ON PLANTS IN RELATION TO ANIMALS. 
By Professor James Buckman, E.G.S., F.L.S., &c. 
(Continued from p. 306.) 
PAPILIONACEJE. 
As there is probably no more important order in relation 
to animals than the one whose name heads this paper, we 
would direct attention to some of the facts connected with it 
at the present time, because the summer months will yield 
us so many interesting native species for our study. 
Properly speaking, the plants with the true papilionaceous 
corolla are arranged as a suborder of the Leg menifer^e, 
of which most of our native species are examples; and as 
the suborder is so well described by the late Professor 
Balfour, we have great pleasure in transcribing his 
remarks : 
“ Papilionace^e. —A suborder of the leguminous plants, 
characterised by having the flowers papilionaceous, and the 
petals imbricated in aestivation, the upper one exterior. The 
flowers are like those of the pea, and consist of five irregular 
petals, the upper being the vexillum or standard, which 
covers the rest in the bud, the two lateral being alae or 
wings, and the inferior the carina or keel, consisting of two 
petals, more or less completely cohering. 
“ The plants of this suborder have frequently beautiful 
flowers, as in Cytisus, Laburnum , Wistaria , Lupinus , 
Clianthus , Erythrina , or coral-flower, &c. 
“ They are often nutritious, as in the various kinds of 
clover, bean, pea, medick, lucerne, sainfoin, melilot, &c. 
Many are used for their medicinal qualities, as in the case 
of Glycyrrhiza glabra , the liquorice; Astragalus verus , 
creticus, gummifer , and others, which yield gum-tragacanlh ; 
Myeospermum peruiferum and M. toluiferum , which yield 
balsam of Peru and balsam of Tolu ; Pterocarpus marsu- 
pium and P. erinaceus, which furnish kino, &c. Broom- 
tops procured from Sarothamnus scoparius are used as a 
diuretic; the hairs from the legumes of Mucuna pruriens , 
in the West Indies, and of M. prurita in the East, under the 
name of cowage or cowitch, are used as anthelmintics. 
“ Others are valuable in commerce and the arts, as furnish¬ 
ing food, dyes, fibres, timber. Various species of Indigofera, as 
I. tinctoria and I. coerulea , furnish the indigo of commerce; 
