Tas. 6506. 
INDIGOFERA ANIL. 
Native of the West Indies. 
Nat. Ord. Lecuminosz.—Tribe GALEGER, 
Genus InpicorEra, Linn.; (Benth. et Hook.f. Gen. Plant. vol. i. p, 494.) 
Inpicorrra (Euindigofera) Anil; suffrutescens, cano-puberula, foliis pinnatis, 
pinnis 3-7-jugis oppositis oblongis sel obovatis v. lineari- v. obovato- 
oblongis obtusis v. retusis, stipulis subulatis, racemis subsessilibus erectis 
strictis folio brevioribus, calycis lobis triangularibus, vexillo parvo rotundato, 
alis anguste oblongis obtusis carinam wquantibus, legumine lineari-oblongo 
arcuato-recurvo rostrato obtuse 4-goni levi 6-10-spermo sutura dorsali 
incrassato. 
I. Anil, Zinn. Mant. p. 272; Sloane, Hist, Jam. t. 179, f.2; Lamk. Eneyel. 
t. 626; Dict. Se. Nat. t. 252; Tratt. Archiv. t. 72; Tussac. Fl. Antill. 
t. 72; DC. Prodr. vol. ii. p. 225, exel. var. y; Griseb. Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 
p. 181; Benth. in Mart, Fl. Bras. Legum. p. 40. ; 
I. uncinata, G. Don Gard. Dict. vol. ii. p. 208. 
I. micrantha, Desv. in Ann. Sc. Nat. Ser. i. vol. ix. p. 410. 
This, the indigenous Indigo of the West Indies, is the 
representative of the I. tinctoria or Indigo of the Old World ; 
but both of these plants having been cultivated for some 
centuries for the extraction of the well-known dye, are now 
naturalized in the tropics of the Old and the New World. 
Of the two species, I. tinctoria was known for its product 
from very early times, being in use by the Egyptians and 
described by Dioscorides; whereas the I. Anil could not have 
been known in Europe or the Hast until after the discovery 
of America. An Indigo appears, however, to have been 
used by the natives of the New World before it was brought 
into competition with the plant of the Old; for Sloane 
(Hist. Jam. vol. ii. p. 37) says, ‘ Robt. Tomson ap. Hakl. 
p- 454, found it about Mexico, where it is used to die blue.” 
It is, however, very doubtful if the plant here alluded to be 
the Indigofera Anil. It is a somewhat singular fact that 
although the Indigofera tinctoria has been for so many centu- 
ries the only Indigo-plant known in the Old World, the first 
species recognized by botanists was the West Indian LI. Anil. 
JULY Ist, 1880. 
