CYAMOPSIS PSORALIOIDES, DC* 



iVide Plate XXXV.] 



Description. 



Origin, 



Variety. 



Method of cultivation. 



English, none ; Vernaculae, guar (Meerut) ; dararhi (Farukhabad) ; kuwara, kauri, syan- 

 sundari, phaligawar, and kachhur (of sub-montane tract)t, also khurti and khultit (Muttra and 

 Aligarh). 



Natural order Leguminosce, division Pajnlionacecs, tribe Galegece. A robust annual, 2-4 ft. 

 high, with erect 4-sided stems, the -whole plant clothed with adpressed grey hairs attached by the 

 middle. Leaves trifoliolate, stipules linear, setaceous ; petioles 1-2 in., jointed to the stem, chan- 

 nelled above, keeled below ; leaflets 2-3, about equal, ovate, acute, somewhat cuneate at the base, 

 incise dentate, stalks of the lateral ones about g- in. that of the terminal one equal to half the 

 petiole ; midrib and principal veins prominent beneath, bifurcating near the margin. Flowers pale 

 purple, arranged in long axillary racemes ; bracts long, overtopping the flower buds. Caljrx-tube 

 oblique, the three lower teeth setaceous, much longer than the upper. Petals narrow, about equal 

 in length, soon falling off". Stamens monadelphous ; anthers apiculate. Style short, incurved, 

 stigma capitate. Pods crowded towards the base, of the peduncle, subtetragonous, septate between 

 the seeds. Seeds brownish grey, compressed, squarrose, about | in. 



This plant is cultivated in many parts of the plains of India from the Himalayas 

 to the Western Peninsula, but has never been met with truly wild. In the " Genera 

 Plantarum " of Bentham and Hooker it is alluded to as an East Indian plant, the only 

 other species being a native of tropical Africa. In all probability ^'dar will be found 

 to have originated from the west. 



A robust tall-growing variety of this, called Deoband kawara, is often cultivated in 

 the Meerut District, and perhaps in other parts of these Provinces, as a hedge or shelter 

 plant ; and apparently it is used only for this purpose. It is supposed to have come 

 originally from Deoband near Saharanpur. 



Guar is grown in these Provinces for two very different purposes, — as a vegetable for 

 human consumption, and as a pulse for horses and cattle. For the former purpose it is 

 invariably grown on highly manured land near villages, and assumes a much more luxu- 

 riant habit of growth than when grown for cattle. The portion eaten as a vegetable is 

 the pod, which is plucked while green, after the fashion followed with the French beans 

 of English gardens. As a cattle fodder it is grown for its grain, and is then sown on 

 light sandy soil, side by side and often mixed with bajra. 



The cultivation of guar as a vegetable is not very common, and is restricted to the 

 market gardeners or " kachi " caste. Its cultivation as a cattle fodder is on the other 

 hand of considerable importance in the districts to the west of the Provinces, where the 



* References :— DC. Prod, il, 21G ; W. & A. Prod. 197 ; Wight Ic. 248 ; Hook Fl. Brit. Ind. ii. 92 ; Baden- 

 Powell Punj. Prod. 210 ; Gaz. N.-W. P. Vol. x. 696. Dolichos falce/ormis, L'Herit. ; Roxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 316. 

 t Atkinson in Gaz. N.-W. P. Vol. x. 



X This name is also giyen to Dolichos uniflorus, the horse gram of the Madras Presidency. 



