ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY. 197
Considerable variety is also observed in the character of its products. The wood of most
of the arboreous species of Jicacia is exceeding hard, close grained and heavy, while that of
Parkia bia< 'anduiosa is comparatively soft and coarse grained. That of Acacia spec'iom is so
intensely hard that it is with difficulty it can be cut with the handsaw. The wood of many is
dark brown or nearly black in the centre. Many of the species yield very pure gum, from
Acacia vera and Arabica, the finest gum arabic is procured. The bark of others is strongly
astringent, some of them yielding the Catechu extract, among these may be mentioned A. fer-
rugenea, A. catechu, and A. leticocephafa. From the hark of all of these, fermented with
jaggery, an inferior kind of arrack is procured by distillation ; they migfht all be more usefully
employed in tanning leather. The bark of one New Holland species A. melanoxylon is
imported into England in considerable quantities for that purpose. Of this bark in 1S31,
there was 39 264 cwt. shipped from Mob art Town for England, and in 1835, the value
of bark exported from the same place, was nearly £12,000. This subject therefore seems to
merit attention in this country where so many species of the genus, having astringent bark,
are indigenous. The bark of some of the species of Inga is also very astringent but do not
seem to be known as such in this country. Here the lnga dulcis or Koorkapilli/ (see Icon.
PI. Ind. Or. No. 198) is much employed as a fence, under the English name of ' white thorn'
though a very different plant.
Remarks on Genera and Species. This branch of the subject I regret to say I must leave nearly untouched, as the space I can now devote to it, is so inadequate to its extent. This however 1 less regret as a high authority (G. Bentham, Esq ) has declared the exposition of the Indian portion of the order, in our Prodromus, the most valuable work on Leguminosae that has appeared since the publication of DeCandolle's Prodromus. To that therefore I refer for all we then knew. Some new genera and several species have been added, but as these might require, properly to elucidate them, probably little short of a whole number and weeks of labo- rious application for their careful determination I must for the present leave them undetermined. To compensate however so far as I am able for this deficiency, I shall make a point of devoting several plates in each number of my Icones for some time, to the illustration of the order; in that work a considerable number of species have been already figured, and as the current number (No. 13) will contain several more, I beg leave to refer to it, contenting myself for the present, with subjoining the generic character of one new genus and of Edwardsia and Taverniera, two old genera, but only recently added to the Peninsular flora.
EDWARDSIA, Salisbury. Sub-order Sopikireje.
Calyx inflated-campanulate, obliquely truncated, ob- scurely 5-tooih"d. Coiolla papilionaceous, vixillum, somewhat shorter than ilie wifigs, shortly unguiculate, broadly obovate, emarginate, angled at the base. Wings oblong, unguiculate, narrow, or scar ely auricled at the base : keel longer than the wintfs, obtuse, straight, somewhat united below, free at the apex. Stamens free, filaments glabrous, slightly dilated. Ovary shortly stipitate, linear, with several ovules. Style slightly incurved, glabrous, diluted at the base, attenuated at the apex. Stigma thin. Legume moniliform, 1-celled, 2-valved, m my-seeded, 4-winged. Seed roundish, estro- phiolaie, radicle somewhat incurved.
Trees or Uirubs u iiully from the Antarctic regions. Leaves exstipulnle, un q'ially pinnated, many-paired, the terminal leafiel distant from /he last pair. Inflores- cence racemose, racemes axillary, lax, few-flowered. Pedicels one-flowered, ebractiolate, or with a subulate bractea.
The essential character of this genus consists in the longitudinally winged legume, combined with the char- acters of the sub order Sophora. As my specimens have the habit of Sophora and possess the character taken from the legume well developed, I can hive no doubt of their really belonging to this g-rius though not in flower The spe ies I cannot so well determine. It may be new, but looks as if it might be referred, in
so far as characters taken from the foliage only can be relied upon, without much violence to either i?. nitida, or E. denudata, but preferably to the last owing to the leaves being nearly glabrous.
Taverniera D.C. — Tribe Hedysareee.
Calyx bi-bracteolate at thebase, 5-cleft, sub-bilabiate, segments linear, lanceolate, acuminate. Corolla papi- lionaceous, vixillum, somewhat obovate, wings small, about half the length of the other petals, keel obtuse, or obliquely truncated. Stamens 10, diadelphous (9 and 1) straight or inflexed. Style filiform, long, flexuose, deciduous, ovary 2-ovuled : legume flat, consisting of two 1-seeded, joints, the lower joint sometimes abortive, stipitiform, the fertile one oval, or orbicular, acu'iate, or prickled, the sutures on both sides convex. — Suffruticose oriental, or Indian plants.
Leaves 1-3 foliolate — -Stipules united at the base,flowers rosy coloured or white, afterwards scariose and sub-per- sistent.
T. cuneifolia, (Srn.) Leaves one foliolate, petioled, the upper ones aborting, the leaflet cuniato-obovate, re- curvedly mucrinate, thiekish, glabrous or pubescent: peduncles short from the axils of leafb-ss stipules, bearing towards the. apex, from I to 4 shortly pedicel- late flowers. The legumes with the inferior joint abor- tive, stipitiform, the superior one unequally obovate, echinate, with rigid^hooked bristles.— Hedysarum cunei- folium, Roxb. OnobrycMs cuneifolia, D.C.
