66 



POPULAE ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



of Africa^ where it constitutes a large proportion of the 

 food of the negro inhabitants ; the native name is Mun- 

 diiU. It is an annual plants of a trailing habit^ with yellow 

 pea-shaped flowers^ produced from the axils of the leaves 

 in bunches of five or seven^ close to or even under the 

 ground ; if below the surface^ they are fertile^ and produce 

 peculiar roundish-oblong pods^ having usually two^ but 

 sometimes four^ red-coloured seeds^ which are about the size 

 of field-peas^ and have very much their flavour. They are 

 now naturalized in South and North America ; indeed^ some 

 botanists are of opinion they are natives of South America^ 

 but there is little doubt of their African origin^ and that the 

 slaves introduced them to the New World. They are culti- 

 vated to a very great extent in all parts of the North and 

 South American States and in the West Indian Islands ; 

 they are also cultivated in the East Indies and Cochin China^ 

 but in these places chiefly for the fine limpid oil which the 

 seeds yield by expression. 



The most curious circumstance connected with this plant 

 is the subterranean habit of its flowers and seeds ; the pod 

 is pushed into the soil, and there ripened. This pecuharity 

 is found in another closely- allied genus called Voandzeia, 

 which produces very similar seeds^ known in Surinam under 



