe. This last circumstance is easily to be understood, if we bear in 
mind that a legume and a diaipe differ more in name than reality, the latter 
being formed upon precisely the same plan as the former, but with this modi- 
fication, that its pericarp is thickened, more or less fleshy on the outside and 
stony on the inside, 1 -seeded, and indehiscent. Hence some of the regular- 
flowered genera with distinct stamens may be said to be Rosaceous in flower, 
and Leguminous in fruit. Simple, therefore, as the diagnosis of the order 
usually is. Brown is perfectly correct in asserting that, until he indicated the 
difference of the position of the odd lobe of the calyx in Leguminosee and Ro- 
saceae (Amygdaleae), no positive character had been discovered to distinguish 
the one order from the other. The presence of stipules at the base of the 
leaflets of the compound leaves of Leguminosae is a character in the vegetation 
by which they may be known from Rosaceae. Very few double flowers are 
known in this order ; those of Spartium junceum and Ulex europceus are the 
most remarkable ; the nature of the latter I have described in detail in the 
Trans, of the Hort. Soc. vol. 7. p. 237. Two ovaries are common in Wis- 
teria sinensis ; and the same phenomenon is to be seen, according to De Can- 
dolle, in Gleditschia : it appears also to be normal in Diphaca and Caesalpinia 
digyna. Aug. de St. Hilaire is said (DC. Mem. 52.) to have found a Mimosa 
in Brazil with 5 carpels : on account of these, and other circumstances, De 
Candolle assumes the carpel of Leguminosae to be solitary by abortion, and 
that a whorl of 5 is that which is necessary to complete the symmetry of the 
flowers. Of the accuracy of this view I am satisfied ; but I think it might 
have been proved as satisfactorily from analogy, without the aid of such in- 
stances. In consequence of the highly irritable nature of the leaves of many 
of the plants of this order, and of the tendency to irritability discoverable in 
them all, some botanists have placed them at the extremity of their system, in 
