DIADELPHIA— DECANDRIA. Lotus. 313 



L. corniculata glabra minor. Raii Sijn. 334. Batik. Hist. v. 2. 354. 



/. 355. 

 L. sativa. Dalech. Hist. 507. 

 Trifolium siliquosum minus. Ger. Em. 1 190./. 

 T. corniculatum primum. Dod. Pempt. 573./. 

 Melilotus germanica. Fuchs. Hist. 527. f. 

 M. nobilis. Trag. Hist. 594./. 

 Meliloti tertium genus. Fuchs. Ic. 299./ 



/3. Lotus corniculata minor, foliis subtus incanis. Dill, in Raii 



S7jn. 334. 

 L. corniculatus e. Fl. Br. 794. 



In open grassy pastures, common. 



Perennial. June — September. 



Root branching, somewhat woody ; the fibres beset with small gra- 

 nulations. Stems several, spreading on the ground in every di- 

 rection,varying in length from 3 to 1 inches, simple or branched, 

 solid, filled with pith, angular, leafy, sometimes quite smooth, 

 but for the most part clothed, like the glaucous backs of the leaves, 

 with close-pressed hairs. Leaflets obovate, acute, entire, on 

 short partial stalks ; the lateral ones oblique, or inequilateral. 

 Common footstalk channelled, about the length of the leaflets, 

 having at its base a pair of ovate stipulas, resembling them, but 

 rather smaller. Flower-stalks axillary, solitary, erect or recum- 

 bent, angular, 5 times as long as the leaves, each bearing from 

 2 or 3 to 5 bright yellow flowers, dark green when dried, in a 

 flat head or timbel, accompanied by a small ternate leaf. They 

 change to orange in verging towards decay. The standard (not 

 keel, as by a slip of the pen in Engl. Bot.) striped with red at the 

 base in front ; its claw much dilated and vaulted. Keel pale 

 yellow. Filaments in their separate part all dilated under the 

 anthers. Interstices of the calyx-teeth rounded. Legume smooth, 

 of a shining purplish brown, a little depressed and channelled 

 along the upper side. 

 Recommended for cultivation, though under the erroneous names 

 of Milk-vetch and Astragalus glycyphijllos, by the late worthy 

 Dr. Anderson, in his Agricultural Essays, as being excellent for 

 fodder, as well as for hay. 



2. L. major. Greater Bird's-foot-trefoil. 



Heads depressed, many-flowered. Stems erect, tubular. 



Legumes drooping, cylindrical. Claw of the standard 



linear. Shorter filaments not dilated. 

 L. major. Scop. Carn. v. 2. 86. Comp. ed. 4.124. Engl. Bot. v. 30 



t. 209 1 . Purt. V. 1 . 342. Forst. Tonbr. 86. Grev. Edin. 1 63. 

 L. corniculatus y. Fl. Br. 794. 

 L. corniculatus /3. Hook. Scot. 220. 

 L. n. 385 a. Hall. Hist. v.\. 167. 



