Calyx sub-bilabiatus, quinquefidus. Corolla papilionacea. Alæ vexilli longitudine. Legumen ventricosum, polyspermum.
Empalement nearly bilabiate, five-cleft. Blossom butterfly-shaped. Wings the length of the standard. Pod ventricose, and many-seeded.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
Podalyria foliis simplicibus, hirsutis, ovatis vel oblongis: corollis magnis, purpureis, plerumque simplicibus: pedunculis longis: ramis teretibus, pilosis.
Podalyria with simple, hairy leaves, ovate or oblong. Blossoms large and purple, mostly single. Footstalks long. Branches round and hairy.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The empalement.
2. The standard.
3. One of the wings.
4. The keel.
5. Chives and pointal.
6. The chives spread open.
7. Seed-bud and pointal.
Podalyria is a section of the genus Sophora, separated from it by Lamarck, and named after the son of Æsculapius, the celebrated physician who accompanied the Grecians in their famous expedition against Troy.
This species, we have little doubt, is the P. hirsuta (an unfigured species) enumerated by Willdenow, although by some it is thought to be distinct from it, on account of the leaves being somewhat longer, the flowers of a finer colour; differences, we think, accounted for in the latitude of growth resulting from varied modes of culture.
Our drawing was made from a plant raised from Cape seed, by Messrs. Whitley and Brames, in the year 1806.[Pg 67]