[a. Malay kāchang applied to various leguminous plants (Cajanus Lablab, Dolichos, Phaseolus, Soja, etc.).]
A genus of plants, Cajanus (N.O. Leguminosæ), and esp. the species C. Indicus, a shrub native to the East Indies, but now naturalized in Africa, tropical America, and Polynesia, for the sake of the seeds or pulse, an esteemed article of food, called in India Dhal, Dhol, and Urhur, and in Jamaica Pigeon-peas, of which the No-eye pea and Congo pea are varieties.
1693. Phil. Trans., XVII. 688. The Thora-Paerou or Cajan-Tree, an arborescent Phaseolus or Laburnum, much cultivated at the Cape.
1885. Yule, Hobson-Jobson, 109. The Cajan was introduced to America by the slave-traders from Africa.
