290 LEGUMINOS.3E. C enthosema.
1. C. Mariana (Linn.): glabrous; stem somewhat twining or trailing;
leaves 3-foliolate, ovate-oblong or ovate-lanceolate; peduncles short, 1-3-
flowered; bracteoles lanceolate-subulate, much shorter than the calyx, similar
to and scarcely larger than the bracts; legumes linear-oblong, about 4-seed-
ed, torulose, glabrous.— Walt.Car. p. 186 ; Willd. sp. 3. p. 1070; Michx. !
fl. 2. p. 62 ; Nutt.! gen. 2. p. 18 ; Ell. sk. 2. p. 240 ; DC. prodr. 2. p. 234.
Dry soils, particularly along rivers, New-Jersey ! to Florida and Alabama !
July-Aug.—Stem 2 feet or more in length. Leaflets variable in breadth,
sometimes subcordate at the base. Bracteoles scarcely one-fourth the length
of the calyx. Corolla 2 inches or a little more in length, pale blue. Stipe of
the mature fruit about the length of the peduncle. Legume 1J inch in length.
12. CENTROSEMA. DC. (sub Clitoria) ; Benth. comm. Leg. gen. p. 53.
Calyx short, broadly campanulate, 5-cleft, or 4-c.left by the union of the
two upper segments; the lower segment longest. Vexillum large, broadly
orbicular, with a short obtuse spur behind : keel semi-orbicular, scarcely shorter
than the wings, incurved, obtuse, on very short claws. Stamens mona-
delphous or partly diadelphous. Style glabrous, dilated at the apex: stigma
barbulate. Legume nearly sessile, linear, compressed, subulate with the
style, somewhat thickened along the sutures; the valves marked on each
side with a longitudinal nerve next the margin.—Twining herbs or shrubby
plants. Leaves pinnately 3- (rarely 5-) foliolate. Stipules often persistent,
acuminate or subulate, striate : partial stipules setaceous. Peduncles 1-2-
few-flowered. Lowermost bracts similar to the stipules; the upper usually
orbicular and clasping: bracteoles larger than and appressed to the calyx.
Flowers very large ; the vexillum pubescent or villous on the outside.
1. C. Virginiana, (Benth. 1. c .) : glabrous or somewhat pubescent; stem
very slender, angled, twining; leaves trifoliolate; leaflets varying from oblong-
ovate to linear, reticulately veined ; peduncles rather shorter than the leaves,
1- 4-flowered; segments of the calyx linear-subulate, much longer than the
tube, somewhat exceeding the ovate acuminate bracteoles, the 2 upper united
at the base ; legumes narrowly linear, very long.—Clitoria Virginiana, Linn.;
Walt. Car. p. 186; Willd. sp. 3. p. 1069; Michx.! A. 2. p. 62; Ell. sk. 2.
p. 240; DC. 1. c. C. trifolius, floreminore &c., Dill. hort. Elth. t. 76. C.
calcarigera, Salisb. parad. Lond. t. 51-
Dry soils, Virginia! to Florida ! and Louisiana! July-Aug.—Leaflets thin
but rather Arm in texture, scabrous-pubescent with minute uncinate hairs,
or glabrous, variable in breadth. Bracteoles and calyx pubescent with minute
uncinate hairs. Flowers scarcely half the size of those of Clitoria Mariana:
corolla violet, pubescent externally. Legume nearly 6 inches long,
2 - 3 lines wide, subulate with the slender persistent style.—It appears from a
specimen examined by Mr. Bentham, that the upper segments of the calyx
are occasionally connate above the middle ; but this is not the case in any of
our specimens.
2. C. Plumieri (Benth.) ; stem frutescent, the branches puberulent;
leaflets broadly ovate, with a short obtuse acumination, broadly rounded at
the base, rather coriaceous, glabrous; peduncles 2-3-flowered, shorter than
the petiole; bracteoles coriaceous, obtuse, entire, about twice the length of
the calyx; upper segments of the calyx very short; legume thick (6 inches
long, about 6 lines broad). Benth. comm. Leg. gen. p. 54. Clitoria Plumieri,
Turpin, in Pars. syn. 2. p. 303 ; Bot. reg. t. 268; DC. 1. c .; Nutt,
gen. 1. c. ?
A mphicarpiea. LEGUMINOSiE. 291
Around New Orleans, Nuttall.—“ Corolla large, sericeous ; keel particularly
tomentose. Legume very long and narrow.” Nutt.—C. Plumieri is a
South American and perhaps West Indian species: if the plant of Mr. Nut-
tall be really the same, it is probably introduced. We have taken the spe-
ciflc character from Bentham.
13. AMPHICARP7EA.* Ell. in jour. acad. Philad. 1. p. 372 ; Nutt,
gen. 2. p. 213; DC. mem. Leg., prodr. 2. p. 383. -
Flowers of two kinds ; those of the upper many-flowered racemes perfect
and petaliferous, but seldom maturing fruit; those near the base of the stem
or on prostrate branches imperfect, but usually fertile. P erfect F l. Calyx
tubular-campanulate, about equally 4-toothed (the two upper teeth being
united; sometimes 5-toothed), ebracteolate and slightly gibbous at the base.
Vexillum broadly obovate-oblong, subsessile, slightly auricled at the base, incumbent
and partly folded round the other petals: keel and wing-petals similar,
nearly straight, a little shorter and much narrower than the vexillum, on
very long claws, the lamina oblong, that of the wing-petals with a very small
callous or saccate spur at the base. Stamens diadelphous. Ovary 4-ovuled
raised on a short stipe which is surrounded by a fleshy sheathing disk: style
filiform, glabrous : stigma small, capitate. Legume linear-oblong, compressed,
somewhat scimitar-shaped, 3-4-seeded. Imperfect or A petalods F l. Calyx
nearly as in the petaliferous flowers. Petals none, or with the rudiment of
a vexillum. Stamens either wanting, or often 5-10, shorter than the ovary,
three or four of them with perfect anthers, the others rudimentary : filaments
distinct. Ovary nearly sessile, shorter than the calyx, 1-3-ovuled, tipped
with a very short recurved style, elongating and protruded beyond the calyx
after impregnation. Legumes obovate or pyriform, 1-2-seeded, usually maturing
beneath the surface of the ground.—Annual twining or sarmentose
herbs. - Stems slender, much branched, retiorsely pubescent or hirsute with
brownish hairs. Leaves pinnately trifoliolate: leaflets rhombic-ovate, minutely
stipellate. Stipules striate, similar to the bracts. Racemes of the
petaliferous flowers solitary or in pairs, often somewhat compound, with the
flowers clustered or in pairs from the axils of the bracts: the bracts persistent,
orbicular, partly clasping, appressed, alternate (but each formed by
the union of the pair). Inflorescence of the imperfect or radical flowers
similar, but with the filiform peduncles few-flowered, and the bracts distinct
This genus is manifestly correctly referred by Bentham to his subtribe Clitorieae;
although thepeculiar inflorescence which appears to exist in the whole group is somewhat
masked by the apparently alternate bracts (a deviation, however, which is evidently
caused by the union of each pair of bracts into one) ; but in A. monoica the
vexillum is slightly appendiculate at the base, with the margins of the auricles fold
ed in, and the upper portion of the style is somewhat indurated, as in Euphaseolese.
1. A. monoica; racemes of the petaliferous flowers nodding; teeth of the
calyx short and broad, somewhat triangular; bracts shorter than the pedi*
This genus was established under the name of Amphicarpa, which De Candolle,
for the sake of a substantive termination, changed to Amphicarptza.