216 XLV. LEGUMINOSjE [Piptanthus 



1. PIPTANTHUS, D. Don; Fl. Brit, Ind. ii. 62. 



P. nepalensis, D. Don; Brand. F. Fl. 132. Vera. Chamba, Jaunsar. 



A shrub, attaining 10 ft., with alternate, digitately trifoliolate leaves, 

 often crowded at the ends of branchlets ; leaflets lanceolate, entire, sessile, 

 common petiole less than half the length of leaflets. Stipules connate, so as 

 to appear opposite to the petiole, deciduous. Flowers large, bright yellow, 

 in short hairy racemes, with broad-ovate, tomentose deciduous bracts. Pod 

 linear-lanceolate, 2-5 in. long, h in. broad, 3-10-seeded, dehiscent, 



Himalaya, Sutlej to Bhutan. Khasi hills, Manipur. Chin hills Upper Burma. 

 Mostly in shady woods, 7,000 to 10,000 ft. Fl. May, June. Also in Tibet and South- 

 western China. A second species, P. tomentosus, Franchet in Tunan. 



2. CROTALARIA, Linn.: Fl. Brit, Ind. ii. 65. 



Herbs, rarely shrubs, with simple or digitately 3-foliolate, in a few species 

 5-7-foliolate leaves. Flowers mostly yellow, sometimes blue or purple, in 

 terminal or leaf-opposed racemes, keel beaked. Stamens monadelphous in an 

 open sheath ; anthers alternately long and basifixed, short and versatile. 

 Style bearded, stigma minute. Pod turgid. Species about 250 ; tropical and 

 sub-tropical regions of both hemispheres. 77 species in India. 



1. C. Burhia, Ham.; Brand. F. Fl. 144. 



An erect or procumbent shrub ; branches numerous, slender, flexible and 

 rush-like when young, stiff and rigid when old. Leaves simple, small and 

 scanty, linear or oblong. Fl. yellow, far apart on long racemes, forming ter- 

 minal divaricate rigid panicles. Calyx clothed with long silky hairs, teeth 

 lanceolate, as long- as corolla. 



Common in the plains of Sind, the Punjab, Western Bajputana, and Gujarat. Fl. C. S. 

 Also in Afghanistan. This genus comprises numerous tall herbs or soft-wooded shrubs, 

 with large yellow fl., in forests and on waste land. Crolalaria juncea Linn. ; Roxb. 

 Cor. PI. t. 193. Sunn or Indian hemp is cultivated in most parts of India. 



Priotropis cytisoides, W. et A. ; Kurz, F. PI. i. 363, is an erect much-branched shrub, 

 4-6 ft. high, in the Eastern Himalaya, the Khasi and Naga hills, and the hills of 

 Burma, 3,000-6,000 ft. Leaves trifoliolate : flowers yellow racemose ; pods flat, 1-1A in. 

 long, J-| in. broad, narrowed to both ends, on a slender stalk £ in. 



3. CARAGANA, Lam. : Fl. Brit, Ind. ii. 115. 



Spinescent shrubs with paripinnate leaves. Common petiole produced 

 beyond the end pair and often spinescent. Stipules also frequently spinescent. 

 Claws of petals as long, or nearly as long as calyx. Standard broad, with 

 reflexed edges, keel obtuse, as long as wings and standard. Stamens diadel- 

 phous, anthers uniform. Style glabrous, stigma terminal minute. Pod linear, 

 valves convex. 20 species ; 7 Indian, the rest in Central Asia and China, 



1. C. brevispina, Royle: Brand. F. F1.-133. Vera. Art, Jauns. 



Leaves generally fasciculate, on short tuberculate branchlets in the axils of 

 rigid spinescent petioles, 1-3 in. long, with or without leaflets. Stipules 

 scarious, the outer frequently spinescent. Leaflets 5-7 'pair, with soft 

 adpressed - hairs. Common petiole often not spinescent. Flowers 3-5, in 

 pedunculate umbels, peduncles 1-3 in. long. Calyx campanulate, teeth 

 shorter than tube. Pod turgid, woolly inside. 



North- West Himalaya 5,000-9,000 ft. Indus to Ganges, also Kuram valley. Fl. 

 April-June. Nearly allied are : 2. C. decortieans, Hemsley, Hoot. Ic. PL t. 1725. 

 Knram valley, Hazara, Chitral. A tall shrub or small tree, with very short calyx 

 teeth, rings of the bark placed on the leather sheath of the long Afghan knives. 3. 

 C. arborescens, Lam. ; Prain, Journ. As. Soc, Beng. 66, 372. Kuram valley. 



4. C. Gerardiana, Royle 111. t. 34, fig. 1, dry valleys of the inner N.W. Himalaya, 

 also in Baluchistan, near Quetta, in the Juniper forests, has all petioles spinescent and 



