208 



LEGUMINOS.E. LXXIX. INDICOFERA. 



wliicli do comparatively little injury to the sugar-cane and other 

 plants. 



Indigo has long been cultivated in Spain, but has been long 

 on the decline in that country, owing to the more favorable cir- 

 cumstances of the East and West Indies. It was tried in the 

 south of France and Italy during the time of Bonaparte, but 

 found not worth following for the same reason. 



The indigo commonly cultivated in the West Indies is the 7. 

 A^n'd, and sometimes I. tinctoria and 7. Guatemala, though there 

 are various species and varieties which afford a similar dye. 

 Indigo thrives best in free rich soil and a warm situation, fre- 

 quently refreshed with moisture. Having first chosen a piece 

 of ground and cleared it, hoe it into little trenches, not above 

 two inches or two inches and a half in depth, and not more 

 than 14 or 15 inches asunder. In the bottom of these at any 

 season of the year, strew the seeds pretty thick, and immediately 

 cover them. As the plants shoot they should be frequently 

 weeded, and kept constantly clean, until they spread sufficiently 

 to cover the ground. Those who cultivate indigo in great quan- 

 tities, only strew the seed pretty thick in little shallow pits, 

 hoed up irregularly, but generally within 4-5 or 6 inches of each 

 other, and covered as before. Plants raised in this manner are 

 observed to answer as well or rather better than the others, but 

 they require more care in the weeding. The plants grow to full 

 perfection in 2 or 3 months, and are observed to answer when 

 cut in full blossom. They are cut with reaping hooks, a few 

 inches above the root, tied in loads, carried to the w'orks, and 

 laid by strata in the steeper. Seventeen negros are sufficient 

 to manage twenty acres of indigo; and one acre of rich land, 

 well planted, will, with good seasons and proper management, 

 yield 500 pounds of indigo in twelve months, for the plant after 

 being cut sends out stolons or new growths, and gives 4 or 5 

 crops a-year, but must be replanted or resown afterwards. (P. 

 Browne.) 



According to Loureiro indigo is spontaneous in China and 

 Cochin-china, and is cultivated all over those vast empires. 

 The ancients were acquainted with the dye which we call indigo 

 under the name of indicmn. Pliny knew that it was a prepara- 

 tion of vegetable substance, though he was not acquainted with 

 the plant nor the process of making the dye. Even at the close 

 of the sixteenth century it was not known in England what plant 

 produced indigo. For in the Remembrancer for Master T. by 

 Richard Harkluyt in 1582, he was instructed " to know if Anil, 

 that coloureth blew, be a natural commodity of those parts 

 (Turkey) and if it be compounded of an herbe, to send the seed 

 or root, with the order of sowing, &c. that it may become a 

 natural commodity in the realme as woad is, that the high price 

 of foreign woad might be brought down." 



Dyer's Indigo. Fl. July, Aug. Clt. 1731 . Shrub 2 to 3 ft. 



40 I. GUATIMA'LA (Lun. hort. jam. 1. p. 420.) plant shrubby, 

 erect ; leaves pinnate, with 4 or 5 pairs of lanceolate leaflets, 

 which are hoary beneath ; racemes axillary, shorter than the 

 leaves ; legumes recurved, declining, gibbous at the sutures, 

 many-seeded. b. . S. Native of South America, at Guatimala. 

 I. tinctoria ft, brachyc^rpa, D. C. prod. 2. p. 224. Flowers red. 

 Dr. Patrick Browne says this plant seldom exceeds 3 or 4 feet 

 high, throwing out many suberect branches as it rises. It is said 

 to be much hardier than 7. tinctoria or 7. Anil, and affords a finer 

 pulp, but it does not yield so great a quantity, and is only cul- 

 tivated where the seasons are not so certain, or in mixed fields. 

 The former yielding more of the dye than either of the others is 

 generally preferred, though liable to many more mischances. 



Guatimala Indigo. Fl. July, Aug. Clt. 1731. Sh. 3 to 4 ft. 



41 I. A'NIL (Lin. mant. 272.) stems shrubby, erect ; leaves 

 pinnate, having 3-7 pairs of oval or oblong leaflets, hardly pu- 

 bescent beneath ; racemes axillary, shorter than the leaves ; 



legumes compressed, not torulose, deflexed, arched, with the su- 

 tures on both sides rather prominent. b . S. Native of South 

 America, spontaneous, but cultivated for indigo in both Indies. 

