MATERIA INDICA

CHAP. I. MATERIA INDICA. '209
This small root, in its succulent state, has a
pleasant taste, and some\vhat fi'agrant smell; and
prescribed in conjunction with ginger, by the Vgtians,
in cases of dyspepsia, in decoction, to the quantity
of half a tea-cupful, twice daily.
Of the essential character of the genus, Wi1ldenow
says, "Cal. dentibus subulatis, subrequalibus;
legum en striis obliquis, seminibus interjectis." Spec.
Plant. vol. iii. p. 1239.
The species in question bas its stems or branches
. white with down; of the plant in other respects,
somewhat differing accounts are given by Willden ow
2nd Linnreus (Supp!. 335.). The former says, "faliis
pinnatis, foliolis cuneatis emarginatis, stipulis spinescentibus,
Iegurninibus falcatis axiIlaribus subsolitariis."
In the latter (and.it altogether corresponds with the
plant as I have seen it near Madras), we are told,
that the stem is diffused; the legumes hanging, solitary,
back-sickled, compressed; stipuies spinescent,
and leciflets wedge-shaped, hoary; the }lowers are
upright and smaU.
Ten species of galega now grow in the botanical
garden of Calcutta; the g. purperea ., is amongst
them, and called in Bengalese surpunlca. See Hort.
Bengalensis, p. 57. The" gal ega toxicaria is a native
of South America, the pounded leaves and branches
of which are used for poisoning fish.
,
"'" It is the gam-pita of the Cyngalese. See Moon's Catalogue,
p. 55., also Burro. Zeyl. t. 32.
VOL. II.
p