Flora Medica

'FABACEJE, OR LEGUM1NOSJE.ALHAGI.Calyx 5-toothed, the teeth small and nearly equal in size.Corolla papilionaceous:petals about equal in length ; vexillumobovate, folded together ; keel straight, obtuse. Stamens diadelphous(9 and 1). Ovary linear, with several ovules. Stylefiliform, glabrous, acute. Legume stalked, somewhat woody,terete, contracted here and there irregularly with partitions, notseparating into distinct pieces when ripe. Seeds reniform.Suffrutescent or herbaceous spiny plants. Leaves simple.Stipules very small. Flowers few, reddish, arranged singlyalong the axillary spines.518. A. Maurorum Tourn. cor. t. 489. DC. prodr.ii. 352.W. and A. i. 232. Hedysarum Alhagi Linn. sp. pi. 1051.Roxb.fi. ind. iii. 344-. Manna hebraica Don prodr. fi. nep. 246.Deserts of Egypt, Syria, Persia, Mesopotamia, India. (Camel'sthorn.)An erect, spiny shrub, when allowed to grow uninjured, but so con.tinually eaten to the ground by cattle as to be more frequently spreadingand herbaceous. Leaves in strong plants oblong or obovate, thick,entire, covered with a fine down, as long or longer than the spines j inweaker or starved specimens, the leaves are much narrower, very muchtapering to the base, and considerably shorter than the spines ; sometimesthe leaves are reduced to mere scales ; stipules linear, subulate,ciliated. Spines axillary, in strong plants very straight and rigid, inweak plants slender and flexuose. Flowers alternate, scattered singlyupon the spines, red. Calyx silky, with triangular acuminate teeth.Ovary tomentose. Legumes silky, extremely uncertain in size, somewith a single joint, others with 2, and some with as many as 9 or 10,contracted between the seeds in a most irregular manner, stipitate orsessile. From the branches of this plant there exudes a sweet substanceof the nature of Manna, the Terengjabim of the Arabs, which isgathered by merely shaking the branches. Some writers are of opinionthat this was the Manna on which the children of Israel were fed in thewilderness. See Tourn. voy, Levant, i. 24,7, 248.ERVUM.Calyx deeply 5-cleft ;segments nearly equal, linear, acute,about as long as the corolla. Corolla papilionaceous. Stamensdiadelphous (9 and 1 ) : alae longer than the keel but shorterthan the vexillum. Style filiform. Stigma glabrous. Legumeoblong, 2-4-seeded. Seeds orbicular or globose. Leaves abruptlypinnated, terminated by a tendril.519. E. Ervilia Linn. sp. pi. 1040. DC. prodr.ii. 367.Sturm. Deutschl.fi. i.fasc. 32. ic. Vicia ervilia Willd. iii. 1103.South of Europe. (Bitter vetch.)250