70 
LEGHJMINOSAD. 
\_Indigofera. 
shorter. Corolla papilionaceous ; standard oblong-unguiculate ; wings 
oblique oblong, adhering a little to the keel, which is obtuse or acute. 
Stamens diadelphous, the anthers uniform and apiculate. Ovary ses- 
sile, many-ovuled ; style glabrous, short, upcurved ; stigma terminal. 
Pod terete, cylindrical, continuous within. Seeds many. — Herbs or 
shrubs, clothed with adpressed silky bristles fixed by the middle, the 
leaves in all ours imparipinnate and flowers in peduncled racemes. 
Distbib. All round the world in the tropics, also many Cape. Species 
300-400. 
Racemes few-flowered, lax 1. I. compressa. 
Racemes many-flowered, dense. 
Shrubs with opposite leaflets. 
Very silvery ; pod much recurved ; seeds 3-5 . . . 2. I. argentea. 
Slightly silvery ; pod nearly straight ; seeds 6-8 . * I. tinctoria. 
Annual herb, with alternate leaflets 3. I. endecaphylla. 
1. I. compressa, Lam. ; DC. Prod. ii. 226. An erect shrub, 1-1| 
feet high ; branchlets remarkably flattened, the young ones thinly 
silky. Leaflets 3-5, very small, ovate or lanceolate, acute, at first 
thinly silky. Peduncles axillary, exceeding the leaves, bearing 5-6 
small flowers in a lax raceme. Pod linear- cylindrical, nearly glabrous, 
f in. long. 
Mauritius, on the mountains of the Riviere Noire, Bojer. Also Madagascar, 
gathered by Commerson. I have not seen this and have made an abstract of 
Lamarck’s description. It seems to be near I. pentaphyllafL. 
2. I. argentea, Linn.; DC. Prod. ii. 224. A much-branched shrub, 
5-6 feet high, with woody silvery branches. Stipules minute, setaceous ; 
leaflets usually 9, obovate, obtuse, the same size but thicker and more 
silvery than in I. tinctoria ; side ones opposite. Racemes many- 
flowered, nearly sessile, shorter than the leaves. Calyx silvery, in. 
long ; teeth lanceolate, as long as the tube. Corolla yellow, much ex- 
serted. Pods sausage-shaped, much recurved, silvery, f-f in. long ; 
seeds 3-5. I. cinerascens, DC. Prod. ii. 226. I. cserulea, Roxb. ; 
Wight. Ic. t. 366. I. glauca, Lam. Dncyc. iii. 246. 
Mauritius, on the dry slopes of the Peter-Botte and Montagne Longue. Rodri- 
guez, in many places, Balfour ! Seychelles, common in waste ground, Horne , 
479. Also Tropical Asia and Africa. Indigotier sauvage. 
* I. tinctoria , Linn. ; D.C. Prod. ii. 224, the most valuable officinal 
species, a native of Tropical Africa, is naturalised in many places in 
Mauritius and Rodriguez. It is a shrub 4-6 feet high, with minute 
setaceous stipules, imparipinnate short-petioled leaves with 4-8 pairs of 
obtuse short-stalked oblong. opposite leaflets J—f- in. long membranous 
sub glaucous and thinly silvery on both sides, flowers in dense subsessile 
racemes in the axils of the leaves, minute calyx with lanceolate teeth 
as long as the tube, yellow corolla £ in. long, and slender glabrous 
slightly recurved cylindrical pods 1-1J in. long containing 8-12-seeds. 
I. oligophylla , Lam. 111. tab. 626, fig. 2, is a form with not more than 
4 pairs of leaflets. Indigotier. 
3. I. endecaphylla, Jacg. Ic. t. 570. An annual herb, with sub- 
erect or trailing slender stems, only thinly silvery when young. 
