144 Royle's Illustrations of the Natural History 



species, and their collapsion during sleep, they have been con- 

 sidered by some authors as the most highly organised of plants, 

 and therefore placed at the head of the vegetable kingdom. 

 They may be almost universally recognised {Detdrium is the 

 only exception) by the form of fruit, from which they are 

 named. They form, in almost every country, a considerable 

 portion of the flora. In the present collection, they amount to 

 300 species, which is about one twelfth of the whole. The hill 

 specimens being, to those found in the plains, in the proportion 

 nearly of 92 to 208." (p. 180.) 



The Leguminosae have been divided into the three orders of 

 Mimosese, Caesalpin^f^, and Papilionaceae, by Mr. Brown ; and 

 into two grand divisions, and a number of sub-orders and tribes, 

 by Professor De Candolle, whose arrangement we have adopted 

 in our Hurtus Britaniiicus. Mr. Royle devotes a considerable 

 space to this important order ; and, in conclusion, there is given 

 an account, by Mr. Bentham, of the Himalayan Leguminosae of 

 European and Siberian forms. Mr. Royle adopts Mr. Brown's 

 division, and speaks first of the Mimoseae. The plants of this 

 order belong almost entirely to warm climates. There are only 

 two species ; viz. the Acacia JulibrissiJi and affhiis, or dealbata, and, 

 perhaps, a few others, which stand the open air about London. 

 Some species, however, are found as high as 6000 ft. on the 

 Himalayas, in north latitude 30°; and there can be little doubt 

 that these will resist our British winters. 



The Caesalpine'.^, also, chiefly inhabit the warm parts both of 

 the New and Old Worlds ; and to this order belong Amherst/«, 

 just mentioned, and the well-known carob tree. 



The Papilionaceae include by far the greater number of the 

 species belonging to the order Leguminosae, as the reader may 

 see by turning to our Hortus Britannicus, p. 511. Some genera 

 of this order are found at the elevation of 8000 ft. and 10,000 ft. 

 Piptanthus nepalensis, from this region, is already in our 

 gardens, and is found about London to be nearly as hardy as 

 the laburnum ; and Thermopsis barbata, which is described 

 by travellers as a " superb sort of lupine," and many others, may 

 be expected. Trifolieae and Ficieae, which form the principal 

 plants for fodder, and for producing leguminous seeds of Eu- 

 ropean agriculture, are also, with the Cerealia, the principal 

 plants of the " cold weather cultivation " of Northern Lidia. 

 At this cold weather season, " the obliquity of the sun's rays 

 allows the plains to be cooled down to a temperature which 

 approximates to that of the summer of the mountains, and of 

 European latitudes." Mr. Royle thinks it probable " that both 



the red and white varieties of Phaseolus vulgaris were intro- 



1 • • • 



duced mto Europe from Caubul, Cashmere, or the neighbouring 



countries ; as the seeds of both were brought to him " from 



