194 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF [Leguminosee. 
Trifolieg, which would be useful for their cattle as winter fodder, now Supplied by the 
leaves of trees stacked for that purpose. 
But as these are not indigenous in the plains, and only suited for the cold weather 
cultivation-of Northern India, it is desirable to ascertain whether there may not be 
other plants suited as fodder for cattle, and profitable for cultivation. For though it is 
not the custom of the natives of India, with the exception of barley, to cultivate any 
green food for cattle, which, in addition to the precarious pasturage of Indian plains, 
generally get only bhoosa or chopped straw, and the cut stems, called kurbee, of the 
Jooar, or Sorghum vulgare; yet in an extended and improved system of farming, 
it would no doubt be desirable to have crops yielding green food suited to the climate. 
For this purpose the Graminee and Leguminose appear the most likely to be useful: of the 
latter, some of the Genistee, Hedysarea, and Phaseolee, being best suited to the climate, 
are most eligible for experiments. Of the first, I was informed that cattle were occa- 
sionally fed on the green parts of Crotalaria juncea ; bit as this plant, extensively culti- 
vated, is valuable on account of its fibrous bark, some other species might, perhaps, 
equally well answer the purpose. Of the Hedysaree, Alhagi Maurorum affords, in the 
most desert places, food grateful to the camel. Dr. Roxburgh states, that his Hedysarum 
quinqueangulatum ‘and auriculatum, both included in Desmodium diffusum by Messrs. 
Wight and Arnott, are greedily eaten by cattle, and might be advantageously culti- 
vated. I tried the Cichorium Intybus, which is much liked, both by horses and cows; 
it succeeded well in the Saharunpore Garden. Indigofera enneaphylla is also eaten by 
cattle, and might be useful in a sandy country, with Desmodium triflorum, in binding 
the soil. 
The Phaseolea, extensively cultivated both in gardens and fields, are frequently 
objectionable as fodder, in consequence of the numerous hairs with which they are 
covered ; but on this account, the pods of Mucuna pruriens are useful in medicine: 
Phaseolus radiatus is, however, eaten by cattle, and other useful exceptions might be 
found by attention being turned to the subject. Of this tribe it may be mentioned that 
lupins (Z. albus), much cultivated in Arabia and Egypt, are not so in Northern India, 
though corresponding in general in the nature of its cultivation, but they may be procured 
in the bazars under the name toormus, corrupted from S<pues. A variety of Dolichos 
catjang, called lobia, is referred to as the asGi« of the Greeks. 
Edible matter is furnished by the roots of some of this family, as Dolichos bulbosus, 
and the tuberose species of that genus, as well as of Apios, Lathyrus, and Pueraria. 
Saccharine matter is secreted by the roots of the liquorice, alpine trefoil, and Abrus 
precatorius; and a kind of manna by Alhagi maurorum. This is the toorunjbeen of 
Arabian authors (quite a distinct substance from shirkhisht); the plant is by them called 
hqj, to which the article being prefixed, has made the A/hagi of botanists. It is one of 
the plants, called ooshturkhar, or camel’s thorn, but is in India known by the name of 
Juwansa, and is so common every where as to be frequently employed in making tattees. 
I have met with it from Delhi all along the banks of the Jumna, as well as of the Ganges, 
in 
