350 



brown in maturity. Seeds 4-5, oval, separated by cellular 

 partitions, not bound by a circular linear hilum, but attached 

 to a large lateral funiculus. 



Found twining in hedges and among bushes, usually near 

 water. In the neighbourhood of Negapatam, it is common 

 in sandy soil. It flowers during the rainy and cool seasons, 

 and ripens its fruit about March. It may be considered, 

 indeed, extensively distributed over India; but nowhere 

 perhaps so abundantly as in the Presidency of Madras. The 

 young pods are dressed and eaten by the natives. 



It would appear from a query of De Candolle, " an Planta 

 Americana eadem certe ac Indica?" that there is some doubt 

 as to the identity of the American and Indian plants named 

 Mucuna pruriens ; in my opinion not without reason, for I 

 suspect De Candolle's character is taken from the former, 

 and Sprengel's from the latter. The keeled legumes and 

 acuminated leaves which distinguish the first are certainly at 

 variance with my plant. On comparing my drawing with 

 Woodville's plate, Tab. CLXXIII. a very i-emarkable differ- 

 ence appears in the form of the racemes, and also in their size. 

 The form of the segments of the calyx, in his figure, is very 

 different from those of my plant : in his, they are represented 

 as long, subulate teeth ; in mine, they are short and triangu- 

 lar, with their upper segment nearly a correct triangle. 



[Upon a careful comparison of Dr. Wight's figure and 

 specimens, with the figure of Jacquin, {Americ. t. 122,) and 

 American individuals in my Herbarimn, both from St. Vin- 

 cent and from Guiana, I am inclined to agree with Dr. 

 Wight, and to consider the American and Asiatic species 

 to be different. In our plant the leaves are smaller, the 

 leaflets more obtuse (not acmiiinated), and the middle 

 leaflet more truly rhomboidal, the flowers are more con- 

 stantly in threes, and, what affords perhaps the best charac- 

 ter, the pods are greatly broader, compressed, free from 

 any raised line on the back of the valve, whilst in the 

 American M. pruriens the pods are much narrower, terete, 

 and keeled on the valves. Rumphius' plate is very 

 characteristic of our plant, and Jacquin's is equally excellent 



