110 
DIADELPHIA. DECANDRIA, — 
. and pedunculate, shorter than the leaves, very few-flowet~ 
ed. Has In the shady forests of Ohio, Kentucky and Ten- 
nessee, (common aroupd Lexington, Kentucky.) A very 
singular and distinct species, with small,expanding flow- 
ers, which are uniformly white. Oss. Root apparently 
creeping, sending up short filiform weak stems at small 
intervals; stems about a span high (rather resembling the 
ascending branches of a hemifes se plant), petioles 2 or 3 
inches, stipules very minute, partial ones obliterated, la- 
teral leaflets oblique, central one dilated, on both surfaces 
a little hirsute, paler beneath, lengih about 2 inches, 
breadih one and a half. Raceme long pedunculate, soli- 
tary and terminal, bearing no more than trom 4 to 8 white 
fiowers! the kee! of which is commonly expanded; bractes 
very minute by 3’s; flowers by pairs; calix nearly equally 
§-toothed. Of the fruit, 1am ignorant. The only species 
to which the present appears to bear any affinity is HM. aa- 
éllare of Jamaica. 16. lineatum. 17. rotundifelium. 
18. * doreale. Caulescent, subdecumbent, leaves pin- 
nate (7 or § pair), leafiets oblong-obovate, partly villous; 
racemes long pedunculate, axillary, stipules sheathing, 
subulate; articulations of the loment nearly round, and 
rugose. H. alpinum? Mich. Fl. Am. 2. p.74. Has. In 
arid and denudated soils around Fort Mandan, on the 
banks of the Missouri. Flowering in June and July. 
Flowers of a fine red and numerous; common petiole very 
short; calix subulate, wings of the corolla short. 
__ This very numerous and heteromorphous genus, con- 
@pting : of more than 130 species, is principally indigenous 
and America in both hemispheres, but particu- 
‘ larly the Northern; there are also species in the southern 
_ extremity. of Africa and in Japan, a few in Europe, Sibe- 
ia, Northern Africa, and the Levant, but with pinnated 
leaves, and in the Onodbrychides producing 1-seeded le- 
gumes. Amidst this vast family H. gyrans has long been ce- 
lebrated for the spontaneous motion of its leaves, which 
undulate as if in agitation, without the assistance of excite- 
ment; my friend Dr. Baldwyn, late of Savannah, an inde- 
fatigable botanist, and an accurate observer, informed mé, 
"that the same spontaneous motion is evinced 
by Hedysa- 
n cuspidatum, H. bracteosum of Michiaux; there is #lso 
= 
reason to suspect the same circumstance in Jf. levigatum. 
Calix campanulate, bilabiate. Corolla infe- 
‘ rior. Veaillum cordate, magate: Anthers 5 
