Nov., 1923] 
RYDBERG — NORTH AMERICAN FABACEAE 
491 
Balboa Liebm. Vidensk. Meddel. 1853: 106. 1854. Type: Balboa 
diversifolia Liebm., the only species. 
Seemannantha Alef. Bonplandia 10: 264. 1862. This was a substitute 
for Macronyx, and hence based on the same type. 
Cracca is a large genus, probably containing about 150 species, found 
in warmer regions of both hemispheres. In North America (including 
Central America and the West Indies), there are 72 species, of which 65 are 
native and 7 introduced. 
Taubert divided the genus into 4 sections: Brissonia, Reineria, Pogo- 
nostigma, and Requienia. Of these the last two, which are not represented 
in America, should be removed as distinct genera, having 1-seeded fruits. 
The principal character by which Taubert distinguished the first two 
sections was the relative width and length of the calyx lobes. Some species, 
as for instance C. leucantha, which has long and narrow calyx-lobes, really 
belong to Brissonia instead of Reineria. A better distinction is the in¬ 
florescence, which is monopodial in the former and sympodial in the latter. 
In the monopodial inflorescence the terminal raceme is best developed, but 
many of the species bear also secondary racemes in the upper axils. In 
the sympodial inflorescence the terminal raceme develops first, but in the 
uppermost leaf-axils a branch is produced which in its turn develops a 
terminal raceme; this is repeated several times, and the racemes therefore 
appear to be opposite the leaves. In a few species, as for instance C. 
rhodantha, C. foliosa , C. vicioides , and C. Brandegei, the racemes are mostly 
at the nodes, but neither opposite the leaves nor strictly axillary; they are 
inserted in the axils but obliquely, i.e., not in the plane determined by the 
stem and the rachis of the leaves. The monopodial or sympodial character 
is not perfectly clear. 
Several of the species are used as a fish-poison by the natives of the 
region where they grow, others for poisoning arrows in Southern Africa; 
still others furnish a blue dye, somewhat resembling indigo. 
3. Peteria A. Gray. PI. Wright 1 : 50. 1852 
Perennial herbs, somewhat woody at the base. The leaves are odd- 
pinnate with spiny stipules. The flowers are usually in terminal racemes. 
The calyx is cylindro-campanulate, gibbous at the base above; 5-lobed with 
the upper two lobes united high up. The corolla is ochroleucous or nearly 
white, the banner long-clawed with an oblong-obovate blade; the wings 
have an obliquely oblong blade, slightly auricled at the base, and a slender 
claw; the blades of the keel-petals are obliquely obovate, obtuse, with a 
broad, rounded basal auricle. The stamens are diadelphous, with the upper 
filament wholly free. The ovary is short-stipitate or sessile, many-ovuled, 
the style with a horny base, indexed, glabrous, except at the apex, where 
there is a ring of hairs. The pod is linear, straight, compressed, 2-valved, 
many-seeded, with thick sutures. 
The genus was based on a single species, P. scoparia A. Gray, and con- 
