Descr. Root apparently annual. Stem eight to ten 
inches to a foot high, simple or branched, downy. Leaves 
upon long petioles, of five obovato-lanceolate, singularly 
thick, and almost fleshy, retuse leaflets, those of the lower 
leaves the shortest and broadest; all of them quite glabrous 
on the upper surface, below slightly silky with scattered 
hairs ; the margiy ciliated with white appressed silky hairs. 
Stipules half to three-fourths of an inch long, subulate, ap- 
pressed. Racemes terminal, pedunculated, pyramidal, com- 
posed of many extremely richly-coloured flowers. Peduncle 
downy, silky above. Pedicels about as long as the flowers, 
silky. Calyx silky, purplish-green, two-lipped, bearing a 
bractea ou each side near the middle. Standard bent back, 
especially at the sides, orbicular, deep rich blue, with a 
nearly quadrangular white or yellowish-white spot in the 
centre, which appears to be divided in the middle by a 
longitudinal fold: ale (combined by their lower margin, 
and wholly concealing the carina) oval, deep blue: keel 
white, much acuminated, purple-black at the tip. Legumes, 
in my native specimens, an inch and a half in length, linear- 
oblong, compressed, torulose from the four or five seeds 
contained within, and silky. 
Fig. 1. Inside view of the Vexillum. 2. Calyx with the Carina —mag- 
nified. 
