Am.  Jour.  Pharm.) 
August,  1884.  j 
War  as. 
425 
giving  the  complete  history  of  the  collection  of  the  drug  with  a 
further  specimen  in  fruit  of  the  plant  producing  it,  the  pods  bearing 
the  epidermal  glands  still  undetached.  There  can  be  now  no  sort  of 
doubt  that  the  "  waras "  plant  is  really  that  described  by  Mr.  J.  G. 
Baker,  F.  R.  S.,  in  the  "  Flora  of  Tropical  Africa/'  as  Flemingia  rhodo- 
carpa. 
But  my  colleague,  Professor  Oliver,  F.  R.  S.,  whose  kindness  is  only 
equalled  by  his  sagacity,  has  made  the  curious  discovery  that  a 
Flemingia  apparently  confined  to  South  India,  F.  Grahamiana,  W. 
and  A.,  is  not  specifically  distinguishable  from  F.  rhodocarpa;  the 
pods  are  in  fact  clothed  with  the  same  peculiar  epidermal  glands  so 
characteristic  of  that  species.  The  "waras"  plant  is  therefore  really 
to  be  found  in  India  after  all. 
In  creating  a  new  species  for  the  "  waras  "  plant,  Mr.  J.  G.  Baker 
pardonably  neglected  the  comparison  of  the  material  he  was  working 
upon  with  specimens  of  the  species  occurring  in  so  remote  and  botani- 
cally  widely  severed  an  area  as  the  southern  part  of  the  Indian 
peninsula. 
I  trust  that  room  may  be  found  for  Major  Hunter's  memorandum, 
which  I  append  in  its  entirety. 
Notes  on  "waras"  collected  at  Harrar  in  February  and,  March,  1884*. 
"In  the  neighborhood  of  the  city  '  waras'  is  not  now  raised  from 
seed  sown  artificially,  and  it  is  left  to  nature  to  propagate  the  shrub  in 
the  surrounding  terraced  gardens.  The  plant  springs  up,  among 
jowari,  coffee,  etc.,  in  bushes  scattered  about  at  intervals  of  several 
yards  more  or  less.  When  sown,  as  among  the  Gallas,  it  is  planted 
before  the  rains  in  March.  If  the  soil  be  fairly  good  a  bush  bears  in 
about  a  year.  After  the  berries  [pods]  have  been  plucked  the  shrub  is 
cut  down  to  within  six  inches  of  the  ground.  It  springs  up  again 
after  rain  and  bears  a  second  time  in  about  six  months,  and  this  pro- 
cess is  repeated  every  second  year  until  the  tree  dies.  Rain  destroys 
the  berry  [pod]  for  commercial  purposes,  it  is  therefore  only  gathered 
in  the  dry  season  ending  about  the  middle  of  March.  The  bush  grows 
to  a  maximum  height  of  six  feet,  and  it  branches  close  to  the  ground. 
The  growth  is  open  and  the  foliage  sparce.  Each  owner  has  a  few 
acres  of  land. 
