DIADELPIIIA— DECANDRIA. Hippocrepis. ?9l 



Cal. hell-shaped, permanent, divided, ahout half way down, 

 into 5 acute, lanceolate segments ; the 2 uppermost 

 shortest, and less deeply separated. Coi: of 5 petals, 

 their claws longer than the calyx ; standard heart-shaped, 

 ascending, with a vaulted claw; wings obovate, obtuse, 

 with flat broadiish claws ; keel of 2 combined petals, 

 rounded, pointed, with very narrow separate claws. Filam. 

 10; 9 united into a tube, open at the upper edge; the 

 tenth quite distinct; all curved upwards at the extremity. 

 AntJu roundish. Germ, slender, compressed, tapering 

 into an awl-shaped ascend ij ig 5/j//6'. Stigma linear, rather 

 flattened, quite smooth. Legume compressed, partly mem- 

 branous, incurved, jointed, notched, separating finally at 

 the joints, each of which is nearly crescent-shaped, simple 

 or bordered, closed, tumid, containing a solitary, curved, 

 oblong seed. 



Aimual or perennial /{6vZ>5, larger than the last genus. Leaves 

 })innate, with an odd leajlet, uniform. Stipidas membra- 

 nous, oblong, undivided. FL umbellate, yellow ; in one 

 species solitary. Legumes curiously notched. 



1. W. coniosa. Tufted Horse shoe-vetch. 



Legumes umbellate, rough; their joints neither dilated nor 

 bordered. 



H. comosa. Linn. Sp. PL 1050. M'ilM. v. 3. 1 159. FL Br. 777. 



EngL Bot. i\ l.t.Si. Dicks. H. Sice. fuse. 8.14. Hook. Scot. 216. 

 Ferrum equinum n.39l. HalL Hist. v. 1. 170. 

 F. equinum Gernianicum, .siliquis in summitate. Bauli. P//j.3'49. 



Rail Sijn. 325. 

 F. equinum comosum. Riv. Tetrap. fir. t. 97./. 2. 

 F. equinum capitatum. Column. Ecplir. 302. t. 3(M . /'. 1. Moris. 



V.2. W^.sect.'l. /. 10./. 3. 

 Sferra cavallo. Camer. Epit. 642. y". 1. 



On dry chalky banks ; sometinu-s on limestone. 



Plentiful in Kent, Berkshire, Cambridgeshire, at Marham in Nor- 

 folk, and in most chalk countries. 



Perennial, May — Aw^ust. 



Root woodv, running deep into the ground. Stems branched at 

 tiie bottom, furrowed, leafy, smooth, procumbent, from G to 12 

 inches long. Leaflets from 7 to I 1 , obovate, obtuse or abrupt, 

 very minutely pointed, somewhat fleshy ; smooth al)ove j more 

 or less liairv l)eneatl>. Stiputas ovate, entire, a little spreading. 

 FL about () or m )ri" together, in umbels, rising high above the 

 rest of the plant, oi* long, stout, smootii, naked, axillary or ter- 

 minal, stalks. Sfamlanl deep vellow, and striated, in front; 



f 2 



