Lessertia. | LEGUMINOS# (Harv.) 215 
compressed, broadly and obliquely obovate, or suborbicular, 1-2 seeded, 
mucronate, Zey. / 2390. 
Has. Cape, Carmichael / Goedmanskraal and Kaus, and at Modderfonteinsberg, 
Drege! Brandenburg, Zeyher / Kuils River, Pappe/ 124. (Hb. Bth., Hk., Sd., D.) 
A much branched, rigid, bush, 1-2 feet high, with yellowish twigs, and pale, 
rather scanty foliage, either nearly glabrous or thinly villous. Petioles 14-2 inches 
long ; leafl. 5-6 lines long, 14-2 lines wide. Peduncles 1-3 inches long, very patent. 
Legumes 12-13 lines long, 9-10 lines wide. 
3. L. fruticosa (Lindl.? Bot. Reg. 970) ; shrubby, divaricately much- 
branched, rigid, the branches, petioles and peduncles cano-pubescent or 
glabrescent ; leaflets 5-8-jugate, cuneate-oblong, convolute, obtuse or 
retuse, glabrescent or piloso-villous beneath; stipules triangular, rigid ; 
peduncles longer than the leaves, rigid, at length spinescent, laxly 
racemose; pedicels nigro-pubescent, longer than the migrescent calyx ; 
legume glabrous, compressed, obliquely obovate-oblong, tapering at 
base, 4-8 seeded, obtuse, the ventral suture straightish, the dorsal con- 
vex. #.&Z.! 1649. L. rigida, EF. Mey.! Comm. p. 115. 
Has. Groenekloof, 2. § Z. Lauwskloof, Groenekloof, and Saldanha Bay, Drege / 
(Herb. Hk., Bth., Sd.) 
A rigid, erect or spreading bush, 1-2 feet high, with patent, more or less canes- 
cent branches. Petioles 1} inch long ; leaflets 3-5 lines long, their edges rolled in. 
Peduncles 3-5 inches long, spreading, the pedicels 4~5 lines apart, at length pendu- 
lous. Legume almost pyriform in outline, rigid, pale, and opaque, 1-1} inch long, 
5-6 lines wide. Whether this be the plant figured by Lindley I cannot say. Thun- 
berg’s ‘I. rigida’ seems to me to be a glabrate form of L. flexuosa, with which it 
agrees in the pedicels, calyx, filiform peduncles, and legume. 
4. L. flexuosa (E. Mey.! Comm. p. 116); shrubby, erect, much- 
branched, flexuous, the striate branches, petioles, and peduncles thinly 
appressed-silky; leaves short, patent, closely 6-7-jugate, leaflets obovate- 
oblong, obtuse, glabrous above, thinly silky beneath ; racemes on long 
peduncles, distantly several-flowered ; ae much than the 
puberulous calyx ; ovary glabrous, few-ovuled ; legumes glabrous, com- 
pressed, substipitate, obliquely ovate, the ventral suture curved or nearly 
straight, the dorsal much arched. L. macrostachya, E.G Z./ 1643. Zey.! 
2401, apts 
Var. f. rigida; leaflets thinly pubescent beneath, ovato-lanceolate, acute. 
Colutea ae Thunb, Gig Bt 603, vile Hb, Ups. L. rigida, DC. 
Has. Cape, Bowie! In Adow and Olifantshoek, F.§ Z.! Drege/ Bed of the Tarka 
River, Mrs. F. W. Barber, 64. (Herb. Hk., Bth., Sd., D.) 
A much-branched bush, 2-3 feet high, twiggy, with short, curved, half herbaceous 
branches. Petioles 14 inch long, the leaflets 1-2 lines apart, 3-4 lines long, 2 lines 
wide. Peduncles numerous, 5-8 times as long as the leaves, curved, bearing flowers 
beyond the middle. Flowers deep pink, almost crimson, 24 lines long. Legumes 
10-11 lines long, 6-7 wide, nearly semicircular. A very handsome species, quite 
distinct from ZL. macrostachya, but very near L. fruticosa, differing in the longer, not 
spinous peduncles, the pedicels, the pubescence of the calyx, &c. Var. B. chiefly 
differs in being more glabrous, with more acute leaflets. 
5. L, margaritacea Mey.! Comm. p. 116); shrubby, erect, 
wirgate, nearly glabrous ; i 3-6-jugate, oblongo-lanceolate or linear- — 
- obovate, obtuse or acute, mostly infolded, glabrous ; stipules lanceolate ; 
* 
peduncles much longer than the leaf, laxly racemose, rigid, at length 
subspinescent; pedicels puberulous, longer than the calyx ; legume 
