181 



Crotalaria, Linn. 



Crotalaria falcata, Vahl. ; Fl. Trop. Afr. II. p. 40. 



Lagos ; Niger. 



Stem yields a fibre (Rowland). 



Crotalaria glauca, Willd. ; Fl. Trop. Afr. II. p. 12. 



Katagum. 



The people (in the region 3° N. lat.) eat the flowers, pods and 

 leaves (Grant, Trans. Linn. Soc. xxix. 1872, p. 51) ; eaten according 

 to Speke and Grant by the people of Madi as spinach (Moloney, For. 

 W. Afr. p. 307). 



Found growing in fields Katagum (Dalziel, Herb. Kew) ; in sandy 

 thickets, Pungo Andongo (Hiern, Cat. Welw. Afr. PI. i. p. 195) ; in 

 grass about three feet high, on laterite, Sierra Leone (Scott Elliot, 

 Herb. Kew) ; at 6000 ft., Elmentebba, Sierra Leone {idem, I.e.) ; and 

 at 4000 ft. Manganja Highlands, Zambesi (Kirk, Herb. Kew). 



Crotalaria juncea, Linn. Sp. PI. (1753), p. 714. 



A stiff shrub several feet high, with slender virgate rigid thinly 

 silky branches. Leaves rather distant, firm, linear or oblong, usually 

 1^-3 in., shining on both sides with thin short brown silky hairs. 

 Racemes loosely 12-20-flowered, reaching a foot long ; bracts minute, 

 linear. Calyx \-\ in. long, densely clothed with ferruginous velvety 

 hairs ; teeth linear-lanceolate, very deep. Corolla bright yellow, 

 glabrous, slightly exserted. Pod 1-1J in. long, clothed with short, 

 spreading, persistent, silky hairs, 10-15-seeded (Fl. Br. India, ii. p. 79) 



III — Rheede, Hort, Mai. ix. t. 26 ; Trew, PL Select. Ehret. t. 47 ; 

 Rumpf, Amb. v. t, 96, f. 1 ; Roxb. PL Corom. ii. t. 193 ; Bot. Mag. 

 t. 490 ; Andr. Rep. vi. t. 422 ; Duthie, Field Crops, t, 21 ; Tropen- 

 pflanzer, 1902, p. 515; Bot. Mag. t. 1933 (G. fenestrate^. 



East Indian Hemp ; San, Sani, Sanai, or Sunn Hemp ; Tag Hemp 

 (India) ; Indian (Bombay or Salsette, Travancore, Jabbalpur) Hemp, 

 False Hemp, Brown Hemp, Agra Hemp (lde & Christie Mus. Kew) ; 

 Sontag (Berar, India Office, Mus. Kew) ; Rushj stalked Crotalaria 

 (Andrews, Rep. I.e.) ; Channel'd stalked Crotalaria (Eot. Mag. t. 490) ; 

 Window calyxed Crotalaria (Bot. Mag. t. 1933). 



Introduced to Lagos Botanic Station, seeds being sent from Kew in 

 1888. Commonly cultivated in India. 



Found in Ceylon and Burma, and distributed to Malaya and 

 Australia. 



The fibre of this plant is strong and durable. The uses to which 

 it may be put are the same as those of true hemp (Cannabis sativa, 

 q.v.), and to a large extent those of Ambari Hemp (Hibiscus carina- 

 binus, q.v.) — cables, ropes, twine, sacking, paper pulp, &c. 



According to Watt (Comm. Prod. India, p. 436) the most important 

 use of San Hemp in India is for making fishing nets, for which 

 purpose the cordage is carefully tanned. The manufacture of fishing 

 nets forms the subject of a special article in the Agric. Ledger 

 (see refs.). 



The fibre is used for a similar purpose in Ceylon (Thwaites, Mus. 

 Kew). 



In Madras the fibre is wound round the axles of locomotive 

 carriages, and oil poured over it, to reduce friction (Subba Rao, Bull. 

 No. 59, 1908, Dept, Agric. Madras, p. 12). 



Other uses to which various parts of the plant are put in India 

 are : the stripped stalks for fuel, torches (Tinnevelly), matches (by 

 the Bohoras in the Bombay Presidency), and thatching — the bare 



