Indigofera^ LegumtHOSCB. 23 



Dry districts and on the seashore ; common. Fl. all the year ; bright 

 red. 



Throughout the E. Tropics and in Angola, W. Trop. Africa. 



Found often in the hottest and most barren places, where it becomes 

 curiously compact and stunted. 



4. I. aspalathoides, Vahl, ex DC. Prod. ii. 231 (1825). Chiv- 

 anarvempu, T. Rat-kohomba, 5. 



Herm. Mus. 34. Burm. Thes. 89. Fl. Zeyl. n. 271. Aspalathus in- 

 dz'cus, L. Sp. PI. 712 ; Moon Cat. 52. Thw. Enum. 83. C. P. 1455. 

 Fl. B. Ind. ii. 94. Wight, Ic. t. 332 (not good). 



A low shrub, much branched, the branches divaricately 

 spreading, rigid, the young twigs snowy white with a felt of 

 copious short hair which is deciduous and shows the branches 

 glabrous, shining, and purple; 1. minute, sessile, crowded on 

 the twigs, but soon caducous, sessile, digitate, lflts. 1-5, usually 

 3, about -^ in. long, sessile, linear, often involute, with a few 

 large, white, adpressed hairs, rather fleshy ; fl. solitary, \ in., 

 on slender axillary ped. longer than 1. ; cal.-segm. linear; pod 

 about I in., narrowly linear, apiculate, straight, turgid, nearly 

 glabrous, pale brown ; seeds about 8 with partitions between 

 them. 



Dry region ; rare. Jaffna, very abundant on sandy fiats ; Batticaloa. 

 Fl. Nov.-Feb. ; dark pink. 



Also in the Carnatic plains of S. India. 



Used for making brooms at Jaffna. It is also a favourite medicine 

 among the Tamils. The S. name given is that of the drug as sold in the 

 bazaars. Hermann (Mus. 34) gives it, and probably obtained his speci- 

 mens from that source, as it grows nowhere in the S. of the island. 



Very different in habit from all our other species ; the lflts. look like 

 simple leaves in fascicles. 



5. I. glabra, L. Sp. PL 751 (1753)- 



Herm. Mus. 34. Burm. Thes. 39. Fl. Zeyl. n. 274. I. pentaphylla, 

 L., Thw. Enum. 411. C. P. 3524. 



Fl. B. Ind. ii. 95 (/. pentaphylla). Wight, Ic. t. 385. 



Annual, 1-3 ft., with numerous, very slender, ascending, gla- 

 brous branches; 1. imparipinnate, rachis f-i in., stip. setaceous, 

 persistent, lflts. usually 5 (2 pair and end one), very shortly 

 stalked, §— § in., obovate-oval, obtuse, thin, slightly hairy ; fl. 

 small, on slender ped., 2-4 in. short axillary racemes ; cal.- 

 segm. long, setaceous ; pod about f in., narrowly linear, 

 straight, cylindrical, apiculate, glabrous ; seeds about 12 with 

 partitions between. 



Moist low country; very rare. I have seen, besides Hermann's, only 

 the C. P. specimens, collected at Colombo by Ferguson in 1859, which 

 are very imperfect. FL red. 



Occurs throughout India and in Trop. Africa. 



Of Linna.us' duplicate names /. glabra has 21 years' priority over 

 /. pentaphylla, but neither name is very appropriate. 



