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XVII. Observations on the Genus Hosackia and the American Loti. 
By Greorce BENTHAM, Esq., F.L.S. 
Read February 3rd, 1835. 
IN describing the Hosackia bicolor for the Botanical Register (vol. xv. 
tab. 1257), I relied chiefly as a generic character on the pinnate leaves, and 
the absence of the large foliaceous stipule so prominent in Lotus, the genus 
from which Hosackia was separated, and to which it appears nearest allied ; 
and I added to the abovementioned species three other North American plants, 
which in this respect appeared to belong to Hosackia rather than to Lotus. 
This view of the genus has since been taken up by Dr. Hooker in his Flora 
Boreali- Americana and other works, although evidently with doubt as to some 
of the species. Upon a reexamination of the same and other species contained 
in the Horticultural Society's Californian collections or in my own herbarium, 
I am now induced to confine the circumscription of Hosackia to the umbel- 
late species, and propose to consider the uniflorous ones as belonging to Lotus, 
of which they would form a separate section, which, with reference to the size 
of the flowers, might be called Microlotus. The two genera would then be 
characterized by the form of the flower ; and the peculiarities observable in the 
organs of vegetation would again be reduced to their proper level, that of 
subsidiary not essential characters. T 
In the true Hosackie the claw of the vexillum is always at some distance 
from those of the other petals ; the alae adhere by their margins to the carina, 
and usually (if not always) spread at right angles from it; the carina is 
usually less rostrate than in Lotus, and the stigma more distinctly capitate. 
'The latter character, however, is of little importance, being but one of degree ; 
for all Loti have in fact a capitate stigma, in some species very visible to the 
naked eye, especially when examined young ; in others so small that the style 
appears pointed without a very close examination. The stipule in Hosackia 
VOL. XVII. 3 B 
