324 TlMEHRI. 



ous border or wing running along each angle. Several 

 other kinds are grown in gardens and sometimes found 

 wild, most of them possessing in some degree the bitter 

 medicinal properties that we probably became acquainted 

 with in early life in the form of senna tea, obtained from 

 Cassia obovata and other species. We may also just 

 mention the allied Barbados pride or Barbados flower- 

 fence (C&salpinia pulcherrima) , which often springs 

 spontaneously in cultivated ground, an ornamental 

 shrub or small tree with bright orange-red or yellow 

 flowers, twice-pinnate leaves, and black pods like 

 ordinary pea-pods. 



Having thus disposed of the yellow leguminosae most 

 likely to be met with, we may return to the papiliona- 

 ceous kinds, and, still taking colour as our guide, iden- 

 tify another of the group common on grassy land, with 

 very dark lurid red or maroon-purple flowers, which is 

 a wild cinabone called wild gully-root (Phaseolus semi- 

 ereflus). The curiously twisted keel and the small 

 standard are of a smoky pinkish colour ; the pods long 

 and linear, and the leaves trifoliate with rather arrowhead- 

 shaped leaflets. The common gully-root (Petiveria 

 alliacea) grown in every yard is a plant of a very different 

 order, allied to the calalu and poke-weeds ; it is a shrubby 

 herb with entire lanceolate leaves, and is best distinguished 

 by its long slender spikes or sprays of minute white star- 

 like flowers with four rays to each star. It is also called 

 guinea-hen weed and strong-man's weed, and is an 

 important ingredient in certain nostrums of the local 

 wise women. 



The white papilionaceae are less certainly identified, 

 as some of the blue and purple kinds occasionally 



