LEGUMINOS2. 539 
Ainslie, noticing its use in Southern India, says: —“ A decoc- 
tion of the root of this plant is considered on the Malabar Coast 
to be useful in gravellish complaints. The Vytians of the Coro- 
mandel side of India prescribe the leaves and root in cases of 
piles and fistula : the first are given in powder, in a little milk, 
to the quantity of two pagodas’ weight or more during the day.” 
(Mat. Ind. II., 432.) In the Concan the leaves are rubbed into 
a paste and applied to hydrocele ; and their juice with an equal 
quantity of horse’s urine is made into an anjan which is used to 
remove films of the conjunctiva by setting up an artificial 
inflammation. In what is éalled cracked pot cough by the natives, 
the root is directed to be gathered on Sunday, wrapped in 
Bhojpatra (bark of Betula Bhojpatra), and tied with a string 
made of silk of five different colours; this packet is to be kept 
in the sun and tied upon the patient’s neck at ebb tide. 
- This is the commonest kind of sensitive plant, and is too 
well known to require description ; it has an acid and pungent 
taste ; the root is fibrous. 
_ Theophrastus (H. P. IV. 8.) mentionsa sensitive plant called 
iAnpa With pinnate leaves and spinous branches of which he says 
eav Tis dbnrar Tav Kroviay, ra Pudda, aowep apavatvopeva oupminral, era 
Hera teva xpovoy avaBieoket Kat Gadde. ~ 
Chemical composition.—The tapering thin roots of M. pudica 
_ Contain 10 per cent. of tannin of such a nature as to form a 
good black ink with salts of iron. |The ash of the roots amounts 
a He tes 2. 
to 5°5 per cent. 
ENTADA SCANDENS, Benth. 
Fig—schef. in Nat. Tijdschr. Ned. Ind. axwit., 99, t. 
16—18; Rheede, Hort. Mal. viii. t. 32—34; te, t.77. Syn-— 
Entada purseetha. : . 
Hab.—Cosmopolitan in the tropics. The seeds. 
Vernacular.—Garamb{, Gardul (Mar.), Gila-gach (Beng.), 
 Parin-kaka-vully (Mal.), Suvali-amli (Guz.), Pangra (Sikkim), 
_ Takdokhyen (Lepcha) ; the seeds, Pilpépra (@uz.), Gila (Beng.). 
