LathyTus:\ LEGUMINOS^. 



159 



aliorum.Engl Bot t 1047. RkL in Frankl Isf Joum. ed, 2. App. p. 28.— GmeL Fl. Sib. 

 V. 4. p. 7. t 1. 



Hab. Throughout North America, in the plains (beyond lat 40^ ?) from Lake Erie in the south, (Z>r. 

 Todd; Dmtglasy) about Quebec and Montreal, (Zat/^ Balhousie; Mrs. Percival,) Saskatchawan, (Ih-. 

 Richardson; Douglas,) to the shores of the Arctic Sea, (Dr. Richardson,) Newfoundland and Labrador on 

 the east, Mr. Coimack; Mr, Morrison; and Murray Bay, mouth of the St. Lawrence. Mrs. Sheppard. 

 North -West America, from the coast of California and the mouth of the Columbia, (Dr. Scouler ; DouglaSy) 

 to Kotzebue's Sound in Behring^s Strait Messrs. Lay and Co//ifi.— Botanists will see with surprise, and, I 

 fear too, with some suspicion of the correctness of the measure, that I have united the well-known Pisum 

 mariiimum of our shores with a Siberian Lathgms, and have added to the same the most universally diffused 

 Legiiminose plant in all the temperate and colder parts of North America. I have not done so, however, 

 without the most cautious scrutiny of numerpus specimens. Let any one carefully examine the style of 

 Pimm maritinmmy and compare it with that of Pisurn sativum, or any indisputable Pisum, and it will be at 

 once seen that they are very different; tlie former wanting altogether the sharp carinated ridge on the superior 

 side, (caused by the reflection of the margins,) on the upper part of which the down is produced. If, again, 

 this style be compared with that of the true Lathyri, it will be found to accord in every essential particular, 

 though it is not so much dilated upwards as in many. It is a stylus compressus sursum dilatatus antice 

 viUosus aut pubescens: and it precisely corresponds with the same part of the flower in the American 

 Lathyri above quoted. This being determined, it remained for me to see what were the specific differences 

 between the plants in question. I could find none. Upon the sandy and stony shores, the plant is humble 

 in its growth, and compact; in the woody districts it becomes larger and more straggling. The stipules I 

 always find to be cordato-hastate, with their sides, at the base, unequal (sometimes toothed,) rather than semi- 

 sagittate. The legumes are slightly pubescent in British and American specimens. Tlie leaves and calyx 

 are mostly somewhat downy or hairy, the latter especially on the teeth ; but at other times the whole plant 

 is perfectly glabrous. My specimens from the West coast of North America are usually more lax, flaccid 

 and drawn up, as it were, lis if inhabiting woods : others, again, from the same coast, are more compact, and 

 of a firmer texture, exactly corresponding with cultivated specimens from the Horticultural Society's 

 Garden, of which the representation in the Botanical Register is excellent. I acknowledge that in calling 

 this plant by the name of i. pisiformis, Linn, and Gmelin, I have no other authority than the figure and 

 description of the latter author ; but our plant is so entirely in accordance with them, that I think there 

 can hardly remain a doubt on the subject. 



2, L. ochroleucus ; glaberrimus, foliolis 3-4-jugis lato-ovalibus ovatisve, stipulis latis 

 semi-cordatis subhastatis angulis obtusis nunc obtuse dentatis foliolo vix minoribus, 

 pedunculis multifloris folium subsequantibus, (corollis ochroleucis,) laciniis calycinis 

 duabus superioribus abbreviatis, leguminibus (nondum maturis) linearl-elongatis 

 acuminatis compressis glaberrimis. — L. pisiformis, var. Rich, in Frankl. \st Joum. ed. 2. 

 App. p. 28. 



Hab. Hudson's Bay. Mr. R. Wright. From the Red River, in lat. 49°, (Douglas,) through the whole 

 woody country to Bear Lake, in lat. G6°. Dr. Richardson; Drummond. — This plant is, indeed, very nearly 

 allied to the preceding; yet in all the specimens I possess, the stipules are rather smaller (often considerably 

 so) than the leaflets, having at the base only one lobe ; the flowers are smaller, ochroleucous, and the whole 

 plant is more delicate and quite glabrous. In Dr. Richardson's Z. pisiformis, which, indeed he referred 

 doubtfully to the L. pisifonnis of Willd., the lower stipules are as small as those of the following species; 

 while the upper ones are very large, 



w 



3. L. decaphyllus; glaber vel pubescens, foliolis 4-6-jugis ellipticis rarius ovatis vel 

 suboblono-is, stipulis parvis semisagittatis lanceolatis lobo deflexo stipulam suboequante, 

 pedunculis folii longitudine multifloris, calyce dense pubescente, dentibus duobus 



