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CULTURE OF THE GENUS MUCUNA. 
i 
CULTURE OF THE GENUS MUCUNA, OR COW-FfCH. 
All the species of this genus are tender climbing stove plants ; there are, how- 
ever, but a few thai may be considered worthy of cultivating- in a choice collection. 
The kinds most deserving of notice are, M. altissima, which will grow forty or 
fifty feet high, and bears a profusion of crimson-purple flowers ; M. imbi'icata, 
which is more dwarf, seldom exceeding in height twelve feet, and produces flowers 
of a similar colour to the altissima ; M. urens. with buff flowers ; and M. pruriens, 
with crimson flowers, both of which grow from ten to twelve feet high. 
The M. pruriens (figure) is a well- 
known plant, and remarkable for the use 
made of the short hairs which cover the 
seed-pods, which if touched will penetrate 
the skin and cause a most intolerable itch- 
ing, hence the common name. Cow-itch, 
This peculiarity in the hairs is taken ad- 
vantage of for medicinal purposes. 
Cowhage (Dolichos pruriens) ; a, the 
flower; the ten stamens and pistils 
which lie folded up in the keel-like petals 
of the flower. The stamens are divided 
into two bodies, of which, nine form the 
lower, c, and one, the upper, d ; e, the 
pistil. 
The soil best suited for the growth of these plants is, a mixture of equal parts 
of sandy heath mould and light rich loam. 
They are propagated without difficulty by half-ripened cuttings, which should 
be planted in pure sand, and the pots plunged in a brisk bottom heat and be covered 
with a glass, any time during the spring months. 
In two or three weeks they will have struck roots, and may be potted off" into 
small pots, and treated like other young plants of a similar habit. 
They may also be propagated by seeds, which are produced freely in long pods. 
The seeds should be sown in the spring, at the time of sowing tender annuals, and 
be placed in the same situations. 
