LEGUMINOSvE.
59
SOPHOEA.
Flowers in terminal simple racemes or leafy panicles, papilionaceous; calyx■toothed, the short teeth nearly equal, imbricated in aestivation ; stamens free orrare ly suhconnate ; ovary short-stalked, many-ovuled. Legume moniliform, indehis-Cen t, or tardily dehiscent. Leaves unequally pinnate.
Phora, Linnaeus, Gen. 125. — Adanson , Farm. PI. ii. 318. —de Jussieu, Gen. 352. — De Candolle , Mem. Legum.Endlicher, Gen. 1308. — Meisner, Gen. 80. —Eentham & Hooker, Gen. i. 555. — Baillon, Hist. PI. ii.358.
Ed. USS0Ile ^ a ’ Ortega, Dec. v. 61 (not Ventenat).
^ardsia, Salisbury, Trans. Linn. Soc. ix. 298. — Meis-ner Gen. 80. — Endlicher, Gen. 1308.
Patrinia, Rafinesque, Jour. Phys. lxxxix. 97 (not A. L. deJussieu ).
Zanthyrsis, Rafinesque , New FI. iii. 84.
Agastianis, Rafinesque , New FI. iii. 85.
Styphnolobium, Schott, Wien . Zeitschr. 1830, 844. — End-licher, Gen. 1309.
Dermatophyllum, Scheele, Linncea, xxi. 458.
Gcebelia, Bunge, Poissier FI. Orient, ii. 628.
Keyserlingia, Bunge, Boissier FI. Orient, ii. 629.
fib r ^ reeS ’ shrubs, and perennial herbs, with unarmed terete branches, supra or subpetiolar buds, andr °us roots. Leaves alternate, unequally pinnate, persistent or deciduous; stipules minute, deciduous;ets numerous and small or few and ample, membranaceous, or coriaceous; stipels minute, setaceous,11 'wanting. Flowers in simple racemes terminal or panicled from the axils of the upper leaves,^racts and bractlets linear, minute, deciduous, or often wanting. Calyx broadly campanulate, oftenor gh % turbinate or obconic at the base, obliquely truncate, five-toothed, the short teeth nearly equalthe two upper suhconnate, often somewhat larger than the others. Disk cupuliform, glandular,o - e to the calyx-tube. Petals white, yellow, or rarely violet blue, unguicidate; standard broadlyo -te or orbicular, erect or spreading, usually shorter, rarely longer than the keel-petals; wings.Oblique; keel-petals oblong, suberect, as long as the wings or rather longer, overlapping each• & t the back, barely connate. Stamens ten, free, or nine of them slightly connate at the base,q 1 ° rin 5 anthers attached on the hack near the middle, two-celled, the cells opening longitudinally.t ar y s hortly stipitate, contracted into an incurved style terminated by a minute truncate or slightly^ed stigma; ovules indefinite, suspended from the inner angle of the ovary, superposed, amphi-fiiif q US ? micro Py le su P er i° r * Legume moniliform, terete or slightly compressed, naked or longitu-
• y four-winged, fleshy, coriaceous or woody, many-seeded, each seed inclosed in a separate cell,
^defi
flattened, estrophiolate
°r bearlT “ ^°" Yalved and tard % dehiscent. Seed globular, oblong orCotyledons tV L Undn0US or destitute of albumen; testa thick, membranaceous, or crustaceous.°r hiflexed ° ’ ra dicle very short and straight or more or less elongated and incurved
o r
these SopJiQ ^ SCa tt ered through the warm parts of the world with twenty-two recognized species. Of^ 0t lds, rea i . a t° m entosa, a large shrub, is widely distributed on tropical ocean shores in the twoStl Uil] trees ' ^° Se sou thern Florida and western Texas . Five other species, two of which are’ n abit the territory of the United States 2 and Mexico . 3 The genus is represented in the
1
l ^ a6ns ’ Spec. 373. — De Candolle , Prodr. ii. 95. — Torrey &Am “ 1 389 -~ Mi 1 uel > Fl Ind ' BaL L P 1 *• 124.—
ui. 144
Ind. 203. — Hemsley, Bot. Challenger Exped.
2 Nuttall, Gen. i. 280. — Torrey & Gray, l. c. — Gray, Ives' Rep.10. — Chapman, l. c. — Watson, Proc. Am. Acad. xi. 135. —Brewer & Watson, Bot. Cal. i. 114.-Man. ed. 6, 127.
s Hemsley, Bot. Biol. Am. Cent. i. 320.
-Watson & Coulter, Gray's