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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.

7. Sophora, Linn

7. Sophora, Linn.

Small trees or shrubs. Leaves imparipinnate. Flowers in racemes or panicles, large, showy. Calyx oblique, broadly campanulate; teeth very short. Standard broadly obovate or orbicular, erect or spreading; wings oblong, oblique, shorter than the keel. Stamens 10, free or rarely obscurely connate at the base; anthers versatile. Ovary shortly stipitate; ovules numerous; style incurved; stigma minute, terminal. Pod moniliform, elongated, terete or 4-winged or -angled, fleshy or coriaceous or woody, indehiscent or 2-valved, each seed enclosed in a separate cell. Seeds oblong to globose, few or many.

Species about 22, found in most warm countries. The New Zealand species belongs to the section Edwardsia, characterized by the short standard, exserted stamens, and 4-winged pod.

1.

S. tetraptera, J. Mull. Ic. Plant. t. 1.—A very variable shrub or small tree 15–40 ft. high, with a trunk 6–24 in. diam.; branches of young trees slender, flexuous, often interlaced; young shoots, leaves, inflorescence, and calyces more or less clothed with silky page 123fulvous pubescence. Leaves exstipulate, 1–6 in. long; pinnæ 4–40 pairs, sessile or shortly petiolulate, ¼–1 in. long, linear-oblong to obcordate or orbicular, rounded or retuse at the tip. Racemes 2–8-flowered, pendulous. Flowers large, golden-yellow, 1–2 in. long. Calyx gibbous, hemispherical, mouth oblique. Standard hardly reflexed, broadly obovate, obtuse; keel and wings oblong. Pod 2–8 in. long, moniliform, 4-angled, and with 4 narrow longitudinal wings; valves hardly dehiscent. Seeds 3–8, oblong.—Forst. Prodr. n. 183; Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 53; Kirk, Students' Fl. 122.

Var, grandiflora, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 53.—Leaflets 10–25 pairs, longer and narrower, linear-oblong. Flowers larger, 2 in. long. Standard a fourth shorter than the wings, obviously reflexed.—Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 50. S. tetra ptera, Bot. Mag. t. 167. Edwardsia grandiflora, Salisb. in Trans. Linn. Soc. ix. (1808) 299; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 344; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 571; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 52.

Var. microphylla, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 53.—Leaflets 25–40 pairs, small, oblong or obovate to orbicular. Flowers 1–1½ in. Standard narrower, as long as the wings or nearly so, hardly reflexed.—Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 51. S. microphylla, Ait. Hort. Kew. ii. 43; Bot. Mag. t. 1442. S. Chathamica, Cock-ayne in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxxiv. (1902) 319 (name only). Edwardsia microphylla, Salisb. in Trans. Linn. Soc. ix. (1808) 299; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 344; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 570. E. Macnabiana, Bot. Mag. t. 3735. E. grandiflora var. microphylla, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 52.

Var. prostrata, Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 52.—Stems prostrate. Leaflets 2–4 pairs. Flowers small, solitary or in pairs. Standard hardly shorter than the wings. Pods small, downy, barely winged; seeds 1–3.—S. prostrata, Buch, in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 395, t. 36.

North and South Islands, Chatham Islands: Var. microphylla: Abundant from the North Cape to Southland. Var. grandiflora: From the East Cape to Wellington, and reported from the South Island, but I have seen no specimens from thence. Var. prostrata: Mountains of Marlborough and Canterbury. Sea-level to 2500 ft. Kowhai. August–October. Also found in Lord Howe Island, Easter Island, Juan Fernandez, and Chili.

The three varieties described above have a very distinct appearance, and many botanists will prefer to treat them as separate species. The timber is hard, strong, and durable, but can rarely be obtained of sufficient size fore conomic purposes.