NATURAL ARRANGEMENT. 
1065 
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 Ciissia s^nna Lin., of Cassia lanceolata 
Forsfc., of Cassia emarginata of the Antilles, of the Cassia marylandica employed in the United States, of 
Colutea arborescens, of Spartium purgans, and perhaps also of CoroniUa emerus, act as brisk purgiitives, 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 Tamarindus wdica Lin., in the Ceratonia siliqua 
Lin., and probably in the Mimosa inga and the M. fagifolia, 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 
LeguminoscB, for example, the Sophora and the Gleditschia, 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 flavor ; the nature and properties of this juice deserve to be examined by che- 
mists, and would undoubtedly throw some light upon the nature of Leguminosje. I am induced to think, that 
the astringent juice of the Sophora 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 flavor 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 vomica. The decoction of the root of Galega 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 Leguminosee are to be ascribed, which act readily upon the skin if applied as plasters ; 
as, for example, in Ornithopus scorpioides among ourselves, and Hyperanthera moringa elsewhere. It appears 
to me, that it is to the greater or less considerable mixture of the extractive principle with the fsecula con- 
tained 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 pur- 
gative or emetic, as in the Cytisus laburnum, the Anagyris fce'tida, and even in most CoroniUas. It is 
remarkable that the botanical characters of Leguminosze should so strictly agree with the properties of their 
seeds: the latter maybe divided into two sections; namely, first, those of which the cotyledons are thick and 
filled with fsecula, 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 fiecula, and furnished with cortical pores, and which 
change at once into leaves at the time of germination for the purpose of elaborating food for tlie young plant. 
All the seeds of the first section are employed as food in different countries ; none of those of the second sec- 
tion are ever so employed; the Cajan, which has long been classed among the Cytisi, was apparently an excep- 
tion to this general rule ; but observation has proved the contrary. Bearing in mind its known properties, I 
formerly paid particular attention to its structure, and I have shown in a note, which accompanies my cata- 
logue 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 Leguminosee 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 A'rachis hypogEe'a, 
lately introduced into European agriculture, and that of Guilandina moringa which produces oil of ben ; there 
are some, of which the flavor and smell are rather powerful ; as the seed of Dipterix or Coumarouna odora of 
Aublet, which, under the name of Tonquin bean, is used for perfuming snuflp ; 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, Guilandina ringa and 
moringa, Anthyllis 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 fsecula which furnish 
mankind with wholesome food, as we see in the Lathyrus tuberosus, which is eaten in Holland, the Dolichos 
tuberosus, 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 fsecula is found as in the tuberous roots 
of which we have just been speaking; it is thence seen that the acrid flavor 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 fer- 
mentation, 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 flavor 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'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 dif- 
ferent kinds of GeoflTrdya possess this bitter and febrifugal quality in a remarkable degree ; in India, the 
bark of the iEschynomene grandifl6ra and of the Cfesalpinia bonducella 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 coloring 
matter proceeds from the extractive principle ; and as it appears that this principle abounds in Leguminoss, 
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 Indigofera and 
from some Galegas ; and the red colors, which are yielded by all the species of Cassalpinia and of Haematoxy- 
lon. 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 Erythrinamonosp^rma, under the name of gum lac ; and also from Dal- 
bergia monetaria. These juices appear to differ in many 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, Blutis says, is obtained from Myroxylon ; the Cachou, which has been 
found to be almost pure tannin, and which is supposed to be produced by Acacia Catechu ; of the same cha- 
racter is that remarkable resin that is yielded by Hymense^a Coiirbaril ; gum Arabic, produced by the bark 
and roots of Acacia senegal^nsis, nilotica, arabica, and others ; gum tragacanth obtained from Astragalus 
creticus, gummifera, and v6rus ; and finally, wawwrt, secreted by Hedysarum alh&gi." 
The arrangement of this tribe of plants has been found to be attended with much diflficulty. By Linn^us, 
and the writers who succeeded him, the number of genera was much smaller than those admitted by botanists 
of the present age ; many additions have been made in consequence of the discovery of New Holland, and a 
large number of subdivisions in old genera have been from time to time introduced by one writer or another. 
To combine these scattered improvements under one uniform system has lately been attempted by the learned 
botanist, from whom the foregoing extract has been taken. This was not executed at the time when those 
parts of the present work, in which leguminous plants are found, were written ; for which reason the names 
