PAULINIA, in botany: A genus of the trigynia order, belonging to the octandria class of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 23d order, Tribulata. Its characters are these: the flowers have a permanent empalement, composed of four small oval leaves; it has four oblong oval petals, twice the size of the empalement; and eight short stamens with a turbinated germin, having three short slender styles, crowned by spreading stigmas; the germin turns to a large three-cornered capsule with three cells, each containing one almost oval seed. Linnaeus reckons seven, and Miller nine, species, natives of the West Indies.