puj.se family. 



103 



more bealtliful and agreeable, if not a more profitable, employment 

 Tiie indigo-plant is said to be annual, when subject to innudations, — ■ 

 as on the delta of the Ganges ; but it is sometimes fruticose — yielding 

 one or %\yo ratoon crops (i. e. successive growths of suckers, or sprouts), 

 aftei- having been cut off. Another species — I. Anil, L. — is said to 

 be also cultivated at the South. It differs from the above chiefly in its 

 flattened, even (not torulose) pods. 



8. CI'CER, Tournef. Chick-pea. 



[The Latiu name for a species of Vetch ; apphed to this genus.] 



Calyx somewhat gibbous at base, 5-parted ; segments acuminate, — 

 the upper ones incumbent on the vexillum. Legume turgid, 2-seeded. 

 Seeds gibbous. 



1. C. aeieti'num, L. Leaves odd-pinnate ; leaflets cuneate-ob ovate, 



serrate ; stipules lanceolate, subdenticulate ; calyx slightly gibbous, — 



the segments as long as the wings of the corolla. 



Ram Cicer. Coffee-pea. Chick-pea. Garavances. 



Fr. Le Pois Chiche. Germ. Gemeine Kicher. Span. Garbanzo. 



"Whole plant canescent and glandular-pilose, the hairs secreting oxalic acid. Root 

 annual. Stem 9-18 inches high, branching. Leaflets about half an inch long, in 4-6 

 pairs (often alternate) with a terminal odd one instead of a tendril. Flon-ers axillary , 

 solitary, white. Seed gibbous, pointed — in form resembling the head of a sheep — and 

 hence the specific name. 



Gardens: cultivated. Native of Europe and the East. J"?. July -September. Fr 

 August -October. 



Obs. This is sometimes cultivated for the seeds — which are said to 

 be a tolerable substitute for cofiee. The seeds are much used, as food 

 for horses, <tc. in India, — being very abundant (as I recollect to have 

 Been it) in the Bazaars at Calcutta, under the name of " Gram." This 

 vetch is the " Hamoos Pea which is announced as a novelty, or a great 

 curiosity (discovered among the Arabs) in Lynch's Expedition to the 

 Dead Sea ; though it has been familiarly known in the gardens, through- 

 out the civilized world, ever since the days of Tournefort — if not of 

 Homer ! So much for the penny-wnse policy of sending out Exploring 

 Expeditions unaccompanied by competent Naturalists. 



9. APA'CHIS, L. Peanut. 



[An ancient name of obscure meaning.] 



DicBciously polgyamous. The sterile and fertile flowers produced together 

 in the axils ; the sterile, most numerous in the ujDper axils, with a 

 slender calyx tube, the limb bilabiate, the upper lip 4-toothed, the lower 

 entire. Stamens monadelphous (9 united and 1 abortive,) ovary mi- 

 nute, abortive. Fertile fl. without caljx, corolla, or stamens. Ovary 

 . on an elongating stipe by which it is thrust under ground, where it ma- 

 tures as an oblong obtuse terete pod, the indehiscent valves becoming 

 thickened and soncwhat woody, reticulately veined on the surface. 



