44 LEGUMINOSiE. (PEA FAMILY.) 



\ 

 mostly cuneate, oblong, obtuse, denticulate, an inch long or less; flowers yellow, a line 

 long, in slender axillary pedunculate racemes; pedicels a line long. 



6. MEDICAGO, L. 



Characters nearly as the last; style subulate; pod compressed, falcate, incurved or 

 spirally coiled. 



1. M. sativa, L. (Lucern, Alfalfa.) Stems erect, 1 to 4 ft. high; from a deep 

 perennial root, smooth; leaflets cuneate-oblong or oblanceolate, toothed above; flowers 3 

 or 4 lines long, racemed; pods numerous, spirally twisted, veined, smooth. 



2. M. denticulata, Willd. Bur-Clover. Annual, nearly smooth, prostrate or 

 ascendino-; leaflets cuneate-obovate or obcordate, toothed above; flowers small, yellow, 

 usually 3 to 8 in an axillary cluster; pods spiral, armed with a double row of hooked 

 prickles. 



3. M, lupulina, L. Pubescent, jarocumbent; flowers very small, yellow, in short 

 spikes; pods smooth, reniform, 1-seeded. 



7. HOSACKIA. Douglas. 



Calyx teeth nearly equal, usually shorter than the tube. Petals free from the stamens, 

 nearly equal; standard ovate or roundish, the claw often remote from the others; wings 

 obovate or oblong; keel somewhat incurved. Style incurved. Pod linear, sessile, several- 

 seeded, partitioned between the seeds. Herbaceous or rarely sufi'rutescent ; loaves 



pinnate, 2-many-foliolate; stipules minute and gland-like, rarely scarious or foliaceous; 

 flowers yellow or reddish, in axillary sessile or pedunculate umbels. 



The flowers usually change to reddish or reddish-brown in drying. Matured pods are 

 necessary for the determination of species. 



§ 1. Pod shortly acute, linear and many-seeded, straight^ smooth; seeds suborhiadar; 



flowers and fruit not reflexed; peduncles long; keel broad above mostly obtuse. 



Stipules large, foliaceous; villous, viscid H. stipularis. 1 



Stipules scarious; smooth. 



Bract small or none; wings usually white H. bicolor. 2 



Bract 1-3-foliolate, at the umbel; keel and wings purplish H. gracilis. 3 



Stipules reduced to blackish glands. 



Appressed-pubescent; tall, stout; pod long, smooth H. grandiflora. 4 



Flowers very small, solitary H. parvillora. 5 



§ 2. Pod shortly acute, 3-7-seeded, straight; flowers small, mostly solitary; keel acute; 



stipules gland-like; villous. 

 Blade of the standard cordate; leaflets 3 to 5; nearly smooth H, parviflora. 5 



