JEschynomene hispida.
green, reddish and black glandular-like tubercles, from each of which
a hair arises, capitated by a viscous crown, emitting a terebinthenate
odour. Leaves consisting of many pairs of linear and oval-linear,
obtuse, very smooth leaflets, of an apple-green colour, supported by
very short stalks, on a hispid petiole. They are very numerous,
often thirty-nine, forty-nine, and fifty-one. Stipules ovate, acuminate,
with a decurrent base. Flowers about three or five, borne in
simple racemes, garnished with a leaf or two. Peduncles hispid and
glandular, zig-zag. Loment stipitate, arcuate, somewhat compressed,
but showing the elevation produced by the seeds and the depressions
by the dissepiments conspicuously, making from six to nine
joints; hispid-scabrous, the tubercles being large, red, and prominent.
Corolla gamboge-yellow, reticulately veined with carmine-
red. Grows along the margins of rivers subject to the overflowing
of the tides, and on the islands of most of our large tide-water rivers,
from Pennsylvania to Carolina. July, August.
The greek word c;b'§|..£*is to be ashamed, has given origin to the
generic name iEschynomene, because the plants of that genus are
somewhat sensitive, and shrink from the touch. It is a tropical genus,
containing thirteen species, native to India and America. The North
American species are only two, both of which are rare. The one
here figured is a scarce plant even in those places where it is indigenous.
Along the shores of the Delaware, near Philadelphia, where
it grows naturally, but three or four specimens can be found in a