both in habit and chatacter of inflorescence, have been ob- 
tained from the fruit. In the first this is a bivalved legume 
or pod of one entire piece, bursting lengthways; in the se- 
cond a /omentum or articulated pod, parting at the joints into 
one-seeded fragments, each opening by two valves. Their 
generic division had been already established by Tournefort, 
but suppressed by Linnzus, was resumed by Gertuer, and 
has been adopted by Willdenow. 
The present gpecies is very commonly mistaken in our 
gardens for the East Indian grandiflora, which differs in 
having the wings of the leaf in 17 or 18 pairs, each wing 
consisting of 30 or 40 pairs of leaflets, each leaflet ovate at 
the base, and entirely distinct from the opposite one. In 
Houstoni the leaf has seldom more than six or eight pairs of 
wings, the leaflets of which are ascendent and oppositely con- 
fluent, having truncated bases attached obliquely by their out- 
ermost corners along a ledge at the under side of the petiole. 
In our hothouses it grows toa tall tree-like shrub, flowering 
freely when of sufficient age, and producing abundance of 
suckers when cut down, which, from its lofty growth, is 
necessary in the stove. Corolla small, persistent, of a thick 
leathery substance, white and smooth within, on the outside 
downy and of a reddish brown colour, enchased in a still 
smaller deciduous calyr. The beauty of the bloom consists 
in the long capillary crimson stamens, which spread them- 
selves out into a broad inverted hollow cone, of from two 
inches to two and a half in depth. According to L’Heritier 
the fruit or pod is linear-oblong, acuminate, compressed, ° 
torose or knobbed where the seeds lie, and covered on the 
outside by a close reddish brown nap: seeds several, ob- 
long, compressed, with an ocellated mark at each end, 
affixed along the straighter back of the pod to both the 
inner edges of the seam. 
Native of South America, where it was collected by Dr. 
William Houstoun, and sent to this country in 1729. 
The drawing was made from a plant of more than seven 
feet high, which bloomed in the hothouse of Mr. John’ 
Hall, at Notting Hill, from whose collection Mr. Edwards ~ 
has been liberally supplied with specimens of several in- 
teresting plants, 
a The calyx. 6 The corolla. c The connected or monadelphous base- 
ment of the stamens. d The pistil. 
