98 
MUCUNA MACROCARPA. 
enough suppose, but rise independently, until they reach the lower branches, as though 
some huge spider had cast her line, and this had proved sufficent to aid and guide them to 
their wonted position. And it may be further observed, that the stems of these plants 
present the most curious and interesting appearance, being twisted, festooned, and entwined 
so closely together, as sometimes to resemble the cable of a ship, but flattened as in the 
genus Bauhinia, and sometimes like a thick rope or hawser, as in the object of these remarks, 
and presenting the most grotesque and interesting combination 
of outline and form ; with their branches overrunning the ex- 
treme limit of the tree that has reared its head to support 
them, and perhaps ultimately to become their victim. In fact, 
so picturesque is the scene created by these plants, that one 
must visit their native habitats in the tropics, to be enabled 
to appreciate or form a just conception of their varied develop- 
ment and beauty, so curious are they, and so gorgeously 
beautiful are the blossoms of many of the kinds. 
The object of these remarks, although less entitled to our 
encomiums on the beauty of its flowers, possesses nevertheless 
the extraordinary features of which we have before spoken in 
its habit. The profusion of its flowers, however, on the almost 
innumerable racemes, their large size, shape, curious colour, 
and the large flat legume about 15 inches long, render the 
plant an object of no mean standing, and when seen in a 
situation similar to that which it occupies in the large con- 
servatory at Chatsworth it cannot fail to attract the attention of 
the uninitiated, and the admiration of the botanist and lover 
of plants. It was planted out in the border in the conservatory 
at Chatsworth in 1889, and flowered for the first time in the 
large conservatory at Chatsworth in January, 1848, and again 
in February of the present year, when our drawing was made. 
Our present figure gives a very inadequate idea of the bloom, 
as only one diminutive 
raceme was this year 
produced, whereas in 
1848 the racemes were 
numerous and very long, 
also the individual flow- 
ers were much larger. 
Two members of this 
genus (of which about 
twenty have been noticed 
or described), furnish an 
article long known in 
medical practice under 
the name of Cow-itch, 
which is composed of the 
long sharp brittle hairs 
that clothe the seed pods of M. urens and M. pruriens, the former a native of the West 
Indies, and the latter having a much wider range, growing wild in the West Indies, 
Guinea, Malabar, and the Moluccas, being thus found in three out of the four great 
divisions of our globe. In the West Indies both kinds abound, overrunning waste ground, 
sugar-cane fields, and fences much after the manner of our Calystegia sepium, or Bindweed 
and Convolvulus arvensis. 
When Cow-itch is applied to the skin, it produces an intolerable itching from the 
small hairs penetrating, and this is even the case with the thick skins of the negroes in 
those parts. It has been found useful in medicine 
