CAJANUS INDICUS (PIGEON PEA) 93 



In Madagascar, the leaves are used in rearing silk- 

 worms, and in the north of Bengal Cajanus serves for 

 feeding lac insects. 



Evidently, then, this plant has a number of different 

 uses, and we recommend its cultivation not only as a 

 manurial crop, but also as a food plant ; in localities where it 

 fruits abundantly and the pods are not damaged by insects 

 it can be of considerable use both to man and beast. 



In conclusion, we will append a few notes on this plant 

 made in the Comoros by M. Advisse Desruisseaux. 



The pigeon pea is grown on the same field and at the 

 same time as rice, maize, mungo beans, cowpeas, sweet 

 potatoes, and banana plants. After the other plants have 

 been harvested it is allowed to remain either alone or with 

 sweet potatoes for two or three years. It is pruned 

 annually, in November, to within 80 cm. or i metre of the 

 ground. In Anjouan, where it is cultivated by natives, 

 it lives and fruits for five years. 



Planters frequently grow it in young vanilla plantations 

 and allow it to fruit, when the nitrogenous and mineral 

 matters contained in the soil are transferred to the fruit. 

 It is more advisable to pull the stalks at flowering, or, 

 better still, destroy the flowers themselves (April, May, 

 June) and leave the plant till December — January, pulling 

 it at the commencement of the rains. 



The pigeon pea is attacked at Anjouan by two of the 

 Lepidoptera, a white Pieris of fair size, and a little bluish 

 Terias. The latter undergoes its transformation into a 

 chrysalis in the stem, where it causes swellings which 

 render the plant incapable of offering much resistance to 

 the wind. 



An Agromyza similar to that of the bean (Mauritius, 

 Reunion) attacks the cortex of the young plant, which, how^ 

 ever, offers a sturdy resistance. 



A Bruchus lays its eggs on the ovary. The larva pene- 

 trates the seed and the metamorphosis into the perfect insect 



