156 CLASS D1ADELPHIA. 



shrubby plants, with pinnated, rarely trifoliate leaves', 

 devoid of tendrils or weak stems, being erect or dif- 

 fuse ; the flowers are red, or yellow, more rarely 

 blue. In A. trag acanthus, which affords the gum of 

 that name, and a few others with suffruticose stems, 

 the costa or mid-rib of the old leaves remain, and 

 become transformed into long and crowded spines. 



In the Clover {Trifolhm), the flowers are quite 

 small, and crowded together in roundish or oblong 

 heads ; and the legume is so diminutive as to be con- 

 cealed within the calyx, without valves, and each 

 containing 2 to 4 seeds. In the ordinary Red Clover, 

 T. pratense, the flower by the natural engraftment of 

 the petals presents the anomally of a monopetalous 

 corolla. 



The genus Lespedeza, separated from Hedysarum 

 or Sainffoin, is distinguished by its lenticular, 1-seed- 

 ed, unarmed, loment, or unopening legume. The 

 5-parted calyx has also its segments nearly equal. 

 Of this rather elegant flowered genus there are a 

 considerable number of species ; they are either tall 

 or diffuse herbaceous plants, with purplish flowers, 

 and trifoliate leaves subtended by minute bristly 

 stipules. 



Hedysarum bears a loment, commonly hispid, of 

 several I -seeded, truncated, flattened joints. These, 

 which abound in all parts of the United States, have 

 nearly the habit of the preceding genus, but that the 

 plants and their leaves are often larger ; and in Eu- 

 rope, including the Saintfoin, there exists a section 

 with more showy flowers, bearing pinnated leaves ; of 

 these, the H. alpinum is also a native of the northern 

 regions of the United States and Canada. 



In JEschynomene, principally a tropical genus, but 

 of which one species occurs on the banks of the 

 Delaware, the stamens partake of the extraordinary 



