DOLICHOS PRURIENS. 
Cowhage.* 
Class DiADELPHiA. — Order Decandria. 
Nat. Ord. PAPiLioNACiE, Linn. Leguminos^, Juss, 
Gen. Char. At the base of the Standard, two oblong, 
parallel scales, compressing the wings underneath. 
Spec. Char. Twining. Legumes racemed. Peduncles in 
ternaries. , 
This species of Dolichos f is the Carara Pruritus of Rumphius. 
It is a perennial climbing plant, a native of America, and the East 
and West Indies, flowering in September and October. In Bengal, 
where it is named Cadjuct, it flowers from September to March. 
According to Ray, it was cultivated in England by Mr. Charles 
Hatton, about the year 1680. It requires the heat of a stove, and 
seldom produces perfect flowers in this country. 
The root is fibrous ; the stem herbaceous, cylindrical, hairy, 
climbing, branching, rising to a considerable height ; the branches 
twisting round the neighbouring trees for support; the leaves are 
ternate, from six to fourteen inches long, and stand upon footstalks, 
placed alternately at the distance of a foot from each other ; 
the leaflets are entire, ovate, pointed, smooth on the upper surface, 
and hairy beneath : the central leaflet is of a rhomboidal form, the two 
lateral ones are oblique, and somewhat larger than the central ; the 
flowers are large, of a purple or deep violet colour, and placed 
mostly in ternaries upon short peduncles, and form pendant spikes^ 
which arise from the axillae of the leaves ; the calyx is bell-shaped, 
gibbous at the base, downy, divided into two lips, of which the up- 
per is semi-ovate, and the under divided into three lance-shaped 
segments ; the corolla is of the papilionaceous kind ; the vexillum 
is roundish, entire, concave, obtuse, and double the length of the 
calyx ; the two alee are oblong, obtuse, concave, and twice the 
* Fig. a. the pistillnm. b. The stamens, c. The frait. 
•f The genus Dolichos oojnpiises upwards of thirty species, mostly natives of both 
the Indies. — Ed. 
