510 



NATURAL ARRANGEMENT. 



at the Cape of Good Hope, and by the Pultenasas, Daviesias, Aotuses, and multitudes of similar genera in 

 New Holland. The wood of the order is very hard and durable, with a yellow tinge, sometimes changing into 

 green, as in the I-abCirnum of Europe, and in the better known Brazil wood of commerce, produced by Cassal- 

 pinz'a. The following useful remarks upon the properties of the order are made by M. Decandolle : — 



" The family of leguminous plants, though established upon characters of primary importance, offers, never, 

 theless, so large a number of species and such singular botanical anomalies, that it is easy to foresee that its 

 properties will exhibit little uniformity. Still more exceptions may be anticipated, if one reflects that the 

 chemical principle which is found most abundantly in every part of leguminous plants, and to which we must 

 attribute their principal properties, is the extractive. It is probable that this principle, either from its own 

 nature, or from its peculiar power of uniting with different matters, or perhaps instead of being a simple prin- 

 ciple, it is rather a compound of different matters ; it is probable, I say, that the extractive principle exhibits 

 much less uniformity in its results than any other. It is, without doubt, to the presence of the extractive 

 principle, in considerable quantities, that many leguminous plants owe their purgative properties, which 

 are common to several extracts, and which many chemists attribute to the acetate of potash, which they 

 are almost universally found to contain. Thus the leaves and foliaceous pods of Cassia Senna Lin., of Cassia 

 lanceolata Forsk., of Cassia emarginata of the Antilles, of the Cassia marylandica employed in the United States, 

 of Colutea arborescens, of Genista purgans, and perhaps also of Coronilla E'merus, act as brisk purgatives, and 

 often cause wind and pain in the bowels. The juice of Coronilla varia excites vomiting, and may even become 

 poisonous when taken in too large quantities. It is, perhaps, from a different cause that the pulp which 

 is contained in the husks of leguminous plants operates upon the human body ; it purges gently without causing 

 the least pain, and ought to be considered as laxative rather than purgative. Such is the character of the 

 juicy pulp that exists in the Cassia fistula Lin., in the Tamarlndus indica Lin., in the Ceratbnia siliqua 

 Lin., and probably in the Tnga vera and I. punctata, which are eaten in small quantities in the Antilles, 

 but which, taken more copiously, would have the same effect as our Carobs. There are some fruits of 

 Leguminbsae, for example, the Sophbra and the Gledltsch*'«, with tumid pods, in which is found a juice which 

 surrounds, it is true, the seeds, as in the plants just mentioned, but which differs from them altogether in its 

 very astringent and nauseous flavour ; the nature and properties of this juice deserve to be examined by 

 chemists, and would undoubtedly throw some light upon the nature of Leguminbsa?. I am induced to think, 

 that the astringent juice of the Sophbra is a secretion of the pericarp, whilst the sweet and purgative juice 

 of the Cassia would be a secretion of the external part of the seed ; but this hypothesis requires to be verified : 

 what leads me to this opinion, is the flavour commonly found in husks ; in the Carobs, for example, the husk 

 is astringent, and the pulp sweet and laxative. But let us return to the properties which may be attributed to 

 the extractive principle. It is undoubtedly from some one of these modifications that the singular property of 

 the Piscidia and many Galegas is derived, which are employed in America to stupefy fish, which are taken by 

 this means as readily as with Nux v6mica. The decoction of the root of Gal£ga virginiana is considered 

 in America as a powerful vermifuge. It is, perhaps, indeed, to the very same cause that the rubefacient powers 

 of the fresh leaves of some LeguminiSsa? are to be ascribed, which act readily upon the skin if applied as plasters ; 

 as, for example, in Ornithopus scorpioides among ourselves, and Moringa pterygosp£rma elsewhere. It appears 

 to me, that it is to the greater or less considerable mixture of the extractive principle with the fa?cula 

 contained in the seed, that the different properties of the pulse of leguminous plants may be attributed. If 

 found in small quantities, the seed may serve as food for man and animals, as we see in French beans, peas, 

 lentils, chick peas, beans, and many others, &c. If found in a more considerable quantity, it will render them 

 purgative or emetic, as in the Cytisus Laburnum, the .4nagyris fce'tida, and even in most Coronillas. It 

 is remarkable that the botanical characters of Leguminbsas should so strictly agree with the properties of their 

 seeds : the latter may be divided into two sections ; namely, first, those of which the cotyledons are thick and 

 filled with fieecula, and destitute of cortical pores, and which, moreover, in germination do not undergo 

 any change, but nourish the young plant by means of that supply of food which they already contain ; secondly, 

 those of which the cotyledons are thin, with very little feecula, and furnished with cortical pores, and which 

 change at once into leaves at the time of germination, for the purpose of elaborating food for the young plant. 

