78 MUCUNA PRURIENS 



standard broadly oval, acute, about f inch long, with a short claw, 

 pale purplish, wings nearly 1J inch long, narrow, oblong, blunt, 

 slightly falcate, dull dark purple tinged with pale yellowish- green. 

 Keel-petals narrow, a little longer than the wings, nearly straight, 

 except at the end, where they become hard and cartilaginous, and 

 curve upwards, forming a prominent, stiff, greenish beak. Stamens 

 10, 9 combined by their filaments, -the upper one distinct, fore 

 part of the filaments somewhat dilated, anthers small, soon falling, 

 oblong. Ovary surrounded at the base by a small crenulate disk, 

 shortly stalked, hairy, tapering into the long slender style, stigma 

 small, terminal. Legume nearly sessile, about 3 inches long by 

 more than ^ inch broad, falcately curved at each end, somewhat 

 compressed, slightly contracted between the seeds, dark brown, 

 very densely covered with a thick felt of stiff, short, sharp, pale 

 reddish hairs, which point backwards and are readily detached ; 

 when young the pods have a strongly marked rib down each valve, 

 which is concealed by the hairs. Seeds 4 or 5, separated by 

 cellular partitions, about J of an inch long, ovoid, somewhat com- 

 pressed, smooth, brownish, mottled with black, hilum large, 

 oblong. 



Habitat. This is a common twiner over bushes and hedges in 

 peninsular India, where it is extensively distributed, and is pro- 

 bably native. The plant occurs in a cultivated or semiwild state 

 throughout the tropical regions of both hemispheres. 



The meaningless word " cowitch " is a corruption of the 

 Hindustani name for the plant, variously spelt cowhage, couhage, 

 kiwach. 



Roxburgh, PI. Indica, iii, p. 283 ; Hook., Bot. Miscell., ii, p. 348 ; 

 PI. Brasil., fasc. 24, p. 169, PL Trop. Africa, ii, p. 187 ; DC., 

 Prod., ii, p. 404 ; LindL, PL Med., p. 253-4. 



Official Part and Names. MUCUNA, Cowhage ; the hairs of the 

 pod (I. P.). MUCUNA; the hairs of the pods (U. S. P. Secondary). 

 It is not official in the British Pharmacopoeia, but it was formerly 

 official in the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Pharmacopoeias. 



General Characters and Composition. The pods or legumes are 

 imported from the West Indies with the hairs attached. The 



