CAJANUS INDICUS, Spreng.' 



\_Vide Plates XXXIII. and XXXIV.] 



Description, 



Origin. 



Varieties. 



Distribution. 



Mixtures. 



Season. 



English, Pigeon-pea ; Veknaculak, arhar, thur, dal ; Sanscrit arhuku.t 



Natural order Leguminosoe, tribe Phaseolece. An erect shrubby plant. Stems 5-10 ft. high ; 

 branches many, sulcate, silky. Leaves trifoliolate ; stipules minute, lanceolate, cordate, soon falling ; 

 petioles channelled striated ; leaflets with minute stipels, entire, oblong lanceolate, acute, silky especi- 

 ally on the lower surface. Bracts downy. Flowers irregular papilionaceous, in loose corymbose 

 racemes, sometimes forming a terminal panicle. Calyx \ in. long ; tube campanulate, glandular 

 pubescent ; teeth short. Corolla three times as long as the calyx ; standard j^ellow (^C.fiavus) or 

 yellow with red veins (C. hicolor'). Stamens diadelphous. Pods 2-3 in. long, narrowed at both ends, 

 constricted between the seed, blotched with reddish-purple streaks. Seeds 3 or 4, about the size of 

 small peas, somewhat compressed, smooth, varying in colour from yellow and red to light brown or 

 even blackish. 



M. Decandolle (L'Orig. PI. Cult.) gives reasons which indicate equatorial Africa 

 as its original home. 



The two varieties alluded to under the names of Cflavus and C. hicolor are known 

 respectively as thur and arhar ; the latter is the one most commonly cultivated in these 

 Provinces. It is easily distinguished by having its standard veined with purple instead 

 of being plain yellow as in thur. Thur takes the place of arhar over a great part of the 

 Central Provinces, and is distinguished there by its much shorter habit of growth, and 

 by its flowering at least three months earlier than arhar. There are several other va- 

 rieties differing more or less in the colour and size of the seeds. 



The area in the N.-W. Provinces 30 temporarily settled districts on which arhar 

 is grown is very large, amounting to some 35^ lakhs of acres, on not more than 1;^ lakhs 

 of which it is, however, grown as the sole crop. It is therefore important merely as 

 forming a subordinate crop with juar, bajra and cotton, and not on account of the area 

 which it occupies for itself. Judging from the returns of the 30 temporarily settled 

 N.-W. Provinces districts, out of the total area on which arhar is grown, juar-arhar oc- 

 cupies ^f, bajra-arhar cotton-arhar 33-, and arhar alone only 3-5-. Its distribution 

 follows therefore that of its principal crops, and since two of them, cotton and bajra, are 

 principally grown in the west and south of the Provinces, the area on which arhar is 

 grown is largest on these tracts, although perhaps it flourishes best in the eastern dis- 

 tricts, where it has not to risk any injury from frost. 



It occupies the ground for a longer period than any other crop except sugar-cane, 

 being sown at the commencement of the rains, and not cut till the rabi harvest time in 



* References :— Hook. Fl. Brit. Ind. ii. 217; DC. L'Orig. PI. Cult. 266; Gaz. N.-W. Prov. Vol. x. 696 ; C.flavus 

 DC. Prod, ii 406 ; W. and A. Prod. 256 ; Baden-Powell Punj. Prod. 242 ; Drury Useful PI. of India 94 ; C. bicolor DC. I.e. 

 Cytisus Cajan, Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 325. 



•)■ Piddington Index 28. 



/ 



