€2 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [JaN. 9 



4. Lespedeza yiolacea (l.) Pers. 



Hedijsarum violaceum, L. Sp. PI. 749 (1753). 

 Lesjjedeza violacea, Pers. Sjn. ii. 318 (1807). 



Erect or .ascending, sparingly pubescent, usually much 

 branched, 1°— 3° high. Stipules subulate, 2"— 3" long ; 

 petioles shorter than or equalling the leaves ; leaflets oval, 

 elliptic or broadly oblong, thin, obtuse or retuse at the apex, 

 rounded at the base, G" — 2' long, appressed-pubescent beneath ; 

 peduncles, at least the upper ones, longer than the leaves ; 

 inflorescence loose, paniculate ; corolla purple, 3" — 4" long ; 

 pod ovate or oval, acute, finely and sparingly pubescent, 

 2"— 3" long. 



In dry soil. New England to Florida, west to Minnesota, 

 Kansas, Louisiana, and Northern Mexico. 



This is based on " Hedysarum foliis ternatis, lanceolatis, 

 leguminibus monospermis" of Gronovius Fl. Virg. 87. The 

 sjDecimen so labelled in the herbarium of the British Museum, 

 while checked off in the copy of the Flora Yirginica of that 

 institution, so that unless recently lost, must be somewhere in 

 the collection, could not be turned up at the time of my visit 

 in 1891, so I am not quite certain that I correctly under- 

 stand it, although Linnseus' supplementary description in Sp. PI. 

 749 aj^pears to point to the plant, at least in part. In the Lin- 

 nsean herbarium, three sheets are included in violacea. (I) A 

 sheet bearing two good fruiting specimens from Kalm of what 

 I call L. intermedia. (II) A sheet bearing fruiting specimens of 

 L. repens and L. procumbens, besides a specimen of Desmodiuni 

 paniculatum. (Ill) A sheet not marked by Linnaeus bearing two 

 specimens of the plant here accepted as violacea, annotated by 

 Smith "divergent, Ms. B." So as illustrated by his own her- 

 barium the species is comjDlex, but the sisecimens are not the 

 tA'pes of the species. 



It is sometimes troublesome to distinguish between this 

 species and L. repens. The erect habit, larger leaves which 

 scarcely show any tendency towards the obovate form and the 

 branching inflorescence with few-flowered clusters, the larger, 

 longer and less pubescent pod are characters, which, when 

 taken togethei', will always mark it as distinct. Barton appears 

 from the few specimens preserved illustrating his Prodromus of 

 the Flora of Philadelphia to have confounded the two. I have 

 not seen Persoon's specimens, but his description points 

 satisfactorily to the plant understood by me as violacea. 



