go6 BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS 



Seeds, from one or two to twelve or more, round- 

 kidney-form, compressed. 



Flowers deep yellow. Leaves alternate, lanced, paler 

 beneath, keeled; petioles very short j stipules mi- 

 nute, roundish, villous. Stem striated. 



Threads, called pavitraca, from their supposed purity, 

 have been made of Sana from time immemorial: 

 they are mentioned in the laws of Menu. 



The retuse -leaved Crotalaria, which Van 

 Rheede, by mistake calls Schama Puspi> is cultiva- 

 ted, I believe, for the same purpose. Rumphius 

 had been truly informed that threads for nets were 

 made from this genus in Bengal; but he suspected 

 the information to be erroneous, and thought that 

 the persons who conveyed it had confounded the 

 Crotalaria with the Capsular Corchorus. Strong 

 ropes and canvas are made of its macerated bark. 



The J an gals' art) or a variety of the watery Crotala- 

 ria has very beautiful flowers, with a greenish 

 white banner, purple striped, wings bright violet: 

 stem four-angled and four-winged ; leaves egged, 

 obtuse, acute at the base, curled at the edges, dow- 

 ny j stipules two, declining, mooned, if you chuse 

 to call them so, but irregular, and acutely pointed. 

 In all the Indian species, a difference of soil and 

 culture occasion varieties in the flower and fructifi- 

 cation. 



60, Jayantt' 



Syn. Jaya\ Tercar?, Nddeyly Faijayautica* 



Vulg. Jainti Ja'lz}; some %dy y Aram, 



Rheede : Kedangu, 



Li n*n. 



