526 SYSTEMATIC BOTANY. 



poses. The Cercis, which renders the gardens of Turkey re- 

 splendent with its myriads of purple flowers; the Acacia, not 

 less vahied for its airy foliage and elegant blossoms, than for its 

 hard and durable wood; the Braziletto, Logwood, and Rose- 

 woods of commerce ; the Laburnum ; the classical Cytisus ; the 

 Furze and the Broom, both the pride of the otherwise dreary 

 heaths of Europe; the Bean, the Pea, the Vetch, the Clover, the 

 Trefoil, the Lucerne, all staple articles of culture by the farmer, 

 are so many Leguminous species. The gums Arabic and 

 Senegal, Kino, Senna, Tragacanth, and various other drugs, not 

 to mention Indigo, the most useful of all dyes, are products of 

 other species; and these may be taken as a general indication 

 of the purposes to which Leguminous plants may be applied. 

 There is this, however, to be borne in mind, in regarding the 

 quahties of the order in a general point of view; viz., that upon 

 the whole it must be considered poisonous, and that those 

 species which are used for food by man or animals, are excep- 

 tions to the general rule; the deleterious juices of the order not 

 being in such instances sufficiently concentrated to prove in- 

 jurious, and being, in fact, replaced to a considerable extent by 

 either sugar or starch." In alluding to the properties and uses 

 of the more important plants of the order, we shall take them 

 under their respective sub-orders. 



Sub-Order 1. PAPiLioNACEiE.— In tliis sub-order we have included a num- 

 ber of plants which are used as nutritious food by man or animals, such as 

 peas (Pisum), Broad-beans (Faba), Kidney-beans, Scarlet-runners, and 

 haricots (P/inseolus), Lentils {Ervnm), Chick-peas (Cicer), Pigeon-peas 

 (Cajanus, 8ic.) The seeds of the above plants, and many others, are com- 

 monly known under the name of pulse, and are t o well knr wn to need any de- 

 tailed description. Lucerne and Medick (Medicago\ M Mint (Melilotus) 

 Clover (7'r//b//M»n), Tares and Vetches (^7-VMW, Vicia), Saintfoin (Onobry- 

 c/it's), and many others which are comm(m fodder plants in different parts of 

 the globe, also belong to this sub-order, and do not require any further notice. 

 Some plants, or parts of plants of this sub-O'-der are however poisonous, ag 

 the roots of the Scarlet-runner (Phaxeolnsmultiflorus), the roots of Phaseolus 

 radintus, the seeds o<" Lnthi/rus Aphaca, the seeds atid bark of Laburnums 

 (Cytisus alpinus and C. Laburnum), the seeds of Anagyris fcetida, and it is 

 also sail! by some, (although denied by Macfadgen), the seeds of Abrus pre- 

 catorms, also the seeds of the Bitter Vetch (Kmum Ervilia), the juice of 

 Coronilla varia, the leaves of some Gutnpholob'Ufns, the leaves and young 

 branches ofTephrosia toxicnria, the bark of the root of Piscidia Erythrina, &c. 

 Perhaps the most virulently poisonous plant of the sub-order, is an unknown 

 species, su))posed to be allied to the genus Dolicfios, the seeds of which are 

 known under the name of the Ordeal-beans of Old Calabar, from their being 

 used in that district for trials by ordeal. 



The plants of the sub-order which require a more particular notice, are as 

 follows: — 



Jiaptisia tincloria This plant is the Wild Indigo of the United States. It 



receives its common name from yielding a blue dye resembling indigo, al- 

 though of far inferior quality to that substance. The root and other parts 

 are reputed to be emetic and purgative. 



Crotalaiajuncen, is an Indian plant which furnishes a coarse fibre called 

 Sunn, Sun, Shnnum, Taa<i, or Beneal Hemp. This is sometimes confounded 

 with Sunnrr, a fibre ohtainvd from Ilibiscus cannubinus. ( See H. cannabinus, 

 p. 407.) Crotalarin teuu if o/ ia Anolhar Indian plant, is the source from whence 

 Juhhulpore Hemp is prepared. 



Sarot/iamnus (Cyiiius) »coparius,h the common Broom. The seeds and 



