Tas. 4945. 
MUCUNA prorira. 
Kast Indian Cow-itch or Cowage. 
Nat. Ord. Lecum1nos#.—D1apDELPHIA DECANDRIA. 
Gen. Char. Calyx campanulatus, bilabiatus; labia inferiore trifido, laciniis acutis 
medio productiore ; /abio superiore latiore integro obtuso. Corolle vewil luim a 
surgens, alis carinaque brevius, alee oblonge carine longitudine ; carina o b ong, 
recta, acuta. Stamina diadelphia ; antheris 5 oblongo-linearibus, 5 ovatis hirsutis. 
Legumen oblongum, torosum, bivalve, septis cellulosis. Semina subrotunda, hilo 
lineari circulariter cincta——Herbee aut frutices longe scandentes. Folia pinnato- 
trifqliolata. Racemi asxillares, fructiferi sepius penduli. Legumina sepius his- 
pida, pilis innumeris fragilissimis cutem facile penetrantibus et ideo urentibus. De 
Cand. 
Mucuna (§ Stizolobium) prurita; perennis, ramis pubescentibus y. parce hir- 
sutis, foliolis ovatis supra glabris subtus pilis raris sericeis adspersis, race- 
mis densis folio brevioribus longe pedunculatis nutantibus, calyce ad medium 
bilabiato adpresse pilosis labii inferioris laciniis lato-lanceolatis, leguminibus 
curvatis pilis rigidis prurientibus vestitis, valvis medio non carinatis. Wight 
et Arn. 
Mucuna prurita. Hook. Bot. Misc. v. 2. p. 848. Suppl. t. 13. (M. pruriens, 
Wight.) Wight et Arn. Prodr. Fl. Penins. Ind. Or. p. 255. 
Mucouna pruriens. Wall. Cat. n. 5616. Wight. Cat. n. 155. 
Carpopogon pruriens. Roxb. Fl. Ind. p. 383 (excl. syn. Linn.). 
Cacara pruritus. Rumph. Amb. 6. p. 393. t. 142. 
Nat Corana. Rheede, Malad. 8. p. 61. t. 65. 
There is something very peculiar in the great thyrsiform 
drooping racemes, with large blackish-purple flowers, hanging 
at the extremity of the long peduncles from the branches of this 
extensive climber, as seen in the stove of the Palm-house at Kew 
during the summer months, and looking like bunches of large 
black grapes. This is one of the species of Cowage or Cow-tich, 
of which two are considered to yield the substance known 
under that name, celebrated as an anthelmintic, viz. the present, 
OCTOBER Ist, 1856. 
