Bot. [mod.L. (Linnæus, 1737).] A genus of leguminous trees, shrubs, or plants, characterized by having odd-pinnate leaves and racemose or paniculate flowers, many species of which are cultivated for their ornamental properties; a tree of this genus.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., Sophora,… the name given by Linnæus to a genus of plants called by Dillenius … ervi species.
1826–7. Encycl. Metrop. (1845), XVIII. 398/2. This genus [Edwardsia] of elegant shrubs has been divided from Sophora, from which it is distinguished by its four-winged seed-vessel.
1868. Rep. U. S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 201. The Japan sophora (Sophora Japonica), yellow locust (Robinia pseudacacia) [etc.] … may be placed in the list of pinnate-foliaged plants.
1883. S. B. Parsons, in Harper’s Mag., April, 726/2. The most striking of these is the weeping-sophora, a most graceful and soft feathery tree, not unlike the locust in form and color of leaf.
Hence Sophoria, Sophorine Chem. (see quot. 1881).
1878. Pharmac. Jrnl., 29 June, 1047. Note on the Alkaloid Sophoria. Ibid. In the present state in which it was obtained sophoria is a transparent liquid having a highly alkaline reaction.
1881. Watts, Dict. Chem., 3rd Suppl., Sophorine, an alkaloid obtained from the pods of Sophora speciosa. It is liquid, and forms a stable chloride.
