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OF BRITISH PLANTS. 135 



1 have very recently, with the kind assistance of Mr. Kippiat, 

 looked over the species of Astragalw^ which are preserved in the 

 Linnean and Smithian Herbaria. In Linnseus's collection I did 

 not see any foreign plant at all resembling it ; but in Smith's own 

 Herbarium, in the sheet of paper containing many dried spe- 

 cunens of A. hypoglottisy the variety marked No, 6 approaches my 

 plant in the form of its leaflets, though not in the number of 

 their pairs. This variety is an Asiatic one, being underwritten 

 "Caucasus," communicated doubtless by Fischer, It is evi- 

 ! 4; ■ , dently a mere variety of our English A. hypoglottis, and retains its 



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chief characters, the leaves excepted. 



I next examined the plates in DeCandolle's beautiful ' Astra- 

 galogia,' and observed in his engraving (Tab. 12) of Astragalus 

 purpureus^ a very considerable resemblance to my plant in its 

 length of stem, its somewhat straggling character, and its general 

 appearance ; although its head of flowers is not represented so 

 ^go, or its leaflets sufficiently long. It is a native of the South 

 of Trance, chiefly growing in the moxmtains of Provence. 



I will now briefly add DeCandolle's distinctions between A. hy- 

 poglottis and A. pu/rpureus. In his later work, the 'Prodromus 

 Syst, Naturalis,' torn. ii. p. 281, he describes, No. 1, A. hgpoglottis, 



as " piloso-subvillosus " "foliolis obovatis oblongis, s»pe 



emarginatis 8-10 jugis ; " and its pod with one seed in each cell 

 or division ; whilst No, 3, A. purpurem^ he details as being " sub- 



viUosus " <^ foliolis obovatis apice bidentatis," and its pod aa 



having in each division three seeds- Hence the chief diflTerences, 

 besides the seeds, between A, hypoglottis and A. purpureus, so 

 pointed out, are the less hairiness of the latter plant, and the 

 leaflets furnished at their tips with two small teeth : and, since 

 the leaflets are more fully described in the ' Astragalogia,' I will 

 here give the passages relating to them : 



''A. hypoglottis. — foliola 19-29, opposita, ovata aut ovato- 



oblonga, 3-8 millim. longa, obtusa aut saepe in eadem planta apice 

 emarginata, subtus incano-villosa ; supeme glabra aut pilis qui- 

 husdam onusta." (p 118.) 

 [ I4; ''A. purpureus.—. . . . foliola 23-29 opposita, ovato-obbnga, 



ftpice emarginata, vel potius bidentata et in sinu breyissime mu- 

 cronata, pubescentia, aut villosa, 7-9 millim. longa." (p. 117.) 



In the number of pairs of leaflets in the former plant there 

 seems to be some error, for DeCariJolle makes them 9-14, with 



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an odd qne, whereas in our Englisb j)laiit the pairs are only 6-12 

 at most, with an odd one : and in the ' Prodromus,' the author 



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