494 
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
[Vol. io, 
Synonyms: 
Peraltea H.B.K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 6: 469. 1823. Type: P. lupinoides 
H.B.K., now known as Brongniartia lupinoides. 
Megastegia G. Don, Gen. Syst. 2: 468. 1832. Type: M. speciosa G. Don, 
regarded as the same as B. thermoides. 
The genus consists of 37 species, natives of Mexico and Central America, 
and a few species from South America. One species, B. oligosperma Baill., 
is somewhat abnormal in the genus on account of its hairy few-seeded pods. 
6. Harpalyce DC. Mem. Leg. 496. 1825 
Trees or shrubs, with alternate odd-pinnate leaves and small stipules. 
The leaflets are entire-margined, petioluled, sprinkled beneath with yellow 
or orange glands or gland-like scales. The flowers are racemes. The 
calyx is 2-lipped, with the upper 2 and the lower 3 lobes united to the tip. 
The banner is rounded or obovate, short-clawed, the wings are very irregular, 
strongly curved, obtuse, the keel-petals more or less falcate, united to above 
the middle but the tips free and obtuse. The stamens are monadelphous, 
but the sheath is split to the base; the anthers are alternately longer and 
shorter. The ovary is sessile, the style arcuate, glabrous, the stigma 
minute, terminal. The pod is 2-valved, several-seeded, leathery or woody. 
Illustration: Plate XXXIV F. Harpalyce Loeseneriana Taub., 
X 2/3; 1. calyx, 2. stamens, 3. pistil, 4. banner, 5. wing, 6. keel-petal, X 1; 
7. pod, 8. cross section of the same, X 1; 9. banner of H. cubensis Griseb., 
10. wing, 11. keel-petal, 12. seed, X 2/3. 
The genus was based on an unpublished illustration in Mocino and 
Sesse’s Flore de Mexique of Astragalus carnosus. In De Candolle’s Pro- 
dromus the type is given as H. formosa DC., based on the same. 
The genus consists of 14 species, viz., 7 from Mexico, 1 from Guatemala, 
3 from Cuba, and 3 from Brazil. One species, H. mexicana, is abnormal 
in that the valves of the pod are woody. As the flowers of this species are 
unknown, it may belong to some other genus. The rest can be divided 
into three natural groups: (1) Cuban species, in which the petals are fleshy, 
the keel much longer than the other petals, and the pod is small and narrow; 
(2) Mexican species (including the one from Guatemala), in which the 
petals are membranous, the keel is scarcely longer than the banner, and the 
pod large and broad; (3) Brazilian species, similar to the Mexican but the 
pod narrower and more or less divided internally by false cross-partitions 
of spongiose tissue. 
Subtribe 4. Barbierianae. 
Shrubs, with alternate odd-pinnate leaves, narrow stipules and stipels. 
The flowers are in axillary and terminal racemes, each subtended by a pair 
of bractlets. The calyx is cylindric, 5-lobed, the lobes subequal. The 
corolla is not truly papilionaceous, the petals with long slender claws; the 
blade of the banner is oblanceolate, not spreading; the wings have elliptic 
blades, the keel-petals oblanceolate or oblong, obtuse blades, scarcely 
