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— 
SOPHORA TETRAPTERA, Aiton. 
THE KOWHBHAI. 
OrpdER—LEGUMINOS#. 
(Plates L., LI., and LII.) 
Tur kowhai was collected by Banks and Solander in 1769, and was subsequently 
described by Aiton under the name of Sophora tetraptera, chiefly on account of 
its pods being four-angled or -winged. It was separated from Sophora at a later 
period by Salisbury, and, with other species from the Isle of Bourbon and the 
Sandwich Islands, formed into a genus under the name of Edwardsia; but, as it 
has been found that Sophora comprises plants showing a complete transition from 
rounded or flat pods to species with angled or winged pods, Edwardsia has been 
merged in Sophora, although sometimes used to denote a section of the genus 
characterized by the short standard, stamens longer than the petals, and angled 
or winged pods. 
It is interesting to find that it was introduced into England by Sir Joseph 
Banks and Dr. Solander, the illustrious naturalists who accompanied Captain 
Cook during his first circumnavigation of the globe. Many old specimens are 
still to be found growing in England; but it usually requires the protection of a 
wall, when it produces flowers in profusion. | 
The kowhai is a variable plant in its habit of growth, and in the relative 
length of the petals. On the mountains it forms a prostrate shrub, but in 
favourable situations it is an erect tree, 30ft. to 5o0ft. high, with a trunk from Oin. 
to 3ft. in diameter: most frequently it is a much-branched shrub less than 2oft. 
high. Its bright yellow flowers and light airy foliage render it a favourite plant: 
its fowers, moreover, afford one of the first indications that midwinter has been 
passed, and spring is close at hand. The leaves are alternate, and on difierent 
varieties vary from Jin. to 6in. or 7in. in length; they consist of a single row of. 
leaflets on each side of a leaf-stalk, and the leaflets may vary in number from 
four pairs to forty, in all cases with a solitary terminal leaflet: the leaflets may 
be round or oblong, acute, obtuse, or slightly notched at the apex, and vary in 
length from gin. to t}in.: they are more or less silky.. The old leaves remain 
on the branches until they are pushed off by the swelling of the new buds; but 
the flowers are usually produced on naked branches. 
The flowers form pendulous racemes developed in the axils of the leaves ; 
the peduncle of the raceme is very short, but the slender pedicels vary from 4in. 
to Idin. in length; the peduncles, pedicels, and calyx are clothed with silky 
hairs. The calyx forms a deep cup with five teeth. The corolla consists of five 
petals of different shapes: the uppermost is termed the vexillum or standard ; 
the two lateral petals, the ale or wings; the two lower petals form the carina or 
keel, and are usually coherent for the greater part of their length, although they 
can be easily separated; the other petals are free. The relative length of the 
petals varies in the different varieties ; but in all the forms the standard is short 
and broad, attached to the calyx by a short broad claw, the upper portion bent 
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