io4 



PULSE FAMILY. 



16. LESPEDEZA, BUSH-CLOVER. (Named for Lespedez, a Spanish 

 Governor of Florida. ) All grow in sandy or sterile soil ; fl. late summer 

 and autumn. 11 



* Native species : stipules and bracts minute. 



■*- Flowers in close spikes or heads on upri(jht {2° -4° high) simple rigid stems: 

 corolla cream-color or white with a purple spot, about the length of the silky- 

 downy calyx. 



L. capit^lta. Leaflets oblong or sometimes linear, silky beneath, thickish ; 

 peduncles and petioles short ; flowers in short spikes or heads ; calyx much 

 longer than the pod. 



L. hirta. Leaflets roundish or oval, hairy or downy ; petioles and pedun- 

 cles slender ; spikes becoming rather long and loose. 



■»- -(- Floivers violet-purple, scattered or in open panicles or clusters, slender-pedun- 

 cled, also usually some more fertile ones, mostly without petals, in small 

 sessile clusters. 



L. viol^cea. The commonest, and very variable, bushy-branching, erect 

 or spreading, with leaflets varying from oval to linear, and minutely whitish- 

 downy beneath, or sometimes silky ; the ordinary flowers loosely panicled. 



L. prociimbens. Soft-downy, except the upper surface of the oval or 

 oblong leaflets, slender and trailing ; peduncles slender and few-floWered. 



L. repens. Smooth, except some minute and scattered close-pressed hairs, 

 very slender, prostrate ; leaflets obovate or oval (^' long). 



* * Naturalized in States, from China or Japan : stipules ovate or lance-ovate, 



striate, longer than the very short petiole. 



L. striata. Introduced (more than 25 years ago) in some unknown way 

 into the Southern Atlantic States, now rapidly spreading and occupying old 

 fields and waste places, to the great benefit of the country, being greedily fed 

 upon by cattle ; it is low and spreading, 3'- 10' high, much branched, almost 

 smooth, with oblong or wedge-oblong leaflets {' - ^' long, and 1-3 small pur- 

 plish flowers almost sessile in the axils. 



17. DESMODIUM, TICK-TREFOIL. (Name from Greek, means 6oM«rf 

 together, from the connected joints of the pod. ) 2/ We have many native 

 species, common in open woods and copses ; fl. late summer : the following 

 are the more common. 



§ 1. Native species : the little joints of the pod adhere to clothing or to the coats of 

 animals : flowers sometimes turning greenish in withering. 



* Pod raised far above the calyx on a slender stalk of its own, straightish on the 



upper margin, divided from below into not more than 4 joints : flowers in 

 one long-stalked naked terminal raceme or panicle : plants smooth, l°-3° 

 high : stipules bristle-form. 



D. nudifl6ruin. Flower-stalk and leaf-bearing stem rising separately 

 from a common root ; the leaves all crowded on the summit of the latter, and 

 with broadly ovate bluntish leaflets, pale beneath. 



D. acuminatura. Flower-stalk terminating the stem, which bears a 

 cluster of leaves; the large leaflets (4' -5' long) round-ovate with a tapering 

 point, or the end one blunter, green both sides. 



* * Pod little if at all raised above the calyx. 



t- Stems erect, 3° - 6° high : stipules large, ovate or lance-ovate and pointed, 

 striate, persistent, the bracts similar but deciduous : flowers large for the 

 genus : racemes panicled : pods of 4-7 rhombic-oblong joints, each joint 

 about ^' long. 



D. CUSpid^tum. Very smooth, with a straight stem, lance-ovate and 

 taper-pointed leaflets (3' -5' long) longer than the common petiole, and pod 

 with smoothish joints. 



D. can6scens. Hairy, with branching stems, pale leaves ; the ovate 

 bluntish leaflets about the length of the common petiole, reticulated beneath and 

 both sides roughish with fine close pubescence ; joints of pod very adhesive. 



