450 Lieut.- Col. Madden on some Plants 



^Machilus odoratissimus {Laurus Champa et bombijcina, Herb. 

 Ham.), a fine tree of all the warmer valleys of the Himalaya, is 

 known in Kumaon as the Kaula, which term enters into Hamil- 

 ton's Nepalese names. Dr. Hooker found Cinnamomum in Sik- 

 kim, up to 8500 feet (i. 162). 



'^The Seta and Cala Bhot mas of the Parbatiyas (Hindoo 

 mountaineers) are called Musa and Gya by the Newars (the 

 Mongolian aborigines of Nepal) . They are two varieties of the 

 Dolichos Soja, the one of which has yellow flowers and white 

 seeds, and the other has black seeds and purplish flowers. The 

 former is ripe about the 1st of November, the latter about the 

 1st of September'' (p. 228). 



Catalogue, 1778. Dolichos Soja. Soja hispida, DC. Garo 

 Kolai, Bengalensium. Bhot mas, Montanorum Hindiqe^ . Ccvli-^ 

 tur in Camrupse orientalis et Nepalse montosis. \ i\ii oih »oiiiBn 



Thence abundantly up to Kumaon, where the Soy Bean plants 

 are called Bhat. " Bhut. Soja hispida, Kumaon." Illustrated 

 Cat. of G. E. of 1851, ii. 871. No mention of it, however, in 

 this respect occurs in our botanical or agricultural works on 

 India. Soy pulse is reckoned rather unwholesome, and much 

 of the sickness which assailed the divisions operating against 

 Nepal in 1813-14 was popularly attributed to its use. 



' Catalogue, 1 690. Hedysarum Alhagi. Habitat in ripis Gangis 

 ^ Jomanis arenosis. Labelled, "Monger, 17th June, 1811." 



This is the common Jawasa or Camel Thorn of the plains of 

 Northern India, and is here introduced as an example of the 

 way in which species are unnecessarily formed, on the supposi- 

 tion that a new locality (though erroneous) requires a new 

 species. The plant extends from the extreme north of India 

 down to Behar, where I have seen it in the neighbourhood of 

 Monger, near the well-known hot spring of Sitdkund. It is 

 Dr. Wallich's No. 5760. Alhagi Maurorum, Hedysarum Alhagi, 

 H. Ham. e Monger; and neither of these botanists gives any 

 intimation of the genus being found in Nepal, nor is there any 

 known Sitakund in that country. Yet, on the supposition that 

 it is from that country, Alhagi Nepaulensium forthwith appears 

 in our books: — Don, System of Gardening, ii. 310, "Native 

 of Nepaul, near Sitaucund." DeCandolle, Prod. ii. 352. Syn. 

 Genista Juasi, Ham. Hedysarum Hamiltonii, Sprengel, Syst. 

 iii. 316; and Manna Nepaulensis, D. Don, Prod. Fl. Nep. 247. 

 Habitat in Nepalia, prope Sitaucund, Ham., in which DC. 

 follows. 



In the same manner D. Don has (Prod. 101) Heliotropium 

 obovatum. Hab. versus ripas fluminis (Bhagirathi) infra Mor- 

 shidabad, Ham. (it is H. europceum, L.), to which DC. prefixes, 

 " In Nepalia versus," &c., the locality being Bengal. A Me- 



