68 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [March 



Ltguminosce. It grows abundantly in India, and is also common 

 in the West Indies and other tropical countries. Burton mentions 

 it in his Aheohiita, and in Harvey and Sender's Flora Capensis it 

 is enumerated as an inhabitant of South Africa. Two species 

 are described under the names, respectively, of bonduc and 

 bondiiceUa, but, if the latter is distinct, I have not seen it, and 

 several botanical writers of repute ignore it entirely, excepting as 

 a synonyme of bonduc. * The flowers of bonduc are yellow, the 

 leaves abruptly pinnated, and the whole plant is plentifully armed 

 with ferocious spines. The prickly legumes usually contain two 

 only of the grey and shining seeds, which, being very hard, are 

 used as beads and marbles. They are extensively employed in 

 medicine amongst the natives of the East, and are reputed, in 

 Egypt, to be prized as charms against sorcery. They are 

 frequently called bonduc-nuts, and are so strongly coated with 

 silex, that, Sir Emerson Tennent tells us, they are said to strike 

 fire like a flint. Royle asserts that Guilandina bonduc was the 

 akutmooht of Avicenna, and that there are grounds for supposing 



* Since the above was written, Mr. Whiteaves has drawn my attention 

 to a paragraph in the Treasury of Botany, wherein, on the authority of 

 Mr. A. Smith, Guilandina bonduc is described as having solitary prickles 

 on the leaves, and producing yellow seeds, whereas bonducella is stated 

 to have prickles in pairs, and lead-coloured seeds. Mr. "Whiteaves has 

 also shewn me specimens from the West Indies of both kinds of seeds, 

 which are certainly very distinct in coloration. I am unable to solve 

 the problem, or to decide whether the differently-colom-ed seeds belong 

 to the same species or not ; but I never saw the yellow ones in India, 

 where I gathered, with my own hands, many hundred specimens of the 

 grey kind ; and I have the high authority of Wight and Arnott to sup- 

 port me in my opinion that the so-called species of bonduc and bonducella 

 are identical. I quote from the Prodromus Florce Peninsulce Indice 

 OrientaUs, as follows : " It might be thought preferable to adopt the 

 name Bonducella, as it was of that form only that Linnteus had seen 

 specimens, Bonduc having been taken up from Plunkenet's figure ; but the 

 two being identical, not even varieties, we have preferred that which is 

 simpler, and not a derivative of the other." I suspect that many of the 

 less important characters of the species are very inconstant, and hence 

 the confusion which has arisen. Indeed I find in Sir "William Jones' 

 Botanical Observations on Select Indian Plants, which appeared in the 

 Asiatic Researches, vol. iv, the following statement regarding G-ititowdiwa: 

 " The species of this genus vary in a singular manner ; on several plants, 

 with the oblong leaflets and double prickles of the Bonducella, I could 

 only see male flowers as Rliecde has described them ; they were yellow, 

 with an aromatic fragrance : others, with similar leaves and lyrickles, 

 were clearly polygamous,^'' 



