DIADELPHIA— DECANDRIA. Astragalus. 295 



On open mountainous heaths, in a chalky or sandy soil ; also on 

 the sea coast. 



Upon Newmarket and Royston heaths, Gogmagog hills, &c. Ray. 

 Plentiful near Don caster. Richardson. On Svvaffham heath, 

 Norfolk. Mr. Crowe and Mr. Woodward. On several parts of 

 the sea coast in Scotland. With. Beyond New-baven, near 

 Edinburgh. •_ 



Perennial. June, July. 



Root creeping, woody, though slender. Stems several, prostrate, 

 leafy, zigzag, but little branched, from 2 to .") inches long, some- 

 what hairy. Leaves of numerous little ovate blunt dark green 

 leaflets, coarsely hairy on both sides. Stipulas ovate. Flower- 

 stalks few, axillary or terminal, ascending, usually longer than 

 the leaves, each bearing a round head, of several oblong, upright 

 flowers, variegated with purplish blue and white. Legumes dark 

 brown, clothed with white hairs. The hairs of the calyx, as well 

 as of ihe flower-stalks, are black and white intermi.\ed j a fre- 

 quent circumstance in this genus. Sometimes the corolla is 

 white. 



3. A. nralensis. Hairy Mountain Milk- vetch. 



Stem none. Stalk upright, taller than the leaves. Legumes 

 oblong, tumid, pointed, shaggy, erect. Leaflets ovate, 

 acute, all over silky like the calyx. 



A.uralensis. Linn. Sp.PL \i)7\. Willd. v. 3. \3]2. Fl. Br.7S0. 

 Engl. Sot. V. 7. t. 466. Lightf. 40\.t.\7. Hook. Scot. 2\ 6. Jacq. 

 Misc.v.].\bO. Ic.Rar. t.\:):). 



A. n. 410. Hall. Hist. v.\. 179. ^ 14./. 3. 



A. alpinus violaceus, acuto sericeo folio. Hall. Ojmsc. 308. t. 2. 



On the Scottish mountains, in a sandy soil. 



Perennial, July. 



Root woody. Whole herb remarkable for its shining silky hairiness, 

 which the delineator of Engl. Bot., generally so correct, has 

 scarcely at all expressed. Leaves all radical, stalked, with a 

 pair of large, ovate, pointed, membranous, veiny stipulas, united 

 to the base of each footstalk ; leaflets numerous, opposite or 

 alternate, ovate, acute, the u))|)er ones gradually smaller. Foot- 

 stalks often permanent in a naked state, but not hardened into 

 spines. Flower-stalks solitary, or in pairs, erect, firm, hairy, 

 taller than the leaves. Fl. of a rich blueish purple, rarely white, 

 in round dense heads, with an oblong hractea to each flower. 

 Cat. tubular, clothed with dense, close, black as well as white 

 hairs 3 its teeth short, bluntish. Legume owxiv-ohUmp;, pointed, 

 brown, silky, with a membranous j)artition. Stii^ma permanent, 

 somewhat capitate. 



A very handsome species, even in a dry state, the flowers often 

 retaining much of their colour, and the herbage all its briU 

 liancv. 



