262 LBQVMWOSM. [Abeus. 



crop. Eegardin^ its origin, DeCandolle was of opinion that before it 

 was ever cultivated it existed as a wild plant in W. Asia, and that it 

 probably f nnnd its wa,y to N. India before the arrival of the eastern 

 Aryans. It is not at the present time, however, known any vhere as a 

 wild plant. By some authors it is regarded as merely a variety or sub- 

 species of P. arviense^ modified by culture. 



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



Climbing shrnbs. Leaves with numerous decidaous leaflets. Flowers 

 small, in dense racemes on axillary peduncles or short branches. 

 €!alyx campanulate, equal, teeth very shor:. Corolla much exserted ; 

 standard ovate, acute, adherincr below to the staminal tube, wings 

 narrow, heel curved. Stamens 9. united in a tube slit above, anthers 

 uniform. Ovary subsessile, many-ovuled ; style short, incurved, 

 iDeardless, stigma capitate. Pod oblong or linear-oblong, fiat or 

 turgid, moderately firm, thinly septate. Seeds polished. — Spacies 6, 

 cosmopolitan in the tropics. 



Pods oblong, turgid, 3-5-S3eded . ' 1. A. precatorius. 



Pods linear, flat, 8-12-s33ded . 2. A.^-^ulchellus. 



1. A. precatorius. Linn. Syst. ed. XII, 472 ,- Eoxb. Fl. Ind. Hi, 253 ; W. 

 f_A. Prod. 236 ; D. 8f G. Bomh. Fl. 76; Brand. For. Fl. 139: F.B.I. 

 ii, 175 ; Watt E.D. — Vern. Gunchi, Chuntli and ratgiri, (Dehra Dun). 



A woody climber with many slender glabrous or thinly silky branches. 

 Leaves 2-3 in. long ; leaflets pari-pinnate, in 10-20 opposite pairs, about 

 i in. long, ligulate-oblong, membranous, glabrous above, thinly silky 

 beneath. Racemes crowded, many-flowered, usually shorter than the 

 leaves. Calyx \^ in., thinly silky. Corolla 3-1 times the calyx, pink or 

 white. Pod 1-1^ in. long, oblong, turgid, 3-5-seeded. Seeds subglobose, 

 usually scarlet with a black hilum, sometimes white with black hilum, 

 or uniformly black or white. 



-Common in all the forest tracts within the area. Distrib. Throughout 

 the greater part of India and in Ceylon, ascending the outer Himalaya 

 to 3,500 ft.; a^so in Burma, Siam and in the Andaman and Nicobar 

 Islands, where it is abundant on the sea-coasts. Cosmopolitan in the 

 tropics, and often planted. Flowers in Aug. a.nd Sep. and the f rait 

 ripens during the cold season. The root is used medicinally as a sub- 

 stitute for liquorice, and the leaves and seeds are also medicinal. The 

 seeds, called rati, are largely used as weights by Indian ^iewellers. 

 They are also made into rosaries, hence the name 'precatorius.' 



2. A. pulchellus. Wall. Cat. 5819 ; F. B. 7. ii, 175. ♦ 



Very similar to the preceding in habit, but with fewer and larger leaflets ; 

 the flowers are more laxly racemose, and the peduncles are much longer 



