304 FLORA OF MADRAS. [Mdilotus. 



herb cultivated occasionally, as a pot-herb and medicinal plant. 

 Medicago sativa, Linn., the Lucerne, is occasionally cultivated as 

 a fodder- crop. 



7. Cyamopsis, DC. 



Erect herbs with appressed laterally attached hairs. Leaves 

 pinnately 3-f oliolate (Indian species) ; leaflets toothed ; stipules 

 small, setaceous ; stipels 0. Flowers in axillary racemes, small, 

 purplish ; bracts caducous ; bracteoles 0. Sepals 5, connate in an 

 oblique tube, lowest tooth longest, setaceous. Petals caducous ; 

 standard obovate ; wings oblong, free ; keel obtuse, subiiicurved, 

 the petals connate above. Stamens monadelphous in a tubular 

 sheath; anthers uniform, the connective apiculate. Ovary sessile, 

 many-ovuled ; style incurved at tip ; stigma capitate. Pod linear, 

 subquadrangular, acuminate, septate within. Seeds square, com- 

 pressed, strophiole 0. 



CYAMOPSIS TETRAGONOLOBA, Taub. C. psoralioides, DC; 

 F. B. I. ii. 92 ; W. & A. 197 ; Wt. Ic. t. 248. 



Eastern plains Districts, cultivated and occasionally found 

 run wild. Cluster-bean. 



A stout annual, 2-3 ft. high, with rather large leaflets and 

 beaked pod. The pods are eaten as a vegetable, and the 

 whole plant is cultivated for cattle-fodder. Vern. Tarn. 

 Koth-averay ; Tel. Goor chikurkai. 



8. Indigofera, Linn. 



Herbs, undershrubs or shrubs, with appressed laterally 

 attached hairs, sometimes mixed with basifixed hairs, frequently 

 silvery-canescent. Leaves simple, trifoliolate or imparipinnate, 

 the side leaflets usually opposite, but sometimes alternate, 

 entire ; stipules usually small, shortly adnate to the petiole ; 

 stipels setaceous or 0. Flowers generally very small, usually 

 reddish or purple, in axillary racemes or spikes, rarely solitary, 

 rarely panicled, each flower pedicelled in the axil of a caducous 

 bract ; bracteoles 0. Calyx minute, campanulate, teeth subequal 

 or the lowest longest. Corolla more or less caducous ; standard 

 ovate or orbicular, sessile or slightly clawed ; wings oblong, 

 slightly adherent to the keel ; keel petals erect, obtuse, with a 

 downward spur on each side near the base. Stamens diadelphous, 

 the vexillary stamen free, the others with connate filaments ; 

 anthers uniform, apiculate. Ovary sessile or subsessile, 1-2- or 



