86 The Flowering Plants of Western India. 



leaves roundish or reniform, flowers solitary or in racemes, pod 

 about 4-jointed, straight on one side, indented on the other. 



Pycnospora, leaves trifoliate, pod turgid, not jointed. *P. hedy- 

 saroides (P.nervosa,D.) difiuse, leaflets obovate, flowers small purplish 

 in racemes, bracts scariose, pod oblong. Near Vingorla (!>.). Lourea, 

 leaflets 3 or less, pods about 4-jointed, within the enlarged calyx. 

 *L. verspitilionis , erect herb, leaflets shaped more or less like the 

 wings of a bat, flowers small, purple or white in long racemes, calyx 

 inflated. In gardens, and doubtfully wild. Waste places throughout 

 India (ff.). 



(e) VICIE.E. 



22. ABRUS. 



A. precatorius. A small twiner with woody stem, leaflets 

 numerous, oblong, blunt, flowers pale in crowded racemes, pod 

 flat beaked, seeds round, scarlet with black spot. Gunj, 

 chdnoti. 



Very common in hedges. The very pretty seeds are used as 

 weights by goldsmiths, each seed being said to weigh exactly one 

 grain. A var. has white seeds with black spot. 



This may be considered as the representative of the vetches (in 

 Scripture 'fitches') or tares, so common in various species in 

 England. 



" Among the rustling ears, too closely blending, 

 Are rank and wasteful tares." H. Goodwin. 



"What landscapes I read in the primrose's looks, 

 And what pictures of pebbled and minnowy brooks 

 In the vetches that tangled their shore." Campbell. 



In America the leaflets of this plant are said to predict changes 

 of weather by their movement, from which it is called the weather 

 plant. 



23. ClCER. 



G. arietinum, gram, chick pea, harbara, channa, has generally 

 a terminal leaflet instead of a tendril. 



Lathyrus satiuus, chickling vetch, long, is cultivated in Guzerat as 

 in some countries of Europe, and there as here, the grain is said to 

 have deleterious effects on human beings. L. odoratus, the sweet 

 pea, will scarcely grow in W. India. 



Ervum lens, massur is the lentile (or one of them) of the Bible : in 

 our time it has become known as Eevalenta Arabica ; and from being 

 a common food for fast days in Roman Catholic countries it is 

 thought by some to have given its name to the season of Lent. 

 . Pisum satioum is the garden and field pea of Europe, now much 

 grown all over India. 