 All the seeds of the first section are employed as food in different countries; none of those of the second 

 section are ever so employed : the Cajan, which has long been classed among the Cytisi, was apparently 

 an exception to this general rule ; but observation has proved the contrary. Bearing in mind its known 

 properties, 1 formerly paid particular attention to its structure, and I have shown in a note which accompa- 

 nies my catalogue of the Montpelier garden, that the Cajan forms a particular genus much more nearly allied to 

 the French bean than to the Cytisi, and that it, in fact, belongs to the first of the sections which I have 

 just described. The seeds of Leguminbsae present also many other anomalies more difficult to reduce to any 

 fixed laws : thus some are found which contain a rather large portion of fixed oil ; such as the seed of the 

 Gracilis hypogae^a, lately introduced into European agriculture, and that of Moringa pterygosp£rma which pro- 

 duces oil of ben : there are some, of which the flavour and smell are rather powerful ; as the seed of Dipterix 

 or Coumarouna odbra of Aublet, which, under the name of Tonquin bean, is used for perfuming snuff : there 

 are others which, like the chick pea, have rather a bitter taste and exciting properties, and are on that 

 account administered for the jaundice. There are others again, like those of the Andira, which are so bitter 

 as to be used in Java and Brazil as tonic, alexiteric, and vermifuge. In a word, are not the aperient and 

 diuretic properties which are observable in the herbage and the roots of many leguminous plants, such as 

 broom, beans, Ononis, Moringa pterygospe"rma, ,4nthyllis cretica, &c, to be attributed to a modification of this 

 extractive principle ? There are, in another view, roots which are furnished with tubercles, that is to say, with 

 reservoirs of faecula, which furnish mankind with wholesome food, as we see in the JLathyrus tuberbsus, which 

 is eaten in Holland, the Dolichos tuberbsus, and the D. bulbosus, which the Indians use as food. The roots 

 of the liquorice have a sweet and mucilaginous taste, which is well known by every body, and which, united to 

 an acrid and rather exciting principle, causes it to be employed as a pectoral ; the analysis of this root, 

 published by M. Robiquet, proves that, independently of its woody skeleton, the same kind of amylaceous 

 faecula is found as in the tuberous roots of which we have just been speaking ; it is thence seen that the acrid 

 flavour of decoctions of liquorice depends on the small quantity of resinous oil which it contains, and that 

 its sweet properties are by no means analogous to common sugar, since it is insoluble in cold water, soluble in 

 warm water or in alcohol, not capable of fermentation, and does not yield to the action of nitric acid any 

 of the known products of sugar. It may here be added, that the sugary flavour of liquorice, and its other 

 properties, are not confined to this genus ; they are found equally in the roots of Trifolium alpinum, vulgarly 

 called Mountain liquorice ; in those of the A v brus precatorius, from which a pectoral draught is prepared 

 in Hindoostan, called Velti, and in others. The barks of some trees of the leguminous class are remarkable 

 for their bitterness, and are used as febrifuges ; the different kinds of Geoffrbya and Andira possess this bitter 

 and febrifugal quality in a remarkable degree ; in India, the bark of the Agati grandiflbra and of the 

 Guilandlna Bonducilla are employed for the same purpose. The barks of many leguminous plants are also 

 remarkable for their astringent qualities, caused by the quantity of tannin which they are found to contain ; 

 this is observable in the Acacia Catechu, and in the Acacia arabica, which is used for tanning leather, 

 and elsewhere. It is well known that almost all colouring matter proceeds from the extractive principle ; and 

 as it appears that this principle abounds in Leguminbsaa, we ought to find in them a considerable number of 

 the colors which are used by dyers : to this family, in fact, belong the principal blue colors, known by 

 the name of indigo, extracted from every kind of Indig6fera, and from some Galegas ; and the red colors, 

 which are yielded by all the species of Caesalpinia and of Haematoxylon. We may add the red juice, which is 

 drawn from the Pterocarpus draco and santalinus, under the name of sandal and of dragon's blood ; from 

 B&tefl frondbsa, under the name of gum lac ; and also from Dalbergza Monetaria. These juices appear to 

 differ in maily particulars, but their history and analysis are at present so far from being known, that it is 

 impossible to form a true estimate of the nature of their differences. But anomalies of this nature are far from 

 being confined to the plants just mentioned. Among the exotic drugs employed in the arts they are very 

 common ; such, for example, are the balsam of Capivi, produced by the copaifera ; the balsam of Peru, which, 



