294 PLANTS OF MADEIRA. 



Flowers dark lurid-purple. Pods 1-2 inches long, as many-celled as 



seeded. 



** 



Flores snhumleUati. 



9. Pedrosia Jtoriduy Lowe. — P, fruticulosa sericeo-albicans foliolosa, 

 foliolis confertis parvulis lanceolatis v. obovato-lauceolatis acutis sti- 

 pulisque conformibns omnino sessilibus, umbellis 2-5-floris, legurai- 

 nibus rectis cylindricis glabris. 



Var. a; fl, laete aurantiacis. 



Var. ^; fl. pallide sulpbureo-stramineis. 

 Hab. In Portu Sancto. 



Differs from P. (Lotus) fflauca, Ait., in its more silky, hoary foliage, 

 lanceolate acute leaflets, larger, more numerous flowers, often four or 

 five in a head, and larger, thicker, straighter, and even, instead of stran- 

 gulato-torulose, pods. 



10. Astragalus Solandriy Lowe. — A. herbacea annua villoso-pubescens, 

 caulibus prostrato-adscendentibus diffusis, foliolis multijugis ovalibus 

 V. oblongo-ellipticis retusiusculis supeme glabris inferne hirto-canes- 

 centibus, pedunculis elongatis folio longioribus multifloris, pedicellis 

 fructiferis deflexis, leguminibus pendulis falcatis compressis dorso 

 late canaliculatis acutis adpresse strigoso-pubescentibus. 



Aatragalus canescens, Sol. MSS. in Herbar. Banks, nee DC, 

 Hab. In Portu Sancto vulgatissimus. 



The compressed, trigonal, widely channelled, and in all stages ad- 

 presso-pubescent pods, not to mention other points of difference, seem 

 to distinguish this common, and certainly indigenous Porto-Santan As- 

 tragalus, from A. hamosus, L., and I therefore yield at length to the 

 great authority of Dr. Solander, who, as I ascertained more than twenty- 

 five years ago, had made it a distinct species. Prom A. falciformis v. 

 falcatus, Desf., ou the other hand, it differs in its hairiness and annual 



root, though resembling that species greatly in the pods and general 

 habit. 



Although in strictness Dr. Solander's MS, designation of this plant 

 is not superseded by A, canescens of De CandoUe, that species having 

 merged into a synonym of A. onobrychoides, Bieb., it would be now 



liable to cause confusion. 



.im 



