184 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF [Leguminose. 
Guilandina Bonduc, Cesalpinia sepiaria, and Bauhinia variegata, found every where in the 
plains, are those which have been so completely naturalized, as to appear indigenous 
to America; in the same way that Parkinsonia aculeata has from thence been intro- 
duced into India, and is now found growing in some places where there are no other 
shrubs or trees. In the forest tract at the foot of the mountains, Cassia Jistula may, in 
the month of March, be seen in luxuriant flower, and more ornamental even than the 
laburnum, which in general appearance it a good deal resembles; and in the Kheree 
Pass, Bauhinia purpurea and parviflora, with B. racemosa. The last hang in elegant 
festoons from the tops of lofty trees, which one is at a loss to conceive, how, from the 
distance of its root from the stem, it could ever have ascended ; but occasionally a half- 
killed tree displays the mode of its progress, and indicates the destruction it must have 
created in the forest. Another species of the same genus, B. emarginata, may be seen 
on the sides of the Himalayas, above Rajpore; and in the neighbourhood of Nahn, 
a species of Cassia, C. suffruticosa, does not refuse to thrive. At still greater eleva- 
tions, as at Mussooree, we have only herbaceous species of this genus, of the section 
Chamecrista, as C. Wallichiana and ameéna ; but this is only during the rainy season, 
at which time the latter makes its appearance also in the neighbourhood of Saharunpore, 
showing that water, the great equalizer of temperature, causes an approximation even 
in such dissimilar climates as that of Saharunpore and the hills. In the open plains, 
Cassia tora is common, as well as kusounda of the natives, which comes very near 
C. purpurea, Roxb., as well as C. sophora, with which it has been united in the East- 
Indian Herbarium, No. 5,317, but is a distinct species, though closely allied to it, 
and not at all different from C. occidentalis, common in the West-Indies. C. tomentosa, 
another American species, found at Santa Fé de Bagota, is said by Messrs.Wight and 
Arnott also to be found on the Neelgherries. | 
The affinity with the African Flora has been indicated under the Mimosee : it is 
further proved by the occurrence in India of the African genus Pterolobium'; indeed 
the same species, P. /acerans, the famous Kantuffa of Abyssinia, described by Mr. 
Bruce, appears to be equally common in the Peninsula of India. Other species also, as 
Cassia tora, occidentalis, and absus, are mentioned in the “‘ Flora Senegambie.” It is 
remarkable, that C. absus, which is extremely common in the Deyra Doon, as well as in 
the plains of India, is mentioned by M. Delile in the Centurie de Plantes d Afrique, 
p- 25, as the ‘‘ chychm des droguistes d’Egypte,” brought by the caravans from Darfour; 
the powdered seeds being used as an application in cases of chronic ophthalmia; they 
are employed for the same purpose in India, and are known by nearly the same name: 
Chaksoo being the Hindoostanee ; chushmak and chushmeezuk are. given in works on 
Materia Medica, as the Persian; kushmeezuk, tushmeezuk (perhaps the tasmarach of 
Avicenna), and hub-o0-souda or Soudan-seed, as the Arabic names; and chushm, as the 
Syrian. To these is, moreover added, akakalis, as a Greek name. This is no doubt 
intended for the exe«x«ais of Dioscorides 1. c.119, who describes it as a plant of 
Egypt. I was induced, on procuring the plant from seed bought in the bazar, and 
sown 
