Volume 5 — PLATE CCCXLVII.

SOPHORA CAPENSIS.

Vetch-leaved Sophora.

CLASS X. ORDER I.

DECANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Ten Chives. One Pointal.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

Calyx. Perianthium monophyllum, breve, campanulatum, basi superne gibbum; ore quinque-dentato, obliquo, obtuso.

Corolla papillionacea, pentapetala.

Vexillum oblongum, sensim latius, rectum, lateribus reflexis.

Alæ duæ, oblongæ, basi appendiculatæ, longitudine vexilli.

Carina dipetala; petalis alis conformibus, marginibus inferioribus approximatis, navicularibus.

Stamina. Filamenta decem, distincta, parallela, subulata, longitudine corollæ, intra carina recondita. Antheræ minimæ, assurgentes.

Pistillum. Germen oblongum, teres. Stylus magnitudine et situ staminum. Stigma obtusum.

Pericarpium. Legumen longissimum, tenue, uniloculare, ad semina nodosum.

Semina plurima, subrotunda.

Empalement. Cup one-leaf, short, bell-shaped, hunched at the base on the upper side; mouth five-toothed, oblique, obtuse.

Blossom butterfly-shaped, five petalled.

Standard oblong, gradually wider, straight, reflexed at the sides.

Wings two, oblong, appendicled at the base, the length of the standard.

Keel two petalled with the petals conformable to the wings, the lower margins approaching and boat-shaped.

Chives. Ten threads, distinct, parallel, and shaped, the length of, the blossom, within the keel. Tips very small, turned upwards.

Pointal. Seed-bud oblong, cylindrical. Shaft the size and situation of the chives. Summit blunt.

Seed-vessel. Pod very long, slender, one-celled, knobbed at the seeds.

Seeds many, roundish.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Sophora foliis pinnatis; foliolis lanceolatis, mucronatis, subtus tomentosis; caule fruticoso.

Sophora with winged leaves; leaflets lance-shaped, pointed, downy beneath; stem shrubby.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

This is a plant of considerable size at the Cape of Good Hope, so much so, as to be looked upon there rather as a tree, than shrub. It was first sent to England, in the year 1773, by Mr. F. Masson; is a hardy green-house plant; thrives in a mixture of loam and peat, and flowers in August, or September. There is no method, yet discovered, to propagate it in this country; but, as seeds are so common of this plant, near Cape town, there is scarce a parcel arrives, from thence, which does not contain some of them.

Among the new modern vagaries in botany, this genus has been thought, by the French botanists, (those admirable perplexers of natural order,) to be better divided in two, as some of the species happen to have the joints of the pods a little more swelled than others. How so trifling a variation, and that in a part of the plant which is known to vary, in almost every genus, through most of the species, where they are numerous; should have been deemed of sufficient moment to alter the names of so many established plants, and those determined by such authority as Linnæus, we are at a loss to determine; and are equally astonished that Willdenow should have followed them. The new genus is termed Podalyria, and to which, this plant is attached in the new system.