378 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Or nit /top us, Desmodium, Centrosema, Canavalia, Rynchosia, Milletia, 

 Deguelia, Virgilia, &c. ; and why Galega officinalis {Rue des c/ievres, 

 Groat's-rue 1 ) has so long been used as a sudorific, vermifuge, and 

 alexipharmic. 



Many Papilionacece afford saccharine, gummy, and fatty matters ; 

 without mentioning the sugar developed under certain conditions in 

 the seeds of several Viciece and Phaseolece which makes them so 

 agreeable as food, we may call attention to the sweet taste of the 

 various Liquorice-roots {ratines de Reglisse 2 ) used in medicine, and 

 especially those of Glycyrrhiza glabra (fig. 165), echinata, and glan- 

 dulifera, 3 and of the Lianes a Reglisse (Liquorice- vines) which are 

 species of Abrus, 4 of Trifolium alpinum, Astragalus glycyphyllus, &c. A 

 kind of manna is secreted by the species of Alhagi, and notably by 

 the Camel's Thorn {A. Mauroruni), at least in certain countries. 5 

 The Arabs call this manna Terem-jabim, and obtain it by merely 

 shaking the branches ; it is used for the food of man and still more 

 of cattle, of which it is in certain cantons the only fodder during one 

 season in the year. The gum exuded from certain Papilionacece is 

 gum-tragacanth ; it issues in plates, twisted sheets, or worm-like 

 masses from clefts in the stems of several eastern Astragals, especially 

 Astragalus verus* (fig. 101), long supposed to be the only kind, and 

 A. gummifer Labill., creticus Lamk., aristatus W., and stroboliferus 

 Lindl. 7 It is the seed that usually contains oil in Papilionacece. Those 

 ofP/iaseolea?, Video?, Galegea, and Hedgsarece contain it in variable pro- 

 portions. But those more used are the Earth-nuts or Ground-nuts 

 {Pistaches de terre), the seeds of Ar acids /typogea* which ripen under- 

 ground, like those of the Mundtdi {Voandzeia subterranea 9 ) ; both 

 these plants are cultivated on this account in most hot countries. 



Many members of this order furnish colouring matters. First 



1 L., Spec, 1063.— DC, Prodr., ii. 248.— G. 5 Persia and Bokhara. It is said that the 



vulgaris Blackw. secretion does not take place in Egypt and India. 



• Guib., op. cit., ed. 6, iii. 325. The true 6 Oliv., Voy., iii. t. 44.— DC, Prodr., ii. 296, 



officinal Liquorice is Glycyrrliiza glabra L. n. 144. 



(Spec, 1046 ; — O. lavis Ball. ; — Liquiritia ' See H. Bk., in Did. Encycl. des Sc Med., 



officinalis Mcench). Russian Liquorice is G. vii. 1. 



echinata L. (%?c, 1046;— DC, Prodr., ii. 8 L., Spec, 1040.— DC, Prodr., ii. 474. (See 



248, n. 5). p. 215, figs. 184, 185).— Guib., op. cit., iii. 383.— 



3 Waldst. & Kit., PI. Hung., i. 20, t. 21.— Rosenth., Syn. PI. Diaph., loll.— 11. Bn., hi 

 DC, Prodr., loc cit., n. 2. — G. hirsuta Pall. Diet. Encycl. des Sc Med., v. 773. 



4 See p. 375, note 3.— H. Bn., iu Diet. 9 Dup.-Tu., Nov. Gen. Madag., 23. (See 

 Encycl. des Sc Med., i. 206. above, p. 235, note 6.) 



