ABRUS

(Lat.),n.m. Gr., éBpés, pretty, elegant. Fr.,abre. A name given by Prosper Alpinus to a genus of plants of the order Leguminosæ, sub-order Papilionaceæ, and tribe Phaseolæ. [B.J—A. pre cat or i us. From preces, a prayer, from the beans being used as beads, Fr., liane à régli e. Ger., in disc hes Sii holz. ie: Glycine abrus [Linn.], wild (or country, or Jamaica) licorice, licorice bush, red bean, love pea, jequirity. A species indigenous to Africa and tropical Asia, w nich “has been transplanted to America. The beans (Angola seeds; Fr., pois d' Amérique, pois rouges des Indes, graines de jéquiriti;, Paternostererbsen, Giftbohnen, indian is che rot he Erbsen) are used in India as a standard of weight, and an infusion made from them has lately come into use among ophthalmologists as a means of exciting an artificial purulent ophthalmia for the cure of pannus. On the coast of Malabar a decoction of the leaves is used for cough and affections of the throat. [De Wecker, “Ann,.,” July- Aug., 1882, p. 24; A, 316, 328; B, 19.]