Page:Illustrations of Indian Botany, Vol. 1.djvu/388

ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. The genus Cynometra affords the fruit known and much esteemed in the eastern Islands under the name of Nam-nam ( C. cauliflora ) but which is scarcely known in this country, where, though described as a native plant, I suspect it is introduced. It is growing in the spice gardens of Courtallum but I have never met with it wild. Those I saw are introduced. C. ramiflora is certainly a native of Ceylon, from which I have been favoured with fine specimens by Colonel Walker, it seems equally a native of Malabar as it is figured by Rheede.

The last genus of this sub-order to which I shall allude is Bauhinia, a genus named in honor of the brothers John and Caspar Bauhin, two celebrated Botanists of the last century, and considered by Linnaeus most appropriately dedicated to them on account of the two lobed leaves or more properly two twin leaflets of a compound leaf, partially united, giving them the appearance of a simple two cleft leaf.

This genus abounds in species, many of them very handsome small trees or large shrubs, eome are scandent. B. malabarica grows to sufficient size to be used as timber tree in Malabar. B. racemosa ( parvaflora Roxb.) a rather common shrub or small tree in India, yields a thick bark of which matchlock-men make their matches. " It burns long and slowly without the help of saltpetre or any other combustible. To prepare the bark it is boiled, dried and beat. Ropes are also made of the inner rind which is fibrous, strong and durable Roxb.)" B. FahUi,^. and A. ( B. racetnosa, Vahl. and Roxb. not Lam.) is one of the largest species of the genus, " the largest and most extensive creeper I have ever seen" Roxb. — a native of alpine districts.

The leaves are often a foot each way and in the northern districts of the Circars are collected in quantities great and sold in the bazaars for various purposes, plates, package, &c. The seeds are eaten raw, when ripe the taste is like that of cashew-nuts. B. anguina is another extensive creeper remarkable for having its stem and branches compressed, that is several inches broad and not half an inch thick, it is believed by the natives of Silhet to be a charm against snakes and other venomous reptiles.

Here I conclude my very imperfect sketch of this sub-order remarkable for containing many both valuable and curious plants.

This is a large sub-order, consisting principally of tropical plants, or, with very few excep- tions, confined to the warmer regions on either side the tropics.

The species are either trees, shrubs or herbaceous plants, the former often armed with spines or prickles. The leaves are alternate, abruptly pinnate, or bi or tri- pinnate, the pinna? and leaflets opposite, often remarkably sensitive, shrinking from the slightest touch. Petiols often glanduliferous, sometimes becoming dilated and foliaseous on the abortion of the leaflets.

Flowers regular or nearly so, often polygamous, rarely all bi-sexual ; sepals 4 5, equal, often combined into a 4 5 toothed calyx : aestivation valvular or very rarely imbricative. Petals 4-5, equal, usually hypogynous, rarely inserted into the bottom of the calyx, sometimes distinct, sometimes all more or less united : aestivation valvular or rarely imbricative. Stamens inserted with the petals, distinct or monadelphous, as many, or several times as many as the petals. Embryo straight, the radicle never being bent along the lobes of the cotyledons : cotyledons usually foliaceous, very rarely enclosed in albumen. Podosperin usually flexuose or twisted.

This sub-order is very distinct from the two preceding ones, especially in the character of its flowers, which are here regular, usually approaching lo tubular, with valvate aestivation and generally hypogynous stamens. The legumes are very various in their forms, and afford excellent generic characters. In Entada and Mimosa, they are jointed or separate transversely as in the Hedysareae, in lnga and Adenanthera they are long and often remarkably contorted towards maturity, the want of which character, combined with its very thick hard woody valves, renders questionable the propriety of referring /. Xi/locarpa to that genus. The legumes of Acacia are sufficiently various to afford good specific characters, in most they are linear and much compressed but in A. arabica, they are remarkably contracted between the seed. A large proportion of the species of this order are arboreous, but others are minute herbs, and one Indian species (Desmanthus natans) is almost constantly found floating on water, as its name implies, or growing on the muddy banks of tanks or ditches.