420 LEGUMINOSZE. 
obtuse, rigidly coriaceous, glabrous; flowers 1 to 6, from a 
spine or on short pedicels; calyx glabrous, ;z to } inch; corolla 
reddish, three times the length of the calyx; sae 1 ae long or 
less, falcate or straight, constricted between the seeds; seeds 
kidney-shaped, greenish grey, very hard. 
Taranjabin occurs in white grains or small agglutinated 
masses, mixed more or less with the thorns, pods, and leaves 
of. the plant ; it has hardly any odour; the taste is saccharine 
and afterwards slightly acrid. 
Chemical composition—According to Villiers (Compt. Rend., 
ixxxiv., 35), Alhagi manna after being boiled with animal char- 
coal, and evaporated to a syrup crystallized after some months 
in small brilliant crystals, which on crystallization from alcohol 
formed large white crystals of the formula C!?H¢?0'!+ H%O. 
It is dextro-rotatory, its power being +94 °48’, or for the sodium 
flame, +88° 51’. On boiling with an acid, it is converted into 
~ et and its rotatory power is reduced to that of glucose, 
-, +53. It then reduces Fehling’s solution; nitric acid 
sidiuai it to mucic and oxalicacids. Its melting point is ]40°. 
It is thus seen to be identical with Berthelot’s melezitose. It 
crystallizes in monoclinic (clinorhombic) prisms. The mannite 
_of Alhagi also contains cane sugar, which may be isolated by 
treating the mother liquor of the melezitose with alcoho), and 
adding ether tilla slight precipitate is formed. Crystals of 
cane sugar are then deposited. The mother liquor acts like a 
solution of cane sugar containing dextro-rotatory foreign sub- 
stances which are not fermentable with beer-yeast. (Journ. 
Chem, Soc. April, 1877.) | 
Commerce.—The plant is collected in India. The manna is 
See from Persia in skins and bags. Value, about 10 annas 
@ poun 
FLEMINGIA Bee Guana. W §. A. 
_ Hab.— Nilgiris, $. Koncan, Canara. The glands from the 
ermaear. —Wars (Arab, de. 
at 
