FABACEAE 731 
68. MEIBOMIA Heister. Herbs or shrubs, sometimes vines. Leaflets 3, 
or rarely 1 or 5. Racemes simple or compound. Calyx 2-lipped, sometimes 
obscurely so, ds mid lobe of ve lower lip often Sis or narrower and 
longer than the lateral ones. Corolla variously colored or white: standard 
with a broad blade: blades of the wings and the keel-petals b on one 
side, short-elawed.  Loment few-several-jointed, usually with hooked hairs. 
[Desmodium (Fl SE. U. S.)]—4About 160 species, natives of [eme and 
i j um.-fall 
corollas of our species are purple or violet, or rarely white.— TICK-TREFOILS. 
STICK-TIGHTS. TICK-CLOVERS. — Species are grown for fodder. 
Loment ed into nearly separate rhomboidal, half-rhomboidal, or half-orbieu- 
lar joints. 
Boron. s aight a above, deeply constricted below, Mu e 
Peduncle arising from the base of the plant: pod lon 
stipitate. I. NUDIFLORAE. 
Peduncle terminati ing the stem: pod short-stipitate. II. GRANDIFLORAE. 
POTERE T both above and no but usually 
deeply below than abov 
Constrictions deeper below than abov 
and branches trailing or Cec aine III. ROTUNDIFOLIAE. 
Stem and branches erect or ascending. V. PANICULATAE. 
SCEICHOnE equally o on both edges of the loment. V. PURPUREAE. 
Loment not constricte ~ into separate joints, straight above, 
merely undulate belo VI. SUPINAE. 
I. 
Leaves approximate at the top of the cis pnm flowering l . 
stem (peduncle) leafless. 1. M. nudiflora. 
II. GRANDIFLORAE 
Leaves more or less clustered at the base of the peduncle: co- 
rolla purple. 2. M. acuminata. 
Leaves scattered, distant, along the stem: corolla white. 3. M. A 
II. o o ee 
Blades of the leaflets narrow, elliptic to linea 4. M. polymorpha. 
Blades of the leafiets broad, a oe to oti 
ets with suborbicular ad if narrower, the ra- 
emes axillary. 
Leaflets mostly less than 2.5 cm. long, leathery, the 
blades abr te. 5. M. arenicola. 
Leaflets ostly over 2.5 cm. long, the blades mem- 
a. DSen. 6. M. Michauzii. 
am^ ui a. or oval blades: racemes terminal as 
axillary. 
Corolla. Cine olored or ochroleucous: stipules ovate: 
acemes mostly simple. 7. M. ochroleuca. 
Corolla purple: stipules subulate: racemes mostly pan- 
culate. l 8. M. glabella. 
IV. PANICULATAE l 
Petioles wanting or very short. 9. M. sessilifolia. 
Petioles manifest. 
eaflets with narrowly linear blades 
Joints of the pod e a nearly straight or a depressed 
baek, somewhat triangular in outlin 10. M. stricta. 
Joints of the po with a rounded back, not triangular 
in outline. 11. M. tenuifolia. 
Leaflets with lanceolate to ovate or rhomboidal blades, 
not linear, except in No. 17. 
Joints of the loments manifestly longer than broad. 
Md Bubtending the flowers small and inconspicu- 
lades of the leaflets reticulate. 12. M. canescens. 
Bracts _subtending the flowers conspicuous, ostly 
dE . long: blades of the leaflets for re- | 
Tene pubescent : bracts ciliate and pubescent. 13. M. longifolia. 
Leaves glabrous: bracts not ciliate and otherwise 
glabrous. 14. M. grandifiora. 
Joints of the loments barely longer than broad. 
