44 CHLORIS BOREALI-AMERICANA. 



It has since been met with only by Mr. Buckley at other localities 

 in the same region. I raised the plant in the Cambridge Botanic 

 Garden (where it is perfectly hardy) from seeds taken from a 

 fruiting specimen kindly communicated by Mr. Buckley. The 

 species appears to be most nearly allied to the Californian T. ma- 

 crophylla. 



Mr. Brown distinguished the genus Thermopsis from Baptisia by 

 its persistent stamens and linear compressed legumes.* The first- 

 named character, however, is scarcely applicable to the present spe- 

 cies, and not at all to the two succeeding, in which the stamens are 

 quite as deciduous as in Baptisia. In fact, they differ from that 

 genus by their slender and flat pods alone. Mr. Bentham f relies 

 upon the persistent stamens, and some attenuation of the base 

 of the calyx (a character inappreciable in American specimens), 

 and admits two Himalayan species with oblong or ovate legumes, 

 which in one are slightly, in the other greatly, inflated. The 

 pods of T. alpina are likewise said to be elliptical-oblong, but 

 compressed. It is very difficult, therefore, to make out the diagno- 

 sis of these two genera, unless, indeed, T. inftata of Cambessedes 

 be referred to Baptisia, and the distinction be made to rest entirely 

 on the compressed legumes. 



Tab. VII. Thermopsis Caroliniana, natural size. Fig. 1. Portion of 

 the raceme in fruit (when fully ripe the legumes are flatter). Fig. 2. Imma- 

 ture legume, with cross-section. 



• Hort. Kew., ed. 2, Vol. III., p. 3. 



t London Journal of Botany, Vol. II., p. 430. 



