64 NAT. ORDER. — PAPlLlONACEiE. 



alffij compressed, and at the apex furnished on each side with a 

 short, concave spur ; ih.e filaments are ten, nine of which are united 

 at the base, alternately longer and shorter ; the former are four times 

 the breadth of the others, and supplied with incumbent anthers, but 

 the anthers of the latter are placed vertically ; the gcrmen is oblong, 

 villous, and supports a slender style, about the length of the fila- 

 ments, terminated by a small orbicular stigma ; the fruit is an oblong 

 pod, in the form of the letter y^ four or five inches in length, covered 

 with brown, bristly hairs, and containing four, five or six seeds, of a 

 brownish color. The flowers appear in September and October. 



The plant known by the name of Cow-itch, Couhage, and 

 Cowhage, is referred by Bergius and Miller to the DoUchos ureyis of 

 Linnaeus ; and this error is also to be found in Alton's Hortus Kev- 

 ensis. The pods of both DoUchos wens and DoUchos iiruriens, are 

 beset with setaceous hairs ; but of the former these are shorter, and 

 A-ery thinly scattered over the pod, which is keel-shaped, much 

 loiiijer, and more than twice the breadth of that of the latter, and 

 marked transversely with deep furrows. These circumstances show 

 that the Z>o/jt7ics ttren,? is widely different from the officinal Cowhage 

 here figured, which is a native of both Indies, and appears to have 

 been cultivated in England in the time of Ray, by Mr. Charles Hat- 

 ton ; and it is even at this time found growing in many of the gar- 

 dens throughout England ; but we cannot learn that it has ever been 

 known to produce perfect flowers in our gardens, or even the green- 

 houses. 



The sharp hairs of the pod i-eadily penetrate the skin, and cause 

 a very troublesome itching — a mischieAous purpose, to which in this 

 country they have been long chiefly converted. But the violent irri- 

 tation which these produce upon the external skin, has not deterred 

 practitioners from administering them internally, especially in the 

 West Indies, where they have been generally employed for many 

 years as a safe and efficacious anthelmintic; and, with a view to this 