 See 7. tinctoria for culture and uses. Mr. Miller says this plant 

 grows to the height of 5 or 6 feet (if this be his 7. ntffruticofa), 

 and that being a much larger plant than 7. tinctoria, it will afford 

 a greater quantity of indigo from the same compass of ground, 

 than any of the other species, especially if cut before the stems 

 grow woody ; it will also grow on poorer land. It is very com- 

 mon in Jamaica, growing wild in all the savannahs, where doubt- 

 less it had been cultivated in former times. It is hardier than 

 any of the other sorts, and grows very luxuriantly, even in the 

 dryest lands ; but it does not yield so much pulp, according to 

 P. Browne ; the dye, however, that is extracted from it is 

 generally the best, of a fine copperish cast, and of a fine grain. 

 The plant is called Halt-nil or Nile by the Arabs, and Nil by 

 the Bengalese. 



I'ttr. ti. oligophytta (D.C. prod. 2. n. 225.) leaves having 3-4 

 pairs of leaflets ; legumes arched, t; S. Sloan, jam. t. 176. 

 f. 3. Lam. ill. t. 6s!9. f. 2. Native of South America, and the 

 West Indies. 



Var. /3, polyplnjUa (D. C. 1. c.) leaves having 5-7 pairs 

 of leaflets ; legumes arched. Jj . S. I. Cornezuelo, Moc. et 

 Sesse, fl. mex. icon. ined. Native of South America, and the 

 West Indies. 



Var. y, ortltocarpa (D. C. 1. c.) leaves having 5-7 pairs of 

 leaflets; legume deflexed, straight. b. . S. Rumph. amb. 5. 

 t. 80. ? East Indies and Madagascar. Perhaps a proper species. 



Anil or W r est Indian Indigo. Fl. July, Aug. Clt. 1731. 

 Shrub 2 to 4 feet. 



42 I. THIBAUDIA'NA (D. C. prod. 2. p. 225.) stem suffruti- 

 cose, erect; leaves pinnate, having 10 or 11 pairs of elliptic, 

 retuse, mucronate leaflets, which are pubescent on both sur- 

 faces; racemes length of leaves; legume pendulous, straight, 

 linear, compressed, tapering into an acumen at the apex, 8-10- 

 seeded. b. . S. Native of Mexico. Legumes disposed in a 

 raceme, which is 30 or 40 inches long. Flowers dark purple. 



Thibaud't Indigo. Shrub 5 to 6 feet. 



43 I. LEPTOSTA CHYA (D. C. prod. 2. p. 225.) stem suffruti- 

 cose, erect; leaves pinnate, with 5-10 pairs of leaflets ; leaflets 

 elliptic-obovate, retuse, mucronulate, rather pubescent on both 

 surfaces ; racemes axillary, slender, length of leaves ; flowers 

 distant, erect ; legumes reflexed, straight. b. . S. Native of 

 the East Indies. Flowers red, about 20 in a spike. 



Slender-spiked Indigo. Fl. Ju. Jul. Clt. 1818. Sh. 2 to 3 ft. 



44 I. UNCINA'TA ; shrubby, erectish, branched, stiff; leaves 

 pinnate, with 5 pairs of lanceolate, mucronate pubescent leaf- 

 lets ; racemes short, spicate, axillary, sessile ; legumes arched, 

 crowded. b_ . S. Native of Sierra Leone, in waste places. 



Hooked- podded Indigo. Shrub 2 feet. 



45 I. ATROPUKPU'REA (Hamilt. in Horn. hort. hafn. add. 152.) 

 shrubby, erect; leaves pinnate, with 5-7 or 10 pairs of oval, 

 refuse, mucronulate leaflets, having their margins rather undu- 

 lated, younger ones covered with adpressed pubescence, adult 

 ones nearly glabrous ; racemes axillary, slender, lower ones 

 length of leaves ; calyx silky ; legume straight, compressed, 

 mucronate, pendulous, 8-1 0-seeded. Ij . G. Native of Nipaul, 

 at Narain-hetty. D. Don, prod. fl. nep. 244. Flowers shewy, 

 dark-purple. Stipulas obsolete. 



Dark-purple-fionered Indigo. Fl. June, Aug. Clt. 181G. 

 Shrub 5 to C feet. 



46 I. DOSUA (D. Don, prod. fl. nep. 244.) shrubby ; leaves 

 pinnate, having 10-16 pairs of oval, retuse, mucronulate leaf- 

 lets, which are clothed with rufescent pili on both surfaces, as 

 well as the branches ; spikes axillary, shorter than the leaves ; 

 bracteas and stipulas linear and hispid ; teeth of calyx ovate, 



