EARLY NOTICES OF SUNN PLANT. 271 
toughness of their fibres by endeavouring to break one of their 
twigs. 
Tn the subdivision of Leguminous plants with these Brooms 
we find the Suan plant of India (Crotalaria juncea), which has 
so close a general resemblance to the Spanish Broom, that Mr. 
Yates has figured them together in the same plate, with the 
very object of showing their affinity. 
The Sunn is probably the earliest of the distinctly named 
fibres, inasmuch as we find in the Hindoo ‘ Institutes of Menu,’ 
that the sacrificial thread of the Cshatriya or Rajpoot is 
directed to be made of Sana; cotton being reserved for the 
Brahmins. Its name, Shanapam or Janapa, on the Madras 
side, is not very unlike Canapa, Hampa, Hennip, and Hanf. 
From these we derive our own name of Hemp. Under the name 
Sana it is mentioned in many Sanscrit works; and by that of 
Sunn it is known in most parts of India.. The first notices in 
European works is, by Rheede (‘ Hort. Mal., v. ix, t. 26); by 
Tronside, in the ‘ Phil. Trans. of London,’ Ixiv, p. 99; and it is 
mentioned by Roxburgh in the early volumes of the Society 
of Arts’ ‘Transactions.’ Towards the close of the last, and the 
beginning of this century, it attracted much attention both in 
India and in England; and much information respecting it is 
contained in Dr. Roxburgh’s several works, as well as in 
Wisset’s ‘Treatise on Hemp and on the Sunn Plant,’ 1804 
and 1808. Dr. Buchanan in his ‘ Journey through Mysore,’ 
mentions that Goni cloth for sacks is made of the fibre of 
Crotalaria juncea. 
The annual stem is straight, smooth, striated, from four to eight (varieties 
even ten and twelve) feet high, branching towards the top, but more so when 
the plant stands single. Leaves scattered, short petioled, lanceolate, obtuse, 
with a small bristle-like point, from two to six inches long, both sides 
covered with soft, silver-coloured hairs. Stipules subulate, small. Flowers 
in terminal racemes, papilionaceous, of a beautiful bright yellow colour, 
each supported by an oval bract. Calyx two-lipped; the upper lip two- 
cleft; the under one two-parted in the middle. Of the yellow petals, the 
-banner is obtuse, erect; the two wings oblong obtuse; the keel much 
pointed, slightly twisted at the apex, and closely shut. Filaments ten, their 
lower half united into one body, with a fissure down the upper side, which 
has a circular gape at the base; extremities free, and the alternate ones 
shorter than the others. Anthers on these linear; on the larger filaments 
ovate and two-lobed. Legumes sessile, club-shaped, turgid, from one to 
two inches long. Seeds numerous, kidney-shaped. (Roxb., ‘ Flora Indica,’ 
ili, p. 261; ‘Corom. PL,’ t. 192.)- a : 
The seeds when ripe and loosened rattle within the pods, as in the other 
species, whence the genus has been named from the Greek word krotalos. 
