9 
the Governor General in Council the probability of this plant being of use to the new settlers, our countrymen at the Cape of Good Hope, 
and to the colonists in general. 
* As the Prangos has hitherto been of spontaneous growth alone, practices better adapted to the nature of the plant or of the country 
may be adopted at a future time; but from a view of its habitudes in its wild state, I venture to suggest that the seeds be dibbled singly 
into holes an inch deep and a foot apart, a short time before the rainy season. During three years the plants will be little productive, 
but in that interim they will not be in the way of any other surface-crop, should the proposition I shall further submit in conjunction 
with this culture be not approved. I have purchased and made arrangements for the keep of upwards of a hundred head of a race of 
sheep, the smallest perhaps known, but which in fineness of fleece may vie with the Merino, under the advantages of a much hardier 
constitution, and of a better carcase. By the time the Prangos will be fit to cut, this flock will probably admit of supplying drafts 
for transmission to the Cape; and for the convenience of the wool staple and of the woollen manufacture, I have divided the stock into 
blacks and into whites, to be kept apart; but the bodies alone of the latter are of this colour, the heads, and freguently the legs, being 
orange dun or black. Should the present arrangement fail, measures are taken for procuring future flocks, and the details will be found 
amongst my papers, should I fall, and they pass into British hands. In connection with the preceding speculation, it is respectfully sub- 
mitted, that eight or ten pounds of the Prangos seed be transmitted, under the precautions which may be suggested for the preservation 
of their vegetative power, by the Superintendant of the Botanic Garden to the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope. Should they 
vegetate, it will be perfectly easy to procure a large supply of Prangos seed by the agreement I have made with Ribjhias, the Keuphun, 
and with Mahomed Khan, the Chummul of Droz, and of which the details will be seen in the note on Prangos seed attached to my letter 
to the Secretary of the Board of Agriculture. | 
* Yellow Lucerne.—This plant, which is also a spontaneous production of this country, is of a constitution more hardy than that of 
Europe, requires no other culture than that necessary for sowing it, and lasts in vigour for a long series of years. It is submitted, that 
as it naturally grows along with Prangos, it would be well to imitate this habitude. The joint yield is vastly greater than that of the 
rìchest meadow-land, and is produced in this country on a surface of a most sterile nature in regard to other herbage; hence is respect- 
fully suggested the propriety of furnishing a few pounds of this seed to the Cape of Good Hope, to be sown along with the Prangos. 
I have furnished money to the Hakeem of Pushkoom for two sacks of Lucerne seed, but am not so sanguine as to this being pulled when 
in as perfect a state of ripeness as that of the Prangos; arrangements have been also made with the above-mentioned person to furnish 
more if called upon so to do."—WiLLiAM Mooncnorr, Superintendant of the Hon. Company's Stud, on deputation to Upper Asia.’ 
I shall conclude with an extract from an interesting account of the plant by Professor Lindley, printed in the 
Quarterly Journal of Science, vol. xix. p. 4—6. 
“The Prangos Hay-plant is a perennial herbaceous plant, with a large fleshy root-stock, usually measuring at the top from eighteen to 
twenty-two inches in circumference, and formed by the aggregation of an infinite number of crowns or winter buds, clustered together at 
or above the surface of the ground. The crowns are closely covered over by the coarse fibrous remains of the old leaves, by which the 
buds must be effectually protected from frost or accidents when the plant is in a state of rest. From each crown rises an abundance of 
finely cut leaves, about two feet long when dried, of a highly fragrant smell, extremely similar to that of very good new clover hay. They 
are supra-decompound, quite smooth, with linear, entire, or three-parted segments; their principal petiole is slightly sheathing at the 
base, with a crisp thin margin; upwards it is solid, round, or slightly angular, with a smooth finely striated skin. Of the secondary 
petioles there are from six to ten opposite pairs, according to the vigour of the leaf: they are in all respects like the primary petiole, 
except being smaller and more compressed, and having the first pair of their segments proceeding from their very base. In these leaves 
the whole crop may be said to consist. 
“From the centre of the leaves rises the flower-stem, which I have only seen in a young and mutilated state. Good specimens of the 
inflorescence have not reached me; but from some imperfect umbels of flowers I can state that the male and female flowers are produced 
upon distinct umbels. Of the male flowers the umbels are compound, shorter than the bracteze by which they are subtended, and both 
axillary and terminal; the bracteæ are finely and deeply pinnatifid, with three-parted segments, of which the end lobe is broader than 
the rest, and often three-toothed. The involucres are both general and partial, each consisting of five or six membranous ovate-acuminate 
leaflets, which are shorter than the stalks of the umbellules or of the florets. At the base of the umbel are clustered several scarious 
rudiments of florets. The calyx consists of five distinct ovate minute sepals. The petals are five, lanceolate, spreading, incurved, with a 
minute dorsal nerve. The stamens are five, spreading, the same length as the petals, and inserted opposite the sepals, beneath a large, 
fleshy, slightly wavy discus, which surrounds two little processes, the rudiments of as many styles. The filaments are incurved, and quite 
smooth. The anthers large, square, innate, bilocular ; each cell opening longitudinally with two valves. The female flowers have not yet 
been observed. The fruit is inferior, and consists of two united achenia, at maturity separating from base to summit from their common 
axis; it is oval-lanceolate, compressed, eight or nine lines long, and is crowned with two recurved styles, arising from the centre of a 
large, fleshy, wavy discus, and with the corky sepals of the persistent calyx. Of these achenia the commissure or point of union is nearly 
flat, and narrower than their transverse diameter. Of each the pericarpium is corky, with five primary juga or elevations, which are in 
the centre produced into a corky wavy wing, and on each side covered densely with coarse tubercles ; there are no secondary juga, and 
the valleculæ or intervals are concave and smooth. The seed is of the same form as the pericarpium, from which it is easily separable ; 
it is covered over with an indefinite number of colourless vittæ, both on the commissure and back; it has an involute horny albumen, 
and a minute, inverted, white embryo at its upper extremity; the cotyledons are flat and oval, the radicle rounded, and as long as the 
cotyledons.” 
Plate CCXII. represents a specimen of the plant as it was found among the hay sent to the Botanic Garden at Calcutta. 
Fig. 1. 2. Flower. 3. An umbellet of ripe fruit. 4. Detached fruit. 5. The same, cut across. 6. Segment of a very old root. 
Vor. III. D 
