Pictetia
(named in honour of A. Pictet, 1752-1825, a celebrated natural philosopher). ORD. Leguminosae. A genus comprising half-a-dozen very glabrous, tropical American, ornamental, stove, evergreen shrubs. Flowers yellow in the axils, racemose or rarely solitary; two upper calyx lobes short, obtuse, the three lower ones acuminate; standard sub-orbiculate, keel obtuse. Pods oblong or broad-linear, stipitate, compressed, indehiscent. Leaves impari-pinnate; leaflets three to many, mucronate or pungent, entire, exstipellate; stipules often spinescent. The only two species in cultivation thrive in a compost of loam and peat. Propagation may be effected by cuttings, inserted in sand, under a glass, in heat.
P. aristata (awned). fl., racemes loose, three to seven-flowered. June and July. l. with seven to ten pairs of obovate-orbicular, usually alternate leaflets, each leaflet ending in a long, straight, spine-like mucrone, having the lateral nerves prominent; stipules spinose, spreading. h. 5ft. to 10ft. St. Domingo, 1816. SYN. AEschynomene aristata.
P. squamata (scaly). fl. on distant, elongated, nearly opposite pedicels; racemes loose, three to seven-flowered. June and July. l., leaflets seven to ten pairs, each ending in a long, spine-like mucrone; stipules spinose, erect. Branchlets with imbricated scales at their bases. h. 6ft. St. Thomas's Island, 1824. SYN. Robinia squamata.