INDIGOFERA, a genus of plants, some of them of great economic value, of the natural order Fabacere. About 150 species are known, many of which grow in the East Indies ; amongst others anil. disperma. ' linifolia. tinctoria.
arborea.dosua. mucronata. trifoliate.
argentea. I echinata. pauciflora. trita.
aspalathoides. elliptica. pedicellata. uncinata. atropurpurea. enneaphylla. pentaphylla. uniflora. brunonia. flaccida. polygonata. violacea.
cinerascens. glandulosa. pulchella. viscose.
ccerulia. hirsute.
There are also several undetermined species, the dug kenti and the kenti of Kaghan (qu. I. arborea), the doun-daloun of Burma, the latter a tree four or five feet in girth, found both in the Rangoon and Tounghoo districts, though it is scarce. Its white-coloured wood is adapted to every purpose of house building. An indigenous species of indigo is sometimes in Tenasserim used in forming a blue dye, and a wild indigo is found abundant in the Sntlej valley between Rampur and Sung nam, at an elevation of 7000 feet, in rocky hills.
The species are indigenous in the equinoctial parts of Asia, Africa, and America ; but there is some difficulty in ascertaining all the cultivated species, as the subject is usually neglected both by naturalists and cultivators.
Indigofera anil is said by De Candolle to grow wild in America, and to be cultivated in both Indies, as also along the Gambia in Africa. Drs. Wight and Arnott state they have not sufficient materials to determine if I. anil be a distinct species. According to Dr. Honigherger, I. anil is cultivated in some provinces of the Panjab, but more for dye than for medicine, the leaf (Vishaso daMe, SAME.) being used by the natives in hepatitis.—O'Sh. p. 292; Honigb. p. 289.