leaves from minute, whitish pubescence. Leaves with — 
about five pairs of elliptical, opposite leaflets and a terminal 
one. Stipules small, linear-lanceolate, free at the base of 
the petiole. Peduncles considerably longer than the leaves 
from the axils of which they arise. Flowers collected into 
a roundish head, which, however, becomes more elongated 
as the fruit advances to maturity. Bracteas minute. Pedi- 
cels very short. Calyx large, inflated, ovato-globose, of a 
greenish-purple colour, five-toothed, downy with black and 
white hairs. Vexillum oblong, retuse, purple, much bluer 
in the older flowers, and in the dried specimens becoming 
deep blue: Ale oblong, on long claws, white with a red- 
dish tinge : Carina short, obtuse, with long, straight claws, 
_ white, tipped with purple. Anthers deep yellow, almost 
- entirely concealed within the carina. Germen oblong, 
_ very silky, tapering into a long, slender style curved up- 
wards at the extremity, and tipped with the small stigma. 
This very handsome and highly desirable species of As- 
TRAGALUS iS a native of barren wastes in the South of 
France and of Russia as well as of Hungary, and is perfect] 
hardy, flowering in May. Although, as cultivated in the 
Glasgow Botanic Garden from seeds communicated by Mr. 
Orro of Berlin, the flowers are always of a rich purple 
colour, becoming darker and almost blue m age, yet they 
appear in a wild state to be sometimes cream-coloured or 
white. 
nifie 
Pe en 
ce 1. Flower. 2. Carina and Stamens. 3. Ale. 4, Pistil :—mag-_ 
