Ougcinia} XLV LEGUMINOS^ 225 



and 3 in. diam., the well-known Sola, the soft white wood, generally called pith, is made 

 into toys, floats, and Sola hats, invaluable as a protection against the sun. 



Alhagi Camelorum, Fischer; Prain in Journ. As. Soc. Beng. vol. 60(1898). 377. The 

 camel thorn, a thorny shruh, sending its routs deep into the ground, with small oblong 

 obtuse leaves and numerous axillary stout spinescent branchlets, often bearing leaves 

 and flowers, glabrous ovaries, and turgid pods. Widely spread from Greece and Egypt, 

 through Western Asia, Afghanistan and Baluchistan, extending over the arid and dry 

 regions of India, in moister districts found on dry barren ground. Often gregarious. 

 A. Maurorum, Tournef. ; Prain, I.e., 378, has silky ovaries. 



Lespedeza, Michaux; PI. Brit. Ind. ii. 142, with trifoliolate 1. and short 1-seeded pods, 



I prises numerous undershrubsand a few shrubs. L. Praiiiii, Coll. et HJemsl. in Linn. 



Soc. Journ. xxviii. -16, is a shrub 10 ft. high, common on the Shan table-land, 4,000- 

 5,000 ft., leaflets obovate, i-1 in., fl. purj.de in dense axillary racemes, longer than 

 is, pod glabrous. 



11. ABRUS, Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. ii. 175. 

 (6 species, in the tropics of both hemispheres.) 



1. A. precatorius, Linn. — Vera. Gunchi, Eunch, Hind. Mar.: ChUntli, 

 Dun ; Ywe-gn6, Burm. 



A climber, with woody stem and slender branches, twining round supports. 

 Leaves paripinnate, the common petiole terminating in a slender short 

 bristle. Leaflets opposite, nearly sessile, 10-15 pair, oblong, obtuse, often 

 lmuTunate. Fl. wh ire or pink, in axillary pedunculate racemes. Pod oblong, 

 turgid, the fruiting peduncles persistent and irregularly thickened. Seeds 3-5, 

 ellipsoid or nearly globose, polished, generally red, with a black e3 - e on the 

 hilum, sometimes black with a white eye, more rarely quite white, stonyhard, 

 used as weights by jewellers. An acrid poison in the seed. 



(' mhi in Forest tracts of India and Burma, ascending in the outer Himalaya to 



8,500 ft. Found in Merwara, but not known from the arid region of Sind and the 

 southern Punjab. PI. Sept., Oct. A sea-shore species in the Indian Archipelago 

 (Sch i in per i. Cos politan within the tropics. 



2. A. pulchellus, Wall.: also widely distributed, is similar, but has flat slightly 

 curved jhhIs with K-l'_» s Is. 



1-2. MUCUNA, Adans. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. ii. 185. 



W ly or herbaceous twiners, leaves pinnately trifoliolate. Fl. large, dark 



purp] ' greenish white, in pendulous racemes or corymbs, often from the old 



wood. Calyx campanulate, 2 upper teeth connate, the lowermost longest. 

 Keel and wings longer than standard. Stamens diadelphous, anthers alter- 

 nately Longer basifixed and shorter versatile. Pod usually covered with 

 brittle irritating bristles. Species 30, in the tropics of both hemispheres. 



The structure of the woody species merits further study, s South American 



Murium- have soft sponge wood, irregular, more or less mi ntric masses of xylem, 



alternating with bands of phloem. The xylem consists of thin renohyma, 



traversed by longitudinal strands of vi-m'Is, >ieve t ulies and w I til ires. 



A. Face of pod covered with oblique plaits or lamellae. 



1. M. imbricata, IX'. : Fl. I'.rit. Ind. ii. 185. Leaves nearly glabrous. 

 Fl. dull purple, or white with purple spots, in i short racemes, while in bud 

 covered by large concave imbricating bracts. Pod 1-ti in. long, 2-3 in. broad, 

 winged along both sutures: seeds 2-3. 



Snbhimalayan tract, Cumaon to Assam, Dpper and Lower Burma, Andamans. PI. 

 Ang.-Dec. 



2. M. monosperma, DC.;Wigh1 lc. t. 36. — Syn. M. anguina, Wall. PI, 

 As. Rar. t. 236. 



foung shoots clot bed with rusty tonientmn. Fl. dark purple in a short 

 noildiitir pubescent corymb. Pod thick, broadly elliptic, '-' in. long, with a 



Q 



