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XVII. Observatiom on the Genus Hosackia and the American Loti. 

 By George Bentham, Esq., F.L.S. 



Read February 3rd, 1835. 



AN describing the Hosackia hicolor for the Botanical Register (vol. xv. 

 tab. 1257), I relied chiefly as a generic character on the pinnate leaves, and 

 the absence of the large foliaceous stipulee so prominent in Lotus, the genus 

 from which Hosackia was separated, and to which it appears nearest allied ; 

 and I added to the abovementioned species three other North American plants, 

 which in this respect appeared to belong to Hosackia rather than to Lotus. 

 This view of the genus has since been taken up by Dr. Hooker in his Flora 

 Boreali-Americana and other works, although evidently with doubt as to some 

 of the species. Upon a reexamination of the same and other species contained 

 in the Horticultural Society's Californian collections or in my own herbarium, 

 I am now induced to confine the circumscription of Hosackia to the umbel- 

 late species, and propose to consider the uniflorous ones as belonging to Lotus, 

 of which they would form a separate section, which, with reference to the size 

 of the flowers, might be called Microlotus. The two genera would then be 

 characterized by the form of the flower ; and the peculiarities observable in the 

 organs of vegetation would again be reduced to their proper level, that of 

 subsidiary not essential characters. 



In the true Hosackice the claw of the vexillum is always at some distance 

 from those of the other petals ; the alae adhere by their margins to the carina, 

 and usually (if not always) spread at right angles from it ; the carina is 

 usually less rostrate than in Lotus, and the stigma more distinctly capitate. 

 The latter character, however, is of little importance, being but one of degree ; 

 for all Loti have in fact a capitate stigma, in some species very visible to the 

 naked eye, especially when examined young ; in others so small that the style 

 appears pointed without a very close examination. The stipulae in Hosackia 



VOL. XVII. 3 B 



