Lawsonia. octandria monogynia. 259 



cross-armed, many flowered, Bracies scarcely any. Floiv- 

 ers small, £;reenish- yellow, very fragrant. Petals orhiculur, 

 inserted into the divisions of the calyx; margins involute, 

 and very much curled, as in Lagerstrcemia. Filaments 

 longer than the corol, inserted by pairs into the calyx 

 between the petals. Germ superior, four-celled ; ovula nu- 

 merous, attached to the axis. Style the length of the sta- 

 mens, somewhat bent. Stigma simple. Capsule globular, 

 the size of a grain of pepper, four-grooved, with the apex 

 depressed, having in it part of the remaining style, four- 

 celled ; partitions membranaceous. Seeds angular, wedge- 

 form, inserted by their apices round the middle, or en- 

 larged part of a centrical, columnar receptacle. Embryo 

 with centripetal radicle, and no perisperm. 



It is much used for hedges, growing readily from cut- 

 tings ; consequently fertile seeds are not often met with. 

 The tlowers are remarkably fragrant, whether fresh or 

 dry, and are particularly grateful at a distance. 



The species called spinosa is nothing more, 1 imagine, 

 than the same plant growing on a dry sterile soil ; at 

 least, in such soils, I have often found it very thorny, the 

 branchlets being then short and rigid, with sharp thorny 

 points. 



The fresh leaves beat up with Catechu, dyes the nails 

 and skin of a reddish orange colour, which is much ad- 

 mixed by the fair sex all over India. The fresh made 

 paste is laid on at bed time, and removed in the morn- 

 ing ; the colour remains till the nails or epedermis is re- 

 newed, or removed. 



The leaves yield in decoction a porter coloured liquor ; 

 I have found it a deep orange colour, which acids des- 

 troy, while alkalies and infusions of astringent vegeta- 

 bles deepen it ; this decoction dyes the finger of a deep 

 orange ; but does not communicate any colour to cloth 

 variously prepared, nor could I procure any precipitate 

 from the decoction worth attending to. 



Gs2 



