144 XXXI. LEGUMINOS^l. [Spatholobus. 



Himalayan tract from Assam to Kamaon; flowers in subsessile heads with 

 large tomentose, ovate-lanceolate bracts. 



13. CROTALAKIA, Linn. 



Herbs or shrubs, with simple or digitately 3-foliolate (rarely 5-7-folio- 

 late) leaves. Stipules free or decurrent, sometimes small or none. Flowers 

 yellow blue or purplish, usually in terminal or leaf-opposed racemes. 

 Calyx-lobes distinct, or calyx more or less bilabiate. Standard orbicular 

 or ovate, usually callous at base, shortly clawed ; wings obovate or oblong ; 

 keel-petals beaked. Stamens monadelphous in an open sheath ; anthers 

 unequal, alternately basifixed and versatile. Ovary 2- oo-ovulate; style 

 bearded. Pod globose or oblong, turgid, 2-valved. 



1. C. Burhia, Hamilton; Benth. in London Journal of Botany, ii. (1843) 

 474 ; Boissier Fl. Orient, ii. 26. Yern. Sis, sisscii, meini, pola, Trans- 

 Indus ; Khep, khip, khippi, buta, bhata, biLi, Pb. ; Lathia, kharsan, 

 kauridla, Harriana, Delhi. 



An erect or procumbent shrub, with slender, close-set entangled branches, 

 flexible and rush -like when young, stiff and rigid when old. Leaves small 

 and scanty, oblong or linear, generally less than J in. long, more or less 

 pubescent. Flowers yellow with red veins, on short pedicels, far apart 

 in long racemes, forming terminal rigid divaricate panicles. Legume 

 short, villous, 1-3-seeded, twice the length of calyx. 



Common in the plains of Sindh and the Panjab, Peshawar valley, in dry 

 sandy places. Fl. Nov.-March. Popes are made of it in the Panjab, and it is 

 browsed by cattle. 



Crotalaria juncea, Linn. ; Roxb. Cor. PI. t. 193 ; Fl. Ind. iii. 259. Sans. 

 Sana. Vern. Sann, sanni (Taag, Bombay). The well-known Indian hemp ; 

 is cultivated throughout North-West India for its fibre. Several other large 

 herbaceous species of Crotalaria are common weeds in the forests. 



14. ALHAGI, Desv. 



Calyx campanulate, with 5 small acute teeth. Petals unguiculate, claws 

 nearly as long as calyx ; standard broad ; keel blunt. Stamens diadelph- 

 ous, anthers uniform. Ovary linear, sessile ; style filiform, incurved. Pod 

 linear, generally moniliform, contracted between seeds, rarely continuous. 



1. A. Maurorum, Desv. ; W. & A. Prodr. 232. Syn. Hedysarum 

 Alhagi, Willd. j Eoxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 344. The Camel-thorn. Vern. Jaioasa, 

 jewassi, jawa, jawan, jawani. (Kas, Sindh.) 



A small, nearly glabrous shrub, extremities pubescent; armed with 

 numerous axillary, spreading spines, J-l in. long. Leaves simple, short- 

 petiolate, oblong, coriaceous. Flowers red, on short slender pedicels, 1-6 

 from the axillary spines. Pod about 1 in. long, straight or falcate. 



Widely spread, from Greece and Egypt through Western Asia and Afghanis- 

 tan to the plains of North- Western India ; extending east as far as Monghir 

 on the Ganges, and south to the Southern Mahratta country. Also in Guzerat 

 and the Konkan. Generally found in dry barren places. Fl. March, April. ; 

 fr. ripens August. 





