.ItJDiGOFEEA.j LEGUMINOSJE. • 255 



Fl. 135; F. B. I. a, 99 ; DC. VOrig, PL Cult. 108; Field. ^ Qard. Crops, 

 paH J, 43, t. xii; Watt E. D.— (Indigo). 



A skrut), 4-6 ft. high. Branches angular, tough, thinly clothed with ap- 

 pressed white hairs. Leaves 2-3 in. long, stalked, turning black when 

 dried stipules minute, subulate ; leaflets 7-13, shortly stalked, |-1 in. long, 

 ovate-ohlong, obovate c r suborbicular, bluish-green and smooth above, 

 silvery-pubescent beneath ; sti p el s mmute, setaceous. Bacemes stalked; 

 erect, spike-like, shorter than the leaves, many-flowered; bracts 

 subulate. Flouers small, on short pedicels. Caii/ a; shallow, ilvery- 

 pubescent ; teeth as long as the tube. Corolla exserted, standard green- 

 ish-yellow, tiings pink. Pods 1-1^ in., tapering towards the apex or 

 - blunt, straight or slightly curved, glabrous when mature, 8-12- seeded, 

 not torulose. 



The interesting ' >Totes on Indigoferse,' recently 'published by Dr. Prain 

 and Mr. E. Baker in the Journal of Botany, reveal many facts, which 

 apart from their historical and geographical interest, are of great im- 

 portance in regard to indigo-culture in India. In their opinion I. 

 tinctoria (taken in the wide sense) may be considered as representing 

 3 distinct forms, as follows :— 



FOEM 1. This is the wild indigo which was found in Nubia by Kotsehy 

 in 1841 ; and specimens agreeing with it have since been collected in 

 Central India. The plant was probably unknown to Linnaeus and also 

 to DeCandoUe. Eegarded as a distinct species its correct name would 

 be I. Bergii, Vatke. 



FoEM 2. This is the sotithern, or the Madras and Ceylon cultivated in- 

 digo. It is also I. tinctoria, Linn. Sp. PL (in part), and DeCandoUe'a 

 YQX. macrccarpa of that species. It is found in a semi-wild state in 

 the Jumna ravines near Agra and Muttra, also in Merwara (Rajputana), 

 where it is not, and probably never has been, cultivated. It is called 

 *' Jinjini " in Rajputana, where its seeds are collected and eaten in 

 years of scarcity, no other use being made of the plant. This form 

 has been collected in a sin: ilar wild condition in many other localities 

 more or less distant from its true area of cultivation. 



FoBM 3. I. sumatrana, Gcertn. Fruct. ii, 317, t, 148. Syn. I. indica, Lamlc 

 — Vern. Isil. This is the northern cultivated form of indigo, extending 

 from Behar and Tirhut to the Punjab, where its area meets that in 

 which some form of I. argentea is grown, and southwards to the Circars, 

 where its area approaches that cf the Madras cultivated form of 

 I. tinctoria. According to Dr. Prain, this is the form that was first 

 introduced into the "W. Indies from the E. Indies, and in America 

 it is ' he iistial one met with. It also occurs in Trcp. Africa, and in 

 Formosa. It may be distinguished botanically from the southern form 

 by its leaflets, which are larger, and cvate-oblong or oblong instead 

 of obcvate or suborbicular. The pcds also of I. sumatrana are shorter, 

 thicker and blunter at the apex, and they are usually more numerous 

 and straighter than in the Madras form. This northern form of indigo 



