AlhagL] XXXI. EGUMINOS,E. 145 



Camels delight in it as fodder. In Guzerat, Sindh, and the Southern Panjab, 

 screens (tatties) employed during the hot winds are made of it. Near Kandahar 

 and Herat manna is found and collected on the bushes at flowering time, after 

 the spring rains. 



15. DESMODIUM, Desv. 



Shrubs or herbs, with trifoliolate or unifoliolate stipellate leaves. Calyx 

 campanulate or turbinate. Corolla exserted ; standard broad ; wings more 

 or less adhering to the keel ; upper stamen entirely or partially free ; style 

 incurved ; stigma minute, capitate. Pod usually articulate, the articula- 

 tions flat, 1 -seeded, rarely splitting open at the upper suture. 



Leaves 3-foliolate ; bracts subulate D. tilicefolium. 



Leaves 3-foliolate ; bracts orbicular, foliaceous . . . D. pulchellum. 

 Leaves 1-foliolate, ovate, softly tomentose . . . D. latifolium. 



1. D. tiliaefolium, Don. Syn. D. nutans, Bot. Mag. t. 2867; D. 

 argenteum, Wall. Vern. Sambar, sammar, shamru, shambar, chamra, 

 chamyar, chamkat, chamhul, martan, matta, marara, gur hats, gurshagal, 

 prl, muss, chiti must, kali must, murt, laber. 



A large, somewhat diffuse shrub, with trifoliolate leaves. Branchlets, 

 inflorescence, pods, and leaves greyish tomentose or canescent. Leaflets 

 broad-ovate or obovate from cuneate or rounded base, often mucronate, 

 with 4-6 pair of prominent lateral nerves, green and glabrescent above, 

 clothed beneath with a matted tomentum of whitish silky hairs, terminal 

 leaflet largest, 2-5 in. long. Flowers red, on slender pedicels, longer than 

 calyx, fasciculate, in spreading terminal panicles, with long drooping 

 branches ; bracts subulate, bractlets setaceous, at the base of calyx. Pods 

 2-3 in. long, J in. broad; joints 6-10, somewhat longer than broad. 



Common outer Himalaya from the Indus to Nepal, 3000-9000 ft. Fl. June- 

 Sept. Bark fibrous, ropes are made of it which are strong but not durable. In 

 Kullu and Kunawar, paper and pasteboard for the Buddhist monasteries in 

 Tibet is made of the bark (H. Cleghorn). The branches are browsed by cattle. 



2. D. pulchellum, Benth. Syn. Hedysarum pulchellum, Linn. ; Boxb. 

 Fl. Ind. iii. 361 ; Dicerma pulchellum, DC. ; W. & A. Prodr. 230 ; 

 Wight Ic. t. 418. 



An erect pubescent shrub. Leaves trifoliolate, leaflets ovate, obtuse, 

 the terminal 4-5 in. long, more than twice the size of the lateral ones. 

 Stipules subulate, with long bristly points. Flowers in terminal and 

 axillary spiciform racemes, the flowers in the axils of 2-foliolate bracts, 

 the common petiole terminating in a long bristle, the two lateral leaflets 

 orbicular, enclosing the flower. Pod generally with 2 joints. 



South India, Bengal, Burma, Oudh, and Gorakhpur, particularly in the Sal 

 forests. Fl. K.S. 



3. D. latifolium, DC; W. & A. Prodr. 223; Wight Ic. 270. Syn. 

 Hedysarum latifolium, Boxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 350. 



A shrub with a short woody stem and spreading branches. Leaves uni- 



