‘ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. 187 
and yet they do not seem to have been struck by them. While I thus object to such sweeping 
conclusions as the above, I confess I cannot help ceinciding with Dr. Lindley in thinking, that 
the doctrine he opposes is pushed, in this instance, much too far by these authors, though I 
scarcely feel myself sufficiently master of the subject to join issue with them on this, one of 
the most difficult questions in Botany ‘ 
Grocrapnicat Distripution. India and Arabia are the native countries of these plants, 
but they are now introduced into the West Indies where they are cultivated for the sake of the 
very pure sweet oil with which their seeds abound. 
Properties AND Uses. The roots of M. pterygosperma are very pungent, and have the 
taste and peculiar flavour of horse radish in so eminent a degree, that any one unacquainted 
with it, would at once declare on tasting, that it really was that root, and as such, is very gene- 
rally used by Europeans as a substitute. A little of the juice added to mustard so greatly aug- 
ments its pungency, as almost to render it too much so for use and would, I should suppose, prove 
avery valuable adjunct to sinapisms in cases where it is desirable to render them unusually 
active. From wounds in the bark, a large quantity of gum exudes, agreeing in some of its pro- 
perties with gum Tragacanth. Like it, it swells and softens in water, but does not form a fluid 
homogeneous mucilage like gum arabic, and is quite insolublein alcohol. In this country both the 
leaves and capsules are used by the natives as pot-herbs, the latter being very generally intro- 
duced as an ingredient of their curries, on account of the peculiar flavour they communicate. 
The seed contains a large quantity of a very pure fixed oil, which in the West Indies is used 
as asalad oil. In the arts it is employed for lubricating delicate machinery, and is preferred by 
watch-makers to all others for oiling the machinery of clocks and watches, for which purpose, 
its non-liability to freeze at low temperatures greatly augments its value. 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE 77. 
1. Moringa pterygosperma—natural size, 9. A full grown capsule, 
2. A dissected flower—naiural size. 10. The same cut transyersely, to show its 3 valves 
3. Stamens and ovary, sepals and petals removed. and winged seed in situ. 
4. Anthers back and front views. 11. A detached seed. 
5. Petals detached. 12. The same cut transversely. 
6. Ovary pedicelled. 13. The cotyledons—natural size. 
. cut vertically, showing the parietal attach- 14. One of them showing the radicle at the base— 
ment of the ovules. wiih the exceptions mentioned, all more or less magnified. 
. —— cut transversely, 1-celled. 
LVI.—LEGUMINOS 42. 
With the exception of Composit@ this is the largest, in so far as the number of 
species is concerned, of any of the Dicotyledonous orders, and viewed in relation to its econo- 
mical applications, I believe I may safely say, about the most important of the vegetable king- 
dom. Its species are found in every region from the Polar zones to the Equinox, flourish- 
ing equally amidst the snows of Lapland and Siberia, and exposed to the scorching heats 
of the tropies; floating in water, and on the most and arid plains of Asia and Africa. 
Its forms include almost every variety met with among Dicotyledonous plants, the most 
lowly herbs, and most stately trees, with all their intermediate gradations, being alike 
members of it. ‘The foliage is equally variable, the leaves being either partially wanting, and their 
place supplied by enlarged stipules, or by dilated foot stalks; or they are simple, or present 
almost every variety of combination of those called compound, from the most simple combina- 
tion of 2 leaflets half adhering together as in Bauhinia, up to the complexity of the form desig- 
nated tripinnate. Turning from the foliage to the flowers we equally find almost every variety, 
regular and irregular, perfect and imperfect: bi or unisexual, petals absent or present: distinct, 
or united, regular and equal, or unequal and irregular, forming what is respectively called Rosacious 
and Papilionaceous corollas. The stamens in like manner are few or many, distinct or united 
into one or several bundles, the filaments usually all antheriferous, but sometimes part only 
bearing anthers. The female portion of the flower presents fewer irregularities, the ovary, with 
one or two, very rare exceptions, being 1-celled, that is composed of a single carpillary leaf, not 
of several as in most other Dicotyledondéus plants, The fruit or legume however is most varia~ 
. ble, and on that account affords excellent generic characters, being either one or many-seeded, 
