216 XLV. LEGUMIiSrOS^ [PljptantJms 



1. PIPTANTHUS, D. Don; M. Brit. Ind. ii. 62. 



P, nepalensis, D. Don; Brand. F PL 132. Vern. CJiamha, Jaiinsar. 



A shrub, attaining 10 ft., witli alternate, digitately trifoliolate leaves, 

 often crowded at the ends of branohlets; leaflets lanceolate, entire, sessile, 

 common petiole less than half the length of leaflets. Stipules connate, so as 

 to appear opposite to the petiole, deciduous. Flowers large, bright yellow, 

 in short hairy racemes, -with broad-ovate, tomentose deciduous bracts. Pod 

 linear-lanceolate, 2-5 in. long, i- in. broad, 3™10-seeded, dehiscent. 



Himalaya, Siitlej to Bhutan. Kliasi bills, Manipur. Chin hills Upper Bin ma. 

 Mostly in shady woods, 7,000 to 10,000 ft. PI. May, June. Also in Tibet and South- 

 Western China. A second sj^eoies, P. toiiientosus, Franchet in Yunan. 



2. CROTALARIA, Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. ii. 65. 



Herbs, rai-ely shrubs, with simple or digitately 8-foliolate, in a few species 

 5-7-folioiate leaves. Flowers mostly yellow, sometimes blue or purple, in 

 terminal or leaf -opposed racemes, keel beaked. Stamens monadelphous in an 

 open sheath ; anthers alternately long and basifixed, short and versatile. 

 Style bearded, stigma minute. Pod turgid. Species about 250 ; tropical and 

 sn.b-tropical regions of both hemispheres. 77 species in India. 



1. C. Burhia, Ham. ; Brand, F. Fl. 144. 



An erect or procumbent shrub ; bx-anches numerous, slender, flexible and 

 rush-like when young, stiff and rigid when old. Leaves simple, small and 

 scanty, linear or oblong. PI. yellow, far apart on long racemes, forming ter- 

 minal divaricate rigid panicles. Calyx clothed -with long silky hairs, teeth 

 lanceolate, as long as corolla. 



Common in the plains of Siiid, the Punjab, Western Raiputana, and Gujarat. PL C. S. 

 Also in Afghanistan. This genus comprises numerous tall herbs or soft-wooded shrubs, 

 ■with large yellow fl., in forests and on waste land. Croialaria juncea Linn. ; Boxb. 

 Cor. PL t. 193. Sunn or Indian hemp is cultivated in most parts of India. 



Priotropis cytlsoides, W. et A. ; Kurz, F. FL i. 368, is an erect mucli-bx^anched shrub, 

 4-6 ft. high, in the Eastern Himalaya, the Khasi and Naga hills, and the hills of 

 Burma, 8,000-6,000 ft. Leaves trifoliolate ; flowers yellow racemose 5 pods flat, 1-1 J in. 

 long, |-| in. broad, narrowed to both ends, on a slender stalk J in. 



3. CARAGANA, Lam. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. ii. 115. 



Spinescent shrubs with paripinnate leaves. Common petiole produced 

 beyond the end pair and often spinescent. Stipules also frequently spinescent. 

 Claws of petals as long, or nearly as long as calyx. Standard broad, with 

 refiexed edges, keel obtuse, as long as wings and standard. Stamens diadel- 

 phons, anthers uniform. Style glabrous, stigma terminal minute. Pod linear, 

 valves convex. 20 species ; 7 Indian, the rest in Central Asia and China. 



1. C. brevispina, Royle : Brand. P. M. IBB. Vern. Ari^ Jauns. 



Leaves generally fasciculate, on short tuberculate branchlets in the axils of 

 rigid spinescent petioles, 1~B in. long, with or without leaflets. Stipu.les 

 scarious, the outer frequently spinescent. Leaflets 5-7 pair, with soft 

 adpressed hairs. Common petiole often not spinescent. Flowers 3-5, in 

 pedunculate u.mbels, peduncles l-B in. long. Calyx campanulate, teeth 

 shorter than tube. Pod turgid, woolly inside. 



North-"We&t Himalaya 5,000-9,000 ft. Indus to Ganges, also Ktiram valley. FL 

 April-June. Nearly allied are : 2. C. decorticans, Hemsley, Hook. Ic. PL t. 1725. 

 Kuram valley, Hazara, Ohitral. A tall shrub or small tree, with very short calyx 

 teeth, rings of the bark placed on the leather sheath of the long Afghan knivei*. 3. 

 C, arboresceus, Lam. ; Prain, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 66, 872. Kuram valley. 



4. 0. (Seraxdlaaa, Eoyle 111. t. 84, fig. 1, dry valleys of the inner IST.W. Himalaya, 

 also in Baluchistan, near Quetta, in the Juniper forests, has all petioles spinescent and 



