Herbs, or low shrubs, with glandular-punctate bipinnate leaves, small stipules, and yellow flowers in terminal or lateral racemes. Calyx deeply 5-parted, the lobes nearly equal. Petals 5, oval or oblong, imbricated, nearly equal. Stamens 10, distinct, slightly declined; filaments often glandular at the base; anthers all alike, longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary nearly sessile; ovules 00. Pod flat, linear, oblong or ovate, curved or straight, 2-valved, several-seeded. [In honor of Joh. Centurius, Graf Hoffmansegge, a writer on Portuguese botany.]

About 20 species, natives of western America and South Africa. Besides the following, some 9 others occur in the southwestern United States. Type species: Hoffmanseggia falcaria Cav.

Leaflets black-punctate; pod obliquely oblong.

1.

H. Jamesii.

Leaflets not punctate; pod linear-oblong.

2.

H. falcaria.

4 Hoffmans ggia Cav Icones 4 63 Pl 392 393 1797 785

1. Hoffmanseggia Jamesii T. & G. James' Hoffmanseggia

Fig. 2443

Pomaria glandxilosa Torr. Ann. Lyc. N. Y. 2: 193. 1826.

Not Cav. 1799. Hoffmanseggia Jamesii T. & G. Fl. N. A. 1: 393. 1840. Caesalpinia Jamesii Fisher, Coult. Bot. Gaz. 18: 123. 1893.

Herbaceous, glandular, black-punctate and finely pubescent, branching at the base from a deep woody root; stems 6'-12' high. Stipules subulate; leaves petioled, bipinnate; pinnae 5-7; leaflets 9-19, oval or oblong, obtuse at each end, inequilateral, 1 1/2" - 3" long; racemes terminal, or lateral (opposite the leaves), elongated; flowers yellow, distant, deflexed, 3"-4" long, the upper petal spotted with red; pod flat, obliquely oblong, black-punctate, about 1' long and 5" wide, 2-3-seeded, tipped with the base of the style. Plains, Kansas to Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. June-July.

2. Hoffmanseggia Falcària Cav. Sickle-Fruited Hoffmanseggia

Fig. 2444

Hoffmanseggia falcaria Cav. Icones, 4: 63. pl. 392. 1797. H. stricta Benth.; A. Gray, Pl. Wright. 1:56. 1852. Caesalpinia Falcaria Fisher, Coult. Bot. Gaz. 18: 122. 1893.

Herbaceous, puberulent, not black-punctate, the glands of the peduncles and petioles stalked; stems ascending or decumbent, 1° high or less. Stipules ovate; leaves slender-petioled, bipinnate; pinnae 7-11; leaflets 12-21, oblong, obtuse, 1 1/2"-3" long; racemes few-several-flowered, elongating in fruit; pod flat, linear-oblong, curved or nearly straight, 1'-1 1/2' long, about 3" wide, blunt, 8-12-seeded, the fruiting pedicels recurved.

Kansas (according to Fisher); Texas, west to California. Also in Central and South America. April-June.

2 Hoffmanseggia Falc Ria Cav Sickle Fruited Hoffma 786