V“ Y 
1763 
* ÓROBUS atropurpúreus. 
Dark Purple Orobus. 
— 
DIADELPHIA DECANDRIA. 
Nat. ord. Lecumınosz, Juss. (Introduction to the Natural System of 
Botany, p. 87.) 
OROBUS L. Calyx campanulatus, 5-fidus, lobis 2 superioribus brevio- 
ribus. Corolla papilionacea. Stamina diadelpha. Stylus gracilis, linearis, 
apice villosus. Legumen cylindraceum, oblongum, 1-loculare, bivalve, polysper- 
mum. Semina hilo lineari.——Herbx erecta. Stipule semisagittate. Petioli 
in setum brevem simplicem desinentes. Folia abruptě pinnata, paucijuga. 
Racemi axillares, pedunculati. De Cand. prodr. 2. 376. 
O. atropurpureus ; caule sub-simplici striato, foliis 1-plurijugis, foliolis linearibus 
acuminatis glabris, stipulis semisagittatis subunidentatis, pedunculis foliis 
longioribus, racemis densis secundis multifloris, corollis elongatis. 
O. atropurpureus. Desf. fl. atl. 2. 157. t. 196. De Cand. prodr. ?. 386. 
O. siculus. Rafın. caratt. 72. 
O. Rafinesquii. Presl. del. Prag. 41. 
A native of wild places near Algiers, where it was first 
noticed by Desfontaines. It is also met with in Sicily, and 
in the loamy meadows of eastern Calabria, near Cotrone 
and Cassano. In the gardens it is a hardy erennial, 
flowering in May ; our drawing was made in the Garden of 
the Horticultural Society. 
It varies in the number of its leaflets from one to several 
pair; Desfontaines' figure and ours represent extreme states. 
* Said to be so named from opw to excite and Bove a bullock ; that is to say, 
exciting to cattle. The Orobus of the Greeks was.some sort of vetch. 
