Lotus. | LEGUMINOS# (Harv.) 157 
plains near Rhinosterkop, Drege ! Gauritz River, George ; Nieuweveld, Beaufort ; 
and Olifant’s R., Clanw., E.&@ Z. Fish River, Burke § Zeyher ! (Z. 450). Grahams- 
town, Dr. Atherstone/ (Herb. Th., D., Hk., Bth., Sd.) 
Stems 2-3 feet long, spreading over the soil ; branches filiform, alternate, distich- 
ous, very pale, clothed with soft hairs. Petioles 1-2 inches long, prolonged 1-2 
lines beyond the insertion of the pair of leaflets. Leaflets 4-5 lines long, 3-4 
lines wide, cuneate at base, frequently elliptical. Spikes either capitate or inter- 
rupted, in two heads, the densely hirsute calyces enlarging after flowering and sub- 
inflated. E. ¢ Z.’s P. evigua is merely a starved state of this species. 
_ 41, P. biflora (Harv.); dwarf, prostrate, much branched, glabrescent ; 
leaves on longish petioles, pinnately trifoliolate ; leaflets (small) obovate 
or obcordate, veinless, glabrous, nigro-punctate ; stipules small, ovate, 
blunt, withering ; peduncles axillary, shorter than the leaves, 2 (or 1) 
flowered and bracteate at the summit; bracts very short, truncate ; 
flowers sessile; calyx hispid, 4 upper lobes oblong, rather blunt, lowest 
twice as broad, concave, obtuse. - 
Has. South Africa, Burchell, No. 1720. 
A small, depressed, distichously much branched and ramulous suffrutex. Petioles 
not 4 inch long ; leaflets 2-3 lines long, 1-14 wide, blunt or emarginate. Peduncles 
3-5 lines long, generally bearing 2 sessile flowers at the bracteate extremity. Flow- 
ers 2 lines long. Carina adnate to theale. The inflorescence is peculiar ; nor does 
this little plant seem nearly allied to any S. African species. 
(Imperfectly known Species. ) 
P. velutina (E. Mey. Comm. p. 89); “leaves 3-foliolate, short- 
stalked, canescent and velvetty; leaflets obovate, retuse, pointless.” 
E. Mey. * 
Has. Under the Zwarteberg, in moist hollows near Klaarstroom, Drege. - 
« Flowers and fruit unknown. An erect, much branched, rigid shrub. Leaves 
close set ; leaflets 3-4 lines long, thickish, with many yellow-brown glands. Stipules 
minute.” Can this be P. macradenia ? 
XXVI. LOTUS, L. 
Calyx campanulate, 5—cleft or 5-toothed. Vewillum roundish, spread- 
ing, recurved, equalling the porrect, connivent ale ; carina ascending, 
narrow, rostrate. Stamensdiadelphous. Style ascending, subulate. Legume 
linear, terete or subcompressed, many seeded, one celled or having septa 
between the seeds; when ripe splitting into two valves. Endl. 6514. 
DC. Prod, 2. p. 209. : 
Herbs or suffrutices, erect or diffuse, common in Europe, and temperate Asia, 
with outlying ‘og in Australia, 8. Africa and 8. America. Leaves trifoliolate. 
Stipules in pairs or connate, free, resembling the leaflets. Peduncles axillary and 
i s ft with leafy bracts under the flowers, 
which are yellow, or rarely white, red or very dark brown purple. Name from the 
Greek Awros. The English name is Bird's foot Trefoil. 
1. L. discolor (E. Mey.! Comm. p. 92); suffruticose, pubescent ; 
branches striate ; leaflets and stipules similar, oblong-cuneate, submu- 
cronulate, glaucous above, paler beneath; peduncles axillary, elongate ; 
umbels 4-8 flowered; bracts leaflike, unequal, the longest equalling 
the flowers ; legumes straight, cylindrical, glabrous, locellate within ; 
seeds ellipsoid-subglobose, smooth, dark brown. Zey. / No. 453+ 
- ‘Has. Grassy hills, mouth of the Omsamcaba, Drege! Magalisberg, Burke and 
Zeyher! Natal, Mr. Sanderson, Krauss, 290. Gueinaius/ (Herb. Hk., Sd., D.) 
