Securidaca
(from securis, a hatchet; alluding to the form of the wing at the end of the pod). ORD. Polygaleae. A genus comprising about twenty-five species of stove, often climbing shrubs, mostly natives of the warmer parts of America, but four or five inhabit tropical Asia or Africa. Sepals unequal, the two largest petaloid and wing-like; two lateral sepals adnate to the staminal tube towards the base, erecto-connivent; keel concavegaleate, erect, or broadly three-lobed; stamens eight; racemes terminal and axillary, often panicled. Leaves alternate, usually entire and biglandular. The two species described below are pretty plants, thriving in a compost of loam, peat, and sand. Propagated readily by cuttings, inserted in sand, under a glass, in heat.
S. erecta (erect). fl. red, in dense, panicled racemes; posterior sepals spathulate, blunt; wings orbicular, equalling the shortly bilobed keel. July. l. 1 1/2in. to 2in. long, ovate-lanceolate, ovate, or oblong, pointed or blunt, puberulous beneath. h. 10ft. to 15ft. Tropical America, 1824. An erect shrub.
S. virgata (twiggy). fl. variegated, odorous, distant; corolla yellow; wings rosy on the outside, white within; racemes terminal, filiform, drooping. July. l. eight to ten lines in diameter, rounded at both ends or sub-emarginate; those of the flowering branch-lets much smaller. West Indies, 1739. A high climber.