46 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 
gularly and rather bluntly angled, with the racemes This species abounds in the woods and thickets 
and under side of the leaves densely pubescent : sti- of Ootacamund but is by no means confined to them. 
ules lunate, transverse, recurved : leaves oval la- It prefers rich moist soil and seeks support fi e 
Sodan above, ke th with rather prominent surrounding trees nd bus such situations it 
rve 8 inal and leaf-opposed, many- isn mon occurrence to see it attain the heig 
flowered: bra subulate, reflexed, small: pedi- of from 10 to 15 feet t is in flower at all seasons 
he ¢ 
minute, setaceous, about the middle of the pedicel: with the number and brilliancy of its blossoms. In 
calyx smaller than the corolla, densely pubescent; its characters and general appearance it approaches, 
legume clavate-oblong, stalked, softly pubescent, perhaps, too nearly to C. semperflorens, from which it 
p. 187. ; appears hardly distinct, 
INDIGOFERA—INDIGO FAMILY. 
Calyx 5-cleft ; segments acute. Vexillum roundish, emarginate : keel furnished with a subulate spur on 
both sides, at length often bending back elastically. Stamens diadelphous (9 and1). Style filiform, glabrous. 
Legume continuous, one or more seeded, 2-valved. Seeds usually truncated, separated by cellular. spurious 
partitions.—Herbaceous or shrubby. Stipules small, free from the petiole. Peduncles axillary. Flowers 
racemose, purple, blue, or white; many of the upper ones of each raceme frequently becoming abortive, 
Leaves various, usually unequally pinnated or digitate : hairs, either all or some of them, adpressed and 
attached by their middle.—W. and A. Prod. p. 198. 
This, like the preceding, is a numerous and polymorphous, but, upon the whole, natural genus, though 
characterized by a single point of structure, the peculiar spur on the keel petals, well shown in the dissected 
flower of I. pedicellata. They are further distinguished by a peculiarity of their hairs which is, I believe about 
equally invariable throughout the genus, that, namely, of being attached by the middle and having two free 
ends in place of one, the usual form. This peculiarity however is not limited to this genus. 
The genus includes about 200 species, some of them large shrubs, as for example I. pulchella and many 
minute herbs almost inconspicuous when nestling among the grass where they grow. Many of them have little 
short or round pods with one or two seeds, while others again have as many as twenty. The Indigofere are mostly 
of tropical or subtropical origin, hence very few are found on the more elevated ranges on these hills, though 
lower down they are sufficiently numerous, 
INDIGOFERA PULCHELLA (W.and A. Prod.) large shrub, varying from four to as many as 8 feet in 
erect shrub or small tree, young parts usually whitish height and when in full flower, which it is in February, 
with short adpressed hairs ; branches angled: leaves is a beautiful object as the figure will show. It is to 
pinnated ; leaflets 8-10 pairs, obovate or broad el- be met with in flower nearly ali the year. 
liptic, emarginate, mucronate; racemes about the INDIGOFERA PEDICELLATA (W. & A.:) suffruti- 
: 3 
from the axils of the leaves and from the former years’ short adpressed nish hairs; older parts terete 
leafl ches : flowe ge, at first crowded, young parts compressed, thickly cov rown 
t s more d yx-segments short and be 
acute ; peta! 
lus and resembling a bilabiate corolla: legumes scat- mixed on the under sides with glands: racemes al- 
tered along the rachis, slightly deflexed, nearly cylin- most sessile, somewhat ¢ i 
cal, thick, straight, sharp-pointed, 10-12 seeded; of the leaves: pedicels slender, drooping, 2-3, longer 
— callous, thick.—W. and A. prod, p, than the ‘calyx: calyx deeply 7-cleft (segments linear 
This very bea ds a onoor and acute), and with the vexillum and keel hirsute and 
quite ornamenting the brush wood by the road side glanduliferous.—W. and A 
for nearly tw is i 
Judging from a specimen so name in my collection It is found in all the pastures about Ootacamund, 
with which I have compared it, this plant seems nearly spreading on all sides among the grass, bet only ren- 
if not quite identical with Roxburgh’s I. elliptica but dered conspicuous by its clusters of bright crimson 
oes not differ sufficiently from his pulchella to admit flowers which raise themselves he herbage 
of my considering it distinct. About Coonoor it isa which usually conceals the rest of the plant, 
bt 
i) 
we 
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