Mucuna .] 
LEGUMINOSJE. 
83 
Seychelles, common in all the islands at low levels, Horne , 496 ! Rodriguez, 
in several of the valleys, Dr. Balfour ! . Tropical Asia and Polynesia. 
# Amongst Professor Wright’s Seychelles and in Dr. Balfour’s Bodri- 
guez collections are specimens of Phaseolus lunatus, Linn. ; DC. Prod, 
ii. 393, widely spread and cultivated through the tropics of both hemi- 
spheres. It is an annual climber, with thinly pilose stems, long-petioled 
membranous stipellate trifoliolate leaves, central leaflet ovate-deltoid 
acute 2-3 in. long, flowers in axillary racemes, campanulate calyx in. 
long with very short teeth, greenish much-recurved bud, corolla under 
| in. deep with a circinate keel, and a half-oblong pod |-finch broad 
with 2-4 large compressed purple or white pea-like seeds. 
14. DOLICHOS, Linn. 
Calyx tube campanulate ; teeth small, deltoid. Corolla papiliona- 
ceous, much exserted; keel beaked, not spiral. Stamens diadelphous ; 
anthers uniform. Ovary short-stalked, with several ovules ; style cylin- 
drical or flattened ; stigma terminal. Pod flat, linear or oblong, rather 
recurved, smooth, not torulose, the valves readily dehiscing. — Climbing 
herbs, with stipellate trifoliolate leaves, flowers in racemes or in the 
axils of the leaves, and small persistent bracts and stipules. Like 
Phaseolus, but the keel not spiral. Distrib. Round the world in the 
tropics, etc. Species 20. 
Style flattened ; flowers in long lax racemes 1. D. Lablab. 
Style cylindrical ; flowers 2-3 together in the axils of the 
leaves without any common peduncle 2. D. axillaris. 
1. D. Lablab, Linn. ; Foxb. FI. Ind. iv. 305. A subglabrous wide- 
twining annual. Stipules lanceolate, basifixed ; leaflets as broad as long, 
(3-6 in.) acute, membranous. Peduncles and lax racemes each 6-9 in. 
long ; pedicels densely fascicled, J-J in. ; bracteoles oblong, sometimes 
as long as the calyx. Calyx broadly campanulate, under \ in. long. 
Corolla | in. long, reddish or white. Pod oblong, much recurved, 
flat, glabrous, 2 in. long, in. broad, tipped with the persistent flat- 
tened style. Seeds 2-4, as large as a pea, black, red, or purple. Lablab 
vulgaris, Savi ; DC. Prod. ii. 401. 
Commonly cultivated through the tropics of the Old World. Planted only in 
Mauritius. Wild or naturalised on the shore of Mahe, Seychelles, Wright ! Horne ! 
Haricot Rouge. 
2. D. axillaris, F. Meyer Comm . PI. Afr. Austr. 144. A wide- 
climbing perennial, with slender subglabrous branches. Leaves dis- 
tinctly petioled ; leaflets 3, oblong, entire, membranous, subacute, \-2 
in. long ; stipules small, lanceolate. Flowers 2-3 together on short 
pedicels in the axils of the leaves, without a common peduncle. Calyx 
broadly campanulate ; teeth short. Corolla f in. long, greenish-yellow. 
Pod short- stalked, linear, flat, glabrous, nearly straight, narrowed to 
a 2 
