364 Mr. BENTHAM's Observations on the Genus Hosackia 
are always at the base of the leaves, in some species small and scariose, in one 
large and foliaceous, but formed more like those of the Viciew than of Lotus, 
and in all the species of the second division, as described below, so minute 
as to appear like a little black spot, and even that is observable only on the 
younger leaves of some species. 
In Microlotus the flower does not present any essential differences from 
that of our European Loti. The leaves appear at first sight to be irregularly 
pinnate with from three to five (and never more) leaflets, without any trace of 
stipules; but if it be considered that the lowest of the leaflets often occupies 
the place of a stipule, and that the two lowest (where there are more than three) 
arè never opposite to each other, the opinion is suggested that the two lowest 
leaflets where there are five, or one or two where there are four, are in fact 
of the same nature as the foliaceous stipules of the European Loti, only as it 
were petiolate, with their petioles adhering to the common petiole of the leaf. 
This explanation is not indeed strictly compatible with the structure of the 
leaf of Lotus subpinnatus, as figured in Hooker and Arnott's Botany of Captain 
Beechey's Voyage, tab. 8.; but in my specimens I do not find the petiole to be 
concave, and the two lower leaflets both proceed from the upper side or (with 
reference to a horizontal plane) from the middle line of the petiole, and at the 
base of the petiole the bundles of vessels proceeding from these leaflets appear 
to lie one on each side of that middle line. This point, however, is difficult to 
determine upon dried specimens, where the apparently unilateral direction of 
the leaflets is very remarkable. 
I now proceed to resume the character of Hosackia according to the above ~ 
view, adding a synopsis of all the species of Hosackia and Microlotus I am 
acquainted with. 
Hosackia. Dougl. Benth. in Bot. Reg. sub t. 1257. 
Calyx tubulosus vel subcampanulatus, 5-dentatus. Vevilli unguis à ceteris 
distans. Ale vexillum subzquantes, patentes. Carina submutica. Sty- 
lus subrectus. Stigma capitatum. Legumen cylindraceum, apterum. 
Herbe Boreali-Americane, perennes?. Folia impari-pinnata. Stipule scariose, 
minutissimee vel foliolis difformes. Pedunculi axillares, umbellatim pluri- 
flori, folio florali szepiüs stipati. 
