Lessertia, XLVII. § PAPILIONACEX \BAKER). 187 
late; style filiform, penicillate in our species round the small round 
terminal stiema. Pod stipitate, membranous, oblong or linear, the 
valves flat in our species, finally dehiscing at the apex.—Herbs or 
undershrubs with imparipinnate leaves and racemose flowers. 
A considerable Cape genus, of which we get a single outlying species. 
1. L. benguellensis, Baker. An erect undershrub with stiff as- 
cending branches canescent only on the petioles and slightly on the 
branchlets. Stipules setaceous, minute. Leaves shortly petioled, 
3-4 in, long; leaflets 9-13, ligulate, pale-green, rather fleshy, reach- 
ing 8-10 lines long, truncate at the apex with a faint mucro. Flowers 
up to a dozen in copious moderately lax short-stalked racemes much 
shorter than the leaves. Calyx glabrous, 1 line long. Corolla 4 lines, 
gteenish-yellow, the wines reflexed and standard streaked with purple. 
Pod with a pedicel which exceeds the calyx, oblong, glabrous, 12-15 
lines long, 8-9 lines broad, 6—7-seeded. 
Lower Guinea. Mossamedes, Benguela, amongst red sandstone rocks at the base 
of the Sierra de Montes N egros, Dr. Welwitsch! 
*8. ASTRAGALUS, Linn.; Benth. et Hook. f, Gen. Plant. i. 506. 
Culyx tubular, the teeth subequal. Petals with long claws ; standard 
erect, Ovate-oblong: or panduriform ; wings oblong ; keel equalling the 
"'ngs or slightly shorter, obtuse, nearly straight. _Upper stamen free, 
the rest connate; anthers uniform. Ovary sessile or stalked, multi- 
ovulate ; style filiform, straight or incurved, glabrous, with a small ter- 
minal Stigma. Pod sessile or stalked, two-valved, often more or less 
completely divided lon gitudinally by a membranous dissepiment arising 
*om the dorsal suture.—Herbs or undershrubs. 
A very large genus, with its lead-quarters in the Western half of Asia, with many 
oe ’n Eastern Asia, Europe, and round the shores of the Mediterranean, a few in 
the Andes and Temperate South America, and one in Natal. 
Pods compressed, the longitudinal dissepiments complete (Déplo- 
theca, Hoe gt.) , 
Stipules 4-j in. long, } in. broad . . 
Stipules 1-1} in. long, 3-1 in. broad . : 
* turgid, internal dissepiment very incomplete 
1. A. venosus. 
2. A. abyssinicus, 
3. A. prolixus. 
oth sides pale-green, glabrous or slightly grey-downy. Racemes 
2 igs flowered, alsin y 3-6 in. long, on Nabeoia erect peduncles 
“Yim. long. Pedicels very short. racts linear, half as long as the 
