BASTARD INDIGO, a genus of the decandria order, belonging to the diadelphia class of plants.

Of this there is only one known species, a native of Carolina, where the inhabitants formerly made from it a coarse kind of indigo, whence the plant took its name. It rises, with many irregular stems, to the height of 12 or 14 feet, garnished with very long winged leaves, in shape like those of the common acacia. At the extremity of the same year's shoots, the flowers are produced in long slender spikes of a deep purple colour. After they are past, the germen turns to a short pod, having two kidney-shaped seeds; but these do not ripen in Britain. The seeds of this plant were first sent to England by Mr Mark Catesby in 1724, from which many plants were raised in the gardens near London. These were of quick growth, and several of them produced flowers in three years.

Culture. The amorpha is most readily propagated by seeds, which ought to be procured annually from America. It may also be propagated by laying down the young branches, which in one year will make good roots; and may then be taken off, and planted either in the nursery, or in the places where they are destined to remain. If they are put into a nursery, they should not remain there more than one year; for as the plants make large shoots, they do not remove well when they have remained long in a place.