XLVIU. LKGUMINOS.T'. 359 



V. 3, parts, p. 74, fig. 39; Trim. Fl. Ce.yl. v. 2, p. 56; Talb. Trees, 

 Bomb. p. 70. 



Apparently confined to the Southern districts of the Presidency. Konk.w : Stocks'. 

 Kanaka: moist forests of N. Kanara, common, Tctlhot. — DisTiuit. India (along the 

 Himalayas from Hazara to Assam, Ava, Pegu, Tenasserim, W. Peninsula); Ceylon, 

 Malay Islands, Philippines. 



32. ABRUS, Linn. 



Climbing shrubs. Leaves abruptly-pinnate. Leaflets numerous ; 

 petiole terminated by a bristle. Flowers small, in dense racemes, on 

 axillary peduncles or short branches. Calyx small, campanulate, trun- 

 cate ; teeth very short, the 2 upper subconnate. Corolla much exserted ; 

 standard broadly obovate or suborbicular, narrowed into a short claw, 

 more or less adherent to the staminal-tube ; wings narrow, oblong- 

 falcate ; keel longer and broader than the wings, arcuate. Stamens 9 

 (the tenth stamen absent), united into a tube slit above ; anthers uniform. 

 Ovary subsessile ; ovules cc ; style short, incurved, beardless ; stigma 

 capitate. Pod oblong or linear, flat or turgid, thinly septate between 

 the seeds. — Distrib. Cosmopolitan in the Tropics ; species 5. 



Pod turgid, 3-5-seeded 1. A. precatorhis. 



Pod flat, 8-12-seeded 2. A.pulchellus. 



1. Abrus precatorius, Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. 12 (1767) p. 472, A 

 perennial twiner ; stems numerous, scarcely woody, slender, glabrous ; 

 branches terete, slender, glabrous or sparsely silky. Leaves 2-4 in, 

 long ; petioles ^-^ in, long, thickened and hairy at the base ; stipules 

 Q-Ys in, long, linear-subulate, pubescent, deciduous. Leaflets 10-20 

 pairs, |-| by ^i in. (those near the base of the rhachis smaller), 

 opposite, very deciduous, thinly membranous, ligulate-oblong, rounded, 

 minutely apiculate, glabrous above, slightly hairy beneath, base rounded ; 

 petiolules very short ; stipels 0. Flowers crowded in many-flowered 

 racemes shorter than the leaves ; rhachis usually thickened in fruit ; 

 pedicels short. Calyx y5"~8 ^^- ^o^S' glabrous or sparsely silky ; teeth 

 very short. Corolla | in. long, pink, or white with a pink tinge. Pods 

 oblong, turgid, 1-1| by f-j in., truncate, with a sharp deflexed beak, 

 silky -pubescent. Seeds 3-5, as large as a pea, usually bright scarlet 

 with a black spot, sometimes white with a black spot, or uniformly white, 

 polished, shining. In cultivated forms, the seeds are sometimes wholly 

 black. Fl. B. I. v. 2, p. 175 ; Grab. Cat. p. 51 ; Dak. & Gibs. p. 76 ; 

 Taubert, in Engl. & PrantI, Pflanzenf. v. 3, part 3, p. 356, fig. 130 ; 

 Trim. Fl. Ceyl. v. 2, p. 57; Talb. Trees, Bomb, p, 70; Woodr. in 

 Journ, Bomb, Xat, v, 11 (1897) p, 424; Watt, Diet. Econ. Prod. v. 1, 

 p. 10. — Flowers : Sept.-Oct. Vern. Gunj. 



KoNKAN : Stocks !, Woodrow ! Deccan : near Poona, Woodrow !, Cooke ! ; Gokak, 

 Cooke ! Gujarat : Woodrow. Kanaka : moist forests of N. Kanara common, Talbot. 

 — Distrib. Throughout India; Ceylon and throughout the Tropics, often planted. 



The roots have been used as a substitute for liquorice. The seeds are used as weights 

 by jewellers and for making rosaries and ornaments. They contain an acrid poison 

 and have been employed to kill cattle, the seeds being powdered, made into a paste 

 and introduced beneath the skin. See Watt, Diet. Econ. Prod. 1. c. 



2. Abrus pulchellus, Wall. Cat. (1828) 5819. A much-branched 

 climber. Stems slender ; branches slender, glabrous or thinly silky. 

 Leaves 3-5 in. long ; petioles ^-| in. long, thickened at the base. 



