Abrus

Genus of shrubs of the subfamily Papilionoideae of the Leguminosae (pea) family, growing in the East Indies. A. precatorius, wild liquorice, crab's-eye vine, or weather plant, is an Indian plant, the seeds of which are scarlet tipped with black. They are used as weights and in necklaces and rosaries, whence they obtain the name of ‘prayer beads’, and the roots are used in India as liquorice.