202 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



ting from a centre, and being constricted at intervals, 

 somewhat resembling the claws of a bird's foot 

 (hence Ornithopus). 



In the British Isles it is generally distributed, 

 occurring in Scotland chiefly in the south, and in 

 Ireland on the eastern side. It is also a native of the 

 Channel Islands. 



The plant is found in dry, sandy, and gravelly 

 places, in dry pastures, and on sandy soil on heaths, 

 of which last it is especially characteristic. 



In habit it is a low prostrate species, the stems 

 spreading over the ground, ascending a little at the 

 tip. The whole plant is greyish-green and hairy. 

 The stems are numerous, slender {hence perpusillns) , 

 leafy, with few branches. The upper leaves are not 

 stalked. The leaflets are in five to ten (or more) 

 pairs, downy, close, oblong, or linear, or elliptic, the 

 lowest pair bent back if at the base of the leaf-stalk. 

 There are very small stipules, as in plants with a 

 narrow leaf base, to protect the buds. 



The flowers are few, three to six in an umbel, 

 white, the flower-stalks in the axils, slender, rigid, 

 longer than, or not so long as, the leaves. The flowers 

 are tinged with red, and closely stalkless above the 

 bracts. The bracts are pinnate. The ultimate flower- 

 stalks are very short. The calyx tube is more or less 

 bell-shaped, hairy, with short, acute, triangular teeth. 

 The keel is short and blunt. The pods are seven- 

 to nine-jointed, constricted between the seeds, with 

 a curved beak not so long as the joints, smooth or 



