INDIAN CORN INSECT. 



INDIAN CORN is the Zea mays of Linnfcus. 

 This is a most important species of corn in America, 

 and other countries suitable to its production. Some 

 of the hardier varieties have been tried in this coun- 

 try, and, by some farmers who attended to its culture, 

 with considerable success. But although the produce 

 is great, both in grain and straw, it is not equal, all 

 thing-s considered, in value to our common horse bean, 

 and certainly not to be compared with our common 

 wheat as a bread corn. It has been so long known 

 in our gardens, and is now so frequently seen in 

 our fields, that any detailed account of the plant is 

 unnecessary. 



INDIAN CRESS is the Tropaolum majus of 

 Linnaeus, a well-known ornamental plant, cultivated 

 not only for the beauty of its flowers, but for its seed- 

 pods as a pickle. 



INDIAN FIG is the Opuntia fans indica of 

 Ha worth. 



INDIGOFERA (Linmeus). A genus of herbs 

 and shrubs belonging to Diadelphia, and to the natu- 

 ral order LcguminoscE. The I. tinctoria is the plant 

 whence the valuable dye is extracted, on which ac- 

 count it is extensively cultivated in India, and other 

 parts of the world. 



In the Delta of the Ganges, where the best and 

 largest quantity of indigo is produced, the plant lasts 

 only for a single season, being destroyed by the pe- 

 riodical inundations ; but in the dry, central, or west- 

 ern provinces, it lasts two years, one, or even two, 

 offset crops being obtained ; and owing to this circum- 

 stance, the planters in the latter situations are enabled 

 to furnish a large supply of seed to those in the for- 

 mer. The seeds are sown in drills, a foot apart, 

 during the rainy season, and kept free from weeds. 

 In two or three months the crop is fit for cutting, but 

 the plants must not be allowed to flower, otherwise 

 the foliage becomes hard and unproductive ; and it 

 should be cut in wet weather, for if the season be too 

 dry the stools will not spring again ; hence from these 

 and other circumstances, the produce is precarious, 

 When cut, the herb is steeped in vats ; and after 

 being well macerated, and the colouring matter ex- 

 tracted, the liquor is drawn off into other vessels, in 

 which it undergoes the peculiar process of beating, 

 to cause the facula to subside. The faecula is subse- 

 quently collected, and transferred into a third set of 

 ttvats, where it remains for some time before it is 

 /strained through cloth bags, and evaporated in shal- 

 low wooden boxes placed in the shade. Before it is 

 perfectly dry, it is cut into small pieces an inch 

 square, and is then packed in barrels, or sewed up in 

 sacks for sale. 



It appears pretty certain that the culture of the in- 

 digo plant, and the preparation of the dye, have been 

 common in India from a very remote period. Pliny 

 mentions it under the name of Indicum, and states 

 that, when diluted with water, it produces an admira- 

 ble mixture of blue and purple colours. He knew, 

 also, it was the produce of a vegetable, but was much 

 mistaken as to its mode of preparation. The indigo 

 plant, in its natural state, is innoxious ; but indigo, 

 when prepared, is a dangerous poison. The chemi- 

 cal changes which take place during the process of 

 preparation, are extremely curious. Two or three 

 species of this genus are kept in our stoves, and are 

 easily propagated bv cuttings. 



INFEROBRANCH1ATA, in modern malaco- 

 logy, is the fourth order of De Blainville's system ; it 



825 



includes all such molluscs as have branchial organs of 

 respiration, lamellarly disposed beneath the salient 

 edge of the mantle ; the body is always naked, oval 

 shaped, and more or less tuberculated. This order 

 merely contains the genera PhyUidia and Lmguilla. 



ING A (Plumicr). An extensive genus of ever- 

 green shrubs and trees, chiefly natives of South Ame- 

 rica, belonging to the natural order Lcguminostz. 

 Generic character : flowers polygamous ; calyx five- 

 toothed ; corolla of five petals, or parts ; stamens 

 united at the base, and protruding ; style simple ; 

 pod compressed.two-valved, seeds pulpy or farinaceous. 

 The genus has been separated from Mimosa to which 

 it bears a resemblance, and may be treated in the 

 same way as the stove mimosas. 



INOCARPUS (Forster). A fruit-tree, common 

 on the islands of the South Sea ; hence called the 

 Otaheite chestnut. It belongs to the natural order 

 Sapoteee, is kept in our stoves, and propagated by 

 cuttings. 



INOCERAMUS (Brogniart). A mollusc only 

 known in a fossil state ; of course the animal is totally 

 unknown ; in its general appearance it resembles the 

 Ostracece, but more nearly the genus GrypJuea. Three 

 species are enumerated by De France. 



INSECT. The ordinary English name given to 

 the individuals composing the most extensive class of 

 animals to which Linnaeus and the older authors gave 

 the name Insecta, a word derived from the Latin, and 

 signifying an animal cut or divided into numerous 

 parts or segments, and equally applicable to various 

 species which have the chief divisions of the body 

 connected together by slender points of attachment; 

 the legs in like manner are inserted or composed of 

 various articulations. It is not surprising that these 

 characters should have attracted the notice of the 

 earliest naturalists, and we accordingly find the group 

 of insects established by the first writers upon zoology ; 

 not indeed with that precision of definition which the 

 anatomical researches of modern authors have enabled 

 us to apply to the group, but, on the contrary, united 

 with many other small invertebrated animals, which, 

 even in the present day, are considered as insects by 

 ignorant persons. On examining the body of an 

 insect, we find it externally covered with a strong 

 scaly coating, which, when internally examined, is 

 found to give support to the muscles and other organs, 

 thus becoming as it were an external vertebra ; but 

 the observation will immediately occur that the horny 

 nature of this external covering must necessarily pre- 

 vent the growth of the animal ; and this would cer- 

 tainly be the case were not the difficulty obviated in 

 a manner as remarkable as it is perfect, namely by 

 the periodical shedding of the external envelope, 

 forced open as it were from time to time by the inter- 

 nal organs, which have increased in volume since the 

 preceding moulting, owing to the quantity of food 

 taken by the creature. This shedding of the cover- 

 ing of the body is very variable in its effects upon 

 the various groups of insects, in some consisting of a 

 mere throwing off of the outer envelope, without any 

 other change being effected, save that of an increase 

 of size : in others, however, an increase of limbs is 

 obtained ; and in some, an entire change in the form 

 of the body is effected, and organs of flight acquired. 

 These latter changes are termed metamorphoses or 

 transformations, and are more especially applicable to 

 the winged groups of insects. Another important 

 character distinguishing this tribe of animals is to be 



