78 
LEGUMIN0S2E. 
[Zornia. 
Leaves petioled ; leaflets lanceolate or ovate, sessile, acute, firm, 
glabrous, J-l ft. long, dotted with black glands ; stipules persistent, 
lanceolate, with a long spur. Racemes lax, few-flowered ; bracts 
ovate, acute, nearly or quite hiding the pod. Joints 2-6, densely 
muricated. Hedysarum diphyllum, Linn. Z. angustifolia, Lam. ; 
Bojer , Hort. Maur. 96. 
Mauritius, frequent in dry soil. Everywhere in the tropics. Z. zeylonensis , Pers. 
DC. Prod. ii. 317, is a variety with ovate leaflets and pod exceeding the shorter 
bracts. 
* VICIA, Linn. 
Calyx-tube obliquely campanulate ; teeth 5, subequal. Corolla papilio- 
naceous. Stamens diadelphous ; anthers uniform ; tube of filaments 
very oblique at the mouth. Ovary sessile ; ovules at least two ; style 
filiform or slightly flattened. Pod subcompressed, two-valved. — 
Annual or perennial herbs with equally pinnate leaves with rachis 
produced into a tendril. 
* V. sativa , Linn., the vetch commonly grown for forage, is sometimes 
seen in Mauritius in cultivated ground. It is a glabrous erect annual, 
1-2 feet high, with persistent sagittate stipules, retuse ligulate 4-5- 
jugate leaflets, middle-sized red flowers solitary or in pairs in the 
axils of the leaves, and a linear pod 1-lf in. long, with 6-8 seeds. 
# V. hirsuta, Koch. (Ervum hirsutum, Linn-), a common European 
weed in cultivated fields, is rarely seen in Mauritius. It is a scrambling 
climber, with very slender downy stems, minute linear-lanceolate 
toothed stipules, leaflets 8-16 distant very narrow, flowers minute 
4-8 together in peduncled secund racemes, calyx ± in. long, with linear 
teeth, pod oblique-oblong torulose pubescent \ in. long two-seeded, 
style slightly flattened. 
8. ABRUS, Linn. 
Calyx campanulate, with 4 very obscure teeth, the two upper coa- 
lescing. Corolla papilionaceous, much exserted. Stamens only 9, 
connate in a sheath slit down the top ; anthers uniform. Ovary sub- 
sessile, with several ovules ; style short, incurved, beardless ; stigma 
capitate. Pod oblong or linear, somewhat flattened, with two coriaceous 
valves, slightly septate between the large seeds. — Shrubby climbers, 
with abruptly pinnate leaves not ending in a tendril, and flowers in 
dense peduncled racemes. Distrib. Round the world in the tropics. 
Species 5. 
Pod half to a third as broad as long, with 4-5 seeds . . 1 . A. precatorius. 
Pod a fourth as broad as long, 7-9 seeded 2. A. pulchellus. 
1. A. precatorius, Linn. ; DC. Prod. ii. 381. A glabrous shrub, 
with tough flexible branches, climbing trees to a height of 20 feet. 
